Starship Asterisk*

This photo immediately reminded me of a very similar scene I created from a photo of a nearby lake, with a "bit" of digital enhancement. Art imitates ... well other art!

Sirius doesn't belong there; it should be Vega, right? Unless there was some cosmic cataclysm I don't know about or people who decided that Pluto isn't a planet (which I agree with, btw) also decided to switch a few stars' names around, just for fun.

Earth is a "Goldilocks" planet. Everything is just right. Just right air. Just right sun. Just right gas giant neighbors. Just right size moon. Just right rotation rate, axial tilt, composition, weather patterns. Just right, well, everything needed to support advanced life. There are nearl...

@neufer :D :D :D ah, Hollywood. How would we ever learn our history without it? Where did Cleopatra's craftsmen build all those immense props? How did she get all her slaves and dancers all the way to Rome? When did they rehearse? How silly. But that was fun. What it has to do with a space shuttle I...

There is a much more informative picture of what they are really talking about...it is not so much the "foreground" galaxies...this page has a cut out view... You can't even see that spot in the magnified APOD view... http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/nasa-looks-132-billion-years...

Wow. Fascinating stuff. It seems to me that I detect a bit of a bar that forms in the center of the later galaxy. It's not very prominent but it kind of shows how maybe the bar can form on a larger scale, something I've been puzzled about ever since I first saw the bars in photos of spiral galaxies ...

Thanks Chris! I understand now. Your explanation was clear and helpful.

Boy, am I confused. Apparently the position and direction of travel of Venus as it crosses the sun varies hugely depending on the location of the observer on Earth. This photo shows Venus traveling across the sun's face in a horizontal position from roughly 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. But from where I ...

I was looking at the recent, side-by-side APOD pictures of the M51 Spiral Galaxy that were taken six years apart, revealing two supernova explosions. Looking at the two, they of course looked identical except for the two supernovas. I began wondering: How long would it take to actually observe the r...

Kaboom! I can only imagine what such a massive explosion does to the surrounding galaxy neighbors. I know stars are really far apart even in dense spiral arms, but some of those local stars must have taken a beating when that nova blew up. Does it blow away some of the stars' mass? Does it affect th...

I had no idea there were any galaxies that large relative to the size of the full moon. It's "bigger" than Andromeda, isn't it? Thanks for including the relative size information. As I've mentioned before, the relative size info on astronomical objects is greatly helpful and I would LOVE t...

I put up a post not long ago about this topic before I realized that this one existed. http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22756 The idea of the moon overlay option is one I highly desire to be incorporated in all celestial APOD photos. At least, dear APOD guys, please indicate in the ...

I love the pictures of galaxies, nebula and other space vistas but I have a very hard time envisioning just how much of the sky the various objects cover. It helps when in the text it states that it's so many degrees in width as I know that there are two full moons for every degree of sky, but this ...