Starship Asterisk*

Wonderful work!!

I'm totally envious of those that can see the Orion Nebula with unaided eyes!

WOW ~~ what a spectacular scene ~~ beautiful photo!

What a great picture of a fascinating and intriguing moon ~~ are there any cousins of the little rovers that can be sent here?

Oops ~~ oh, the fates that I must follow the musings of our dear latter-day bard..... BUT, here goes ....

Has any object been found that is a condensing/condensed mass of dust that is reaching the point of fusion?

I have wondered just how delicately balanced and stable the moon is in its orbit around the Earth. If we did make a permanent colony up there with a massive influx of heavy equipment for living quarters, life support and then add the weight for mining, processing equipment and large storage/transpor...

Thanks Chris ~~ very helpful ~~ I was having trouble distinguishing between the 2 forces.

At the least, won't they be pushed out of their orbits? Incenderated? Broken apart if a solid planet? Blown away if a gaseous planet? All dependent upon the force of the blast and the distance of the planet from the exploding sun?

Obviously this photo isn't a leading-edge technological exploration of some element of the Universe. BUT ... It does give rise to the possibility to, first, enjoy an unexpected perspective of our home, the Earth, in this Universe. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, it encourages those folks deali...

...... biddie, if you howl at the wolves, they will often howl back. :-) Actually the people that run the preserve have guided tours every couple of weeks into one area of the preserve. One of the features that they have is getting the wolves there to do a pack howl for the tour group by having som...

I actually heard a pack of wolves howling the other night when I was outside and spotted the rising moon through the tall pines ~~ however these pines weren't the snow-covered beauties in today's APOD ~~ they are the skimpy Southern Pines! But the wolf pack I heard wasn't from a free-roaming pack. T...

Pictures like this remind me that the stars I can see at night aren't just a local phenomenom but belong to everyone around the Earth ~~ thry just need to look up! I love that the nebula in Orion's sword was so clearly captured. Tonight I'm going to take my binoculars outside with me to see if I can...

....... What energy is forming stars? Gravity This kind of apparently straight-forward cause and effect relationship bothers me. Some time back, in a previous APOD, I had asked a question about the relationship between gravity and the fabric/network of spacetime. Chris had suggested that gravity is...

I had been wondering where "the neufer" was also but was shy about asking ~~ certainly do miss his quirky flashes of free association and info .....

The planetary nebula is the end of a star. The end of our Sun will be in 5 billion years from now. IThe life on the Earth has many time in the future. Very well. Yes, but "only" a few hundred million years until our climate becomes quite problematic for most complex animals. The Earth wil...

Well Mr. Jimmy Mcbride ~or~ M Taylor .... whoever you are whenever you are in this dimension, fascinating Iapetus and beyond concept !!!

It certainly is a good picture!! And thanks to Jack Fusco for adding your comments ~~ it's always interesting to read some of the background story as to how the photo was taken.

"WOW" is right !!!

I was fascinated by the links in the APOD writeup. Frustratingly, I couldn't find anything more specific about what the Huyguns probe found when it landed on Titan but the phrase "muddy". Is there a website that describes more about its atmosphere and surface?

It popped right into view for me after I relaxed my eyes and stopped scanning the picture.

And thanks to DavidRP (above) for mentioning some of the technical things that have to be very carefully taken into consideration and, hopefully, stay under control so the astronaut could safely return to the ISS. (Not to mention how delicately the ISS is being maintained in orbit.)

It is certainly a new look to me ~~ I didn't know that the astronauts were trying stuff like this. My heart skips a beat just looking at this, I know I couldn't do it..... I started wondering about possible phenomenom occuring up there that is analogous to things here on Earth that airplanes and sai...

Thanks, owlice ~~ that was a great explanation!!

Love when someone figures out the right time and the right place to take a photo!! Great pairing of pictures, for sure!

What puzzles me is why there is more than one tail ~~ what could have caused the split in the tail? And why is there an apparent curve in the tail?

Yes, this is a marvelous picture! A conjunction of more than Venus and the moon!

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. ........ M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core. It just amazes me that there is such a certainy abo...

very effective, NoelC ~~ thanks !!