Starship Asterisk*

Art Neuendorffer wrote: MadMan wrote: wolfie138 wrote: the farside is mostly devoid of dark lunar maria that sprawl across the Moon's perpetual Earth-facing hemisphere why is that? I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps the Earth suffered a huge impact, and some of the debris from the Earth impacte...

Does anyone else see a woman's face, head band, two eyes, nose, laughing, open mouth, teeth and neck? Instead of Arms of NGC1097, it could very well be Head of NGC1097.

Full article from PBS Newshour (March 18, 2014) - http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/scientists-find-smoking-gun-big-bang/ Scientists believe that less than a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe began to rapidly expand as fast as the speed of light. The idea that the universe un...

From Mail Online Science and Tech Dark energy, the mysterious cosmic force thought to be the fuel behind the accelerating expansion of the universe, is real, according to an Anglo-German team of astronomers. After a two-year study, scientists at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom and...

Nitpicker wrote: geckzilla wrote: There's just a lot of hype around the only vague idea that life started off planet Earth right now. Of course the molecules themselves have a long, varied and mysterious history prior to their arrival at Earth but there is really nothing to substantiate any stateme...

Chris Peterson : 1. How so? The most likely scenario is that water came from comets, but life developed on Earth. 2. It isn't necessary to have a massive planet in the habitable zone. Assuming that you need a massive planet to provide the necessary comet bombardment of terrestrial planets, that pla...

Without oceans of water, Earth will simply be another piece of dry rock orbiting a star. If the water on Earth (Moon and Mars) is proven to have originated from around the orbit of Jupiter, then by extension, this is where life in our Solar system came from. Scientists are searching for Earth like p...

Often, I forget the correct format when using the float=. I suggest including the correct placement of the text description as in: [float={leftIright}]images or videos[/float]text description

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/033/758/iFF/farthest-galaxy-discovered.jpg?1382543376 By using data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope and observations from the Keck I telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, astronomers have now confirmed that the galaxy designated z8_GND_5296 formed with...

starsurfer wrote: Beyond wrote: I dunno. It just doesn't strike me as looking like a rose. But what do i know, I'm a landlubber, an astro-nothing. I think it probably looks like a rose when you look at it through a telescope. Some of these popular names are from the visual view in a telescope rather...

More on Dark Matter Gravitational Lensing Images https://www.google.ca/search?q=dark+matter+gravitational+lensing&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Mz47UvvQO6GO2AXq_YGQAQ&ved=0CCwQsAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=G_XNp4_ukHPIzM%3A%3ByVHaRyM2vpWPtM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww....

ErnieM wrote: Is the 1:99 ratio of visible to dark matter true in all known clusters with evidence of background galaxy lensing? If so, then the mass from the visible galaxies is insignificant. I am very much interested in looking at a modified version of these pictures with only the arced backgroun...

Neufer wrote: K1NS wrote: If the main mass of galaxies is rotating and moving, I would think that the blue arcs produced by lensing might actually change, in a time scale we might be able to observe. Are there multiple versions of this image, taken at different time, that look slightly different? Li...

Neufer wrote: ErnieM wrote: Viewed from Orion, I wonder about the shape of the "asterism or constellation" our Sun is a member of. Whatever the shape our Sun wouldn't be a pare of it since it would only about a 12th magnitude star. A very humbling picture. Imagine if there was an advanced ...

The power of this enormous gravitational lens depends on its mass, but the visible matter, in the form of the cluster's yellowish galaxies, only accounts for about one percent of the mass needed to make the observed bluish arcing images of background galaxies. In fact, most of the gravitational mas...

Chris Peterson wrote: BDanielMayfield wrote: Ah, our friendly Super Massive Black Hole is hidden inside there. It is the anchor of the Milky Way and perhaps it's a giant recycler too. It's a trivial mass concentration compared with the mass of the galaxy. At most, a few million suns, a ten thousandt...

Chris Peterson wrote: No, this is not the case. The material in a nebula is only very loosely bound gravitationally. Some of the nebular mass is concentrated into stars as they are formed, and some is lost as the stellar radiation pressure causes it to dissipate. Gravitational perturbations very ear...

Chris Peterson » Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:52 pm No, this is not the case. The material in a nebula is only very loosely bound gravitationally. Some of the nebular mass is concentrated into stars as they are formed, and some is lost as the stellar radiation pressure causes it to dissipate. Gravitational pe...

Chris Peterson wrote: Planetary systems usually form in dense nebulas, with a high stellar density including many massive stars. Nearby supernovas are probably common. If black holes result, they could be anywhere- except for the small percentage with accretion discs, they are generally not detectab...

Neufer wrote: The 2 supernova are probably the consequence of a massive binary star system in which the core collapse of both stars end up producing neutron stars (not black holes). The neutron star binary then radiates of gravitational wave until they collide creating and ejecting elements heavier ...

BDanielMayfield wroteL P.S. It is now thought that something even more exotic could be required to build heavy elements like Au and Pu; a supernova caused by the collision of two neutron stars. This may sound like it might be an impossibly rare event but it does occur fairly regularly. This is becau...

Digging more about NEO asteroid mining, I see these guys are modern day snake oil promoters. From the Economist: Asteroid mining Fool's platinum? Jan 24th 2013, 15:36 by M.H. | SEATTLE IT ISN'T a gold rush quite yet. But the launch of a second asteroid-mining venture in a year suggests that the allu...

Thank you gexk\illa. And may I add, species, known and unknown.

Incidentally, here is the August 12, 2013 Picture of the Day. Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130812.html

The other day, I bought a small printer and an Apple ipad mini. Both carry an Ontario EHF (Environmental Handling Fee). I even paid tax on it. The fact that "Smart Money" is already thinking of NEO mining is a sign that we have reached the tipping point. It is now time to extend this Envir...

BDanielMayfield wrote: That is true; asteroids would have delivered gold to the moon too. But the supposedly smart money seems to be targeted toward asteroid rather than lunar mining. When a gold and platinum rich asteroid impacted the moon much of its material would have been deeply buried and the ...