Starship Asterisk*

Yes, that's a nice upside down Sagittarius Triplet! :D APOD 10 July 2024 annotated.png https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2407/sagittariusTri1024.jpg Of course this skyscape is not really upside down, but most people that take a nerdy interest in astronomy tend to live in the northern hemisphere! 🌎 Th...

That's a gorgeous image!


It's a bit sad that the cause of these lovely clouds is the exhausts from the launch of a space ship, but still - it's a gorgeous image!

Ann

I was so crushed yesterday after I lost a long post that I had spent hours composing, so that after I had mostly restored that post, I couldn't bring myself to make another. But I really wanted say that the most common type of exoplanets (of those that we have so far detected) are neither "Jupi...

All of the illustrated exoplanets appear so stripe-y, like our Jupiter. Is that because they are nearly all thought to be gas giants? Is there any way to tell if they are gas giants or rocky planets and why are they virtually all shown to have stripes? If astronomers can measure a planet's size and...

Apart from tons of size and color variations, 3 things i find interesting - 1) very few have rings 2) spinning axis seems so randomly distributed (any direction in 360 degrees) 3) bottom right elliptical/egg shaped planet (the ONLY one of such odd shape) We really don't know how many exoplanets hav...

I just wrote a long post about this APOD and it disappeared! 😢 😭 https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2407/ExoplanetZoo_Vargic_1080.jpg Okay, I've stopped crying now, and I like today's APOD! It looks like a box of chocolates, I mean, it looks like a, I guess, a box of planets! https://www.youtube.com/w...

zendae wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 3:41 pm Since today's APOD is an EPOD, here are a couple of photos I took a few days ago. These mammatocumulus appeared after quite a randy storm!

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Nice pictures, zendae!

Ann

No takers? No one wants to guess why Trumpler 5 can't be 125 million years old? Trumpler 5 Photocommunity Deutschland.png Trumpler 5. Credit: Photocommunity Deutschland. Let's look at a cluster that is reasonably close to 125 million years old, NGC 2516, which is believed to be 135 million years: ht...

I like today's APOD, but because it is so large that I can only post it as an attachment, and since I have other attachments to post, I will post two much smaller pictures of Caroline's Rose that I found on the net. https://www.constellation-guide.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/NGC-7789.webp https:/...

Eclectic Man wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 9:31 am Thanks to Ann, yet again, for an interesting and informative post.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Ann

I should not be the first to review this APOD, because any photographer that has spent blood sweat and tears and many many hours to produce an astronomical image that has been chosen as an APOD deserves a fine review. So let me just say that I personally prefer another type of Trifid Nebula portrait...

Where is the smaller galaxy that is pulling on the arc? Or is the smaller galaxy already merged with M83? A quick googling turned up no info on a small galaxy pulling in M83. With the help of my software, I found a small galaxy, PGC 47885 or MCG-05-32-042, whose radial velocity is very similar to t...

Where is the smaller galaxy that is pulling on the arc? Or is the smaller galaxy already merged with M83? A quick googling turned up no info on a small galaxy pulling on M83. With the help of my software, I found a small galaxy, PGC 47885 or MCG-05-32-042, whose radial velocity is very similar to t...

Today's APOD shows a long stellar stream emanating from M83. (Unfortunately, the picture is so big that I have to post it as an attachment.) Ah yes, but there is still more to M83 than meets the eye in the APOD! DeepM83ThousandRubyGalaxy1024[1].jpg M83: Star Streams and a Thousand Rubies Image Credi...

ThanX Ann I feel honored. All my pictures have a CC license with attribution for free use. I do this... for pure fun and to challenge myself a little in the morning before I can dive back into my daily work routine. ... and of course also to be able to talk to you :wink: about exciting astronomical...

[...] Oh wow, that's an awesome awesome awesome image of the central star cluster of NGC 602, Jac! 😀 🤩 🥳 🐬 I'm so so so tempted to steal it from you and insert it into my own post, but I managed to restrain myself (just barely)! But I will upload it to my computer! Ann ThanX Ann I feel honored. All...

Of course, assuming technology to shield the ship from collisions with interstellar matter, the time it takes to get there (in theory) can be arbitrarily short (subject, as well, to the G-force limitations on whatever is inside the ship). Arbitrarily short from the reference frame of the ship, that...

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_240702.jpg NGC 602: Oyster Star Cluster Explanation: The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud , a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies this 5 million...

Don't know how to reproduce the mouseover, so... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/NGC602.jpg/1049px-NGC602.jpg https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2407/Ngc602_ChandraHubbleSpitzer_960.jpg As you can see, the X-ray sources (purple) are not coincident with the brightest stars of ...

Color me baffled. https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/tiny-bright-objects-discovered-dawn-universe-baffle-scientists https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ad55f7 I read the first article you linked to and I, too, am baffled. I'd say we should remain somewhat skeptical for the tim...

Spoiler! I was giving our math challenged friend an opportunity to work that out. Yeah, thanks... But thank you, Johnny, for working it out for me. Ann And quite coincidentally, I'm sure, 0.5° is almost exactly how "wide" the Moon appears in Earth's skies! (PS - I suspect Ann is not nearl...

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:16 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:09 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 12:59 pm

Well, yes, the Earth is rotating. But how much in just two minutes?

About 0.5° apparently, so not much!

Spoiler! I was giving our math challenged friend an opportunity to work that out.

Yeah, thanks... But thank you, Johnny, for working it out for me.

Ann

My computer was acting up yesterday, and I dislike using my mobile phone to comment on Starship Asterisk*, so I decided not to even try to comment. But I have a stupid amateur question. If the Earth was seen rising over the Moon, shouldn't the Earth also be seen to slowly rotate?

Ann

Hubble Space Telescope Views NGC 5253 with ACS / HRC NASA/ESA | Original release 2024 June 28 https://cdn.sci.news/images/2024/06/image_13041_1-NGC-5253.jpg GOTD4Y Jac https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53824440101_c080f2a635_b.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53823520912_49eb2163f2_b.jpg o...

Why do the white blob and the yellow blob appear to be windblown in opposite directions? The windblown white blob, by the way, is ever so slightly similar to Hubble's Variable Nebula . https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Hubble%27s_Variable_Nebula_-_NGC_2261.png/290px-Hubble%2...