Starship Asterisk*

I don't see any evidence of direct interaction between the Hummingbird galaxy and the (apparently) nearby elliptical galaxy. There is no distortion of the elliptical galaxy nor a bridge of stars connecting the two. My interpretation is that the Hummingbird Galaxy is itself an ongoing galactic merger...

On second thought, as I look more at that photo, it occurs to me that NGC 7284 has two yellow spiral arms originating from opposite ends to the bar at its core. The arm starting from the 2:30 position wraps around and goes behind NGC 7285. The bar starting at the 8:30 position has more gas and dust,...

I see no signs of a interacting connection between NGC 7284 and NGC 7285. My opinion is that NGC 7285 is a smaller galaxy in the same cluster that is in front of NGC 7284 and which has not yet started to interact with NGC 7284. I believe that NGC 7284 is at least 0.5 million LY from NGC 7285 and sus...

The question here is then - what makes a 'fake' image in astronomy ? Of course, these images aren't really "fake", any more than a painting of a landscape is "fake" in comparison with a photograph. They are is synthesized images that realistically represent an assortment of astr...

No trouble finding the real image. But I did enjoy the postcard from Tatooine.

The "central ring" link is wrong. It is linking to the 8/15/2021 APOD instead of the intended 8/17/2021 APOD.

Nitpicking correction. In the Apod robot's link "last common ancestor" it states that, 'Homininae ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the orangutan between c. 18 to 14 Ma.' And a little further down, 'Hominini: The latest common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is estimated to have...

The text claims that the arch is millions of years old. The rock certainly is that old, but over millennia the arches come and go. If you know what to look for, you can see arches in the process of forming, just waiting for some loose rock to fall away and create the opening. And there are also cas...

The text claims that the arch is millions of years old. The rock certainly is that old, but over millennia the arches come and go. If you know what to look for, you can see arches in the process of forming, just waiting for some loose rock to fall away and create the opening. And there are also case...

Phobos1 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 02, 2020 3:42 pm Which arch? With that many people, it's obviously one of the more famous ones.

See https://www.nps.gov/articles/studying-t ... arches.htm. The arch is North Window, on the left side of the top picture.

Where is the central star for the Soap Bubble nebula? The location if WR136 is fairly obvious (even if it is off-center). There is no star at the center of the Soap Bubble and nothing that I can see connects any of the stars in its range to the nebula. (My guess is that the star is obscured by dust,...

Interesting picture, but what intrigues me are the bends in the "tadpole" tails. Both have the same set of shifts. It appears that the interstellar wind in that area was "blowing" in one direction, then shifted to another direction, and then shifted back. Speculation: A nearby s...

Interesting picture, but what intrigues me are the bends in the "tadpole" tails. Both have the same set of shifts. It appears that the interstellar wind in that area was "blowing" in one direction, then shifted to another direction, and then shifted back. Speculation: A nearby su...

So what forces create the bars in such a galaxy? They are such straight, rigid lines in an otherwise curvy, spiral galaxy form. I'll give you my own personal take on that, but with a warning that it is just that: My own personal take. I believe that strongly barred spiral galaxies such as NGC 1300 ...

Off (this) topic, but is there no APOD today? I get this "The requested URL /apod/ap200610.html was not found on this server." [EDIT: Leon1949Green beat me to it!] #ShutDownSTEM I finally have figured #ShutDownSTEM. How nice. But tomorrow STEM is back up and running. What are we going to ...

It’s beautiful and technically well done but these type of composites I find are leaving me cold. They really look unnatural with the super saturation and the foreground that just looks “fakey” for lack of a better word. It’s the same problem with HDR, most people just overdo it in spades. The fore...

Now it is June 10, but the Orion picture is still there. At the bottom of the picture, it says "Next picture: June 11". So there is no APOD for today (6/10). But why? This is the first time in a long time that they have skipped a day. In fact I don't know of another day that they have ski...

Just for grins, I'll put in my two cents. I for one am certain that we will find life on Mars. But I also predict that they will be microscopic organisms which are exiles from Earth. Their ancestors will have been blasted off of Earth by one or more giant meteorite impacts, and were lucky enough to...

Just for grins, I'll put in my two cents. I for one am certain that we will find life on Mars. But I also predict that they will be microscopic organisms which are exiles from Earth. Their ancestors will have been blasted off of Earth by one or more giant meteorite impacts, and were lucky enough to ...

That so-called ring is an illusion. What I am seeing is the central bulge of the galaxy, with its inner part being obscured by infalling gas and dust.

I am not seeing merging galaxies. NGC 3808B certainly came close to and has interacted with NGC 3808A. But I am not seeing a well-established bridge linking the galaxies. Instead I am seeing a lot of gas in front of NGC 3808A and then gas going around NCG 3808B. A connection may remain between the t...

1) The water in the picture appears to be a moving stream, not a lake. And that water looks to me to be no more than a few hundred feet wide at most, while Thingvallavatn Lake covers an area of 32 square miles. I have been at that lake, and even from a the cliffs near its northern shore you cannot ...

Nice aurora. But I have a few quibbles about the caption. 1) The water in the picture appears to be a moving stream, not a lake. And that water looks to me to be no more than a few hundred feet wide at most, while Thingvallavatn Lake covers an area of 32 square miles. I have been at that lake, and e...

Much fainter, possibly just imagined, there could be a connection running all the way between (2) and (3). I'm wondering if that is really there, or if I am just squinting too hard and seeing something that does not exist. (That's my question ... anyone else see it ... or not? Or can anyone offer a...

Maybe this is a silly theory, but I see a long star trail here, and it looks like that far end of the tail is more blue than the near end. I am wondering if there may not have been a pair of small galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds that hit Arp 188. One went behind and on up and its the identified ...