Search found 50 matches
- Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:06 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
- Replies: 22
- Views: 4518
Re: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
The Hourglass Nebula is the brightest part of the Lagoon Nebula. It shows up well in this Anglo-Australian Observatory photo. A Hubble picture of the Hourglass Nebula can be seen here . The alluring color view was captured with a telescope and digital camera while M8 was high in dark, rural Argenti...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:59 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
- Replies: 95
- Views: 9163
Re: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
Anyone know what the in-fall time of a comet is from, say, Neptune? A year maybe? I suspect it's one over root two of the orbital period, assuming it starts from Neptune's orbit and zero velocity. That seems like a very long time for a comet to fall from such a tiny distance so the initial velocity...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 2:28 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
- Replies: 95
- Views: 9163
Re: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
Again, "vertical separation" is meaningless. Every body is orbiting on its own plane, with the Sun at the center, and crosses Earth's orbit perfectly in two spots. Edit: that's still not quite clear, I think. Not every pair of inclined eccentric orbits have to intersect at two points (or ...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:59 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
- Replies: 95
- Views: 9163
Re: APOD: Orbits of Potentially Hazardous... (2013 Aug 12)
I've searched for but never found anything discussing what may happen if a PHA strikes the Moon. Depending on size, speed, angle, and location it seems like any effects could range from visually spectacular to deadly. "Moonfall", Jack McDevitt. Highly recommended, though there is a slight...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:52 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Nova Delphini 2013 (2013 Aug 16)
- Replies: 39
- Views: 9667
Re: APOD: Nova Delphini 2013 (2013 Aug 16)
Unfortunately since I am still learning how to take the photographs they are not as high quality as they could be. If this is an example of you not at your best I *really* want to see what you do when you do better. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. It's a lovely image, thank you. If you don't mind, I...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:39 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: The Magellanic Stream (2013 Aug 15)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3090
Re: APOD: The Magellanic Stream (2013 Aug 15)
Is it possible that the SMC & the LMC at one time was (were) one galaxy and that the Milky Way ripped it apart? :? If so you would have to explain why the two have distinctive chemical compositions: <<[Andrew J. Fox]'s team found a low amount of oxygen and sulfur along most of the stream, match...
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:29 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
- Replies: 22
- Views: 4518
Re: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
Now *that* is so cool!
Thank you.
G.
- Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:28 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
- Replies: 22
- Views: 4518
Re: APOD: M8: The Lagoon Nebula (2013 Aug 17)
Twisting near the center of the Lagoon, the small, bright hourglass shape is the turbulent result of extreme stellar winds and intense starlight. "Hourglass shape"? I can see a dark, demented, rabid meerkat off to the right and a dark sidewinder to left of centre but no hourglass. Is my p...
- Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:54 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Hoags Object: A Strange Ring Galaxy (2013 Jul 28)
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5885
Re: APOD: Hoags Object: A Strange Ring Galaxy (2013 Jul 28)
Every time this object is featured I am bothered by the coincidental ring galaxy in the gap. It's very tempting to say it's some kind of cosmic joke. "Let's make this type of galaxy quite rare and then stick another one of the same type right here so that the Earthlings will have something to ...
- Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:42 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Hoags Object: A Strange Ring Galaxy (2013 Jul 28)
- Replies: 38
- Views: 5885
Re: APOD: Hoags Object: A Strange Ring Galaxy (2013 Jul 28)
<<snipped>> How Hoag's Object formed remains unknown, although similar objects have now been identified and collectively labeled as a form of ring galaxy . Genesis hypotheses include a galaxy collision billions of years ago and the gravitational effect of a central bar that has since vanished . It'...
- Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:52 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
- Replies: 27
- Views: 3740
Re: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
Actually, nobody has much idea how globulars form. Coming somehow from collisions is only one idea. They are not well understood phenomena. Sir, thank you, your post was far clearer than mine. I guess that comes of you being a real, practising Scientist while I'm mostly an autodidactic dilettante. ...
- Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:08 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
- Replies: 27
- Views: 3740
Re: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
I'm still puzzled by the structure of globular clusters, or rather the apparent lack of it. Spiral galaxies 'obviously' rotate, the velocity of individual stars keeping them in orbit around the common CoG, and mutual attraction organising them into spiral arms. It seems as if the laws of physics ac...
- Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:47 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
- Replies: 27
- Views: 3740
Re: APOD: Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752 (2013 Jul 05)
Does it rotate 'in one piece' rather than as a swarm of stellar bees? John The stars orbit the center of mass, with no doubt a lot of perturbations. Apparently there's still enough room between stars (a light week is still a long way) that they don't collide very often. So from a distance it may se...
- Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:43 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow (2013 Jun 19)
- Replies: 25
- Views: 5087
Re: APOD: Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow (2013 Jun
Today's APOD is of unwordly beauty, a magical view... Thanks Geckzilla, the big version came in perfect for my Spanish version of the APOD. I've looked and looked but I can find no beauty in today's APOD. There is something oddly askew with my sense of aesthetics, and I mean no offence to the photo...
- Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:00 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: All the Water on Planet Earth (2012 May 15)
- Replies: 56
- Views: 322791
Re: APOD: All the Water on Planet Earth (2012 May 15)
a sphere 1400 kilometers in diameter of water. ok ... now let's calculate how much trash, garbage, polluted runoff and sewage is dumped into it each year by 7 billion humans. maybe you can tint it brown in proportion. blue is much too optimistic. That works out to each person on the planet having t...
- Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:31 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
- Replies: 51
- Views: 5176
Re: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
[ I'm not a mathematician so excuse my ignorance but, does one milliard equal one million mallards? A milliard is one millionth of a billiard. Or a billionth of a trilliard. Looking at it from the other direction, a milliard is a thousand, thousand of thousands. Mallards are canards which I do not ...
- Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:18 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
- Replies: 51
- Views: 5176
Re: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
WOW! What an awesome spectacle. It looks like a large burning doughnut, with flames coming off of it. So sharp and detailed. Below is my best image of M57. A far cry, but I only have a ground based, 10 incher... I enhanced the photo on my tablet. Not as sharp as my eyes aren't so good for focusing....
- Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:56 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
- Replies: 51
- Views: 5176
Re: APOD: M57: The Ring Nebula (2013 Jun 05)
We should all be truly humbled by this picture. We sit here on Earth worrying about how much energy our little planet is accumulating yet in this picture the outer rings are at approximately 5x the distance from our Sun to Pluto from their own central star. Even at that distance the light energy is...
- Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:04 am
- Forum: Starship Asterisk: Handbook
- Topic: APOD assessment poll #8
- Replies: 129
- Views: 73413
Re: APOD assessment poll #8
I used the Internet extensively before the WWWeb was designed by Sir Tim. Once web-pages began to be common, I spent quite a lot of time looking for really interesting ones and forwarding their URLs to friends and family. APoD was one of the early good sites I found and passed on. It has been the ho...
- Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:55 pm
- Forum: Starship Asterisk: Handbook
- Topic: APOD assessment poll #7
- Replies: 108
- Views: 99755
Re: APOD assessment poll #7
I made APOD my homepage a bit over 6 months ago, & enjoy trying to learn something new each day--even though much of it is way over my head. And some days I just sit & thrill at looking at beauty I would otherwise never see. I usually try to follow the underlined words to other pages. (Is t...
- Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:38 am
- Forum: Starship Asterisk: Handbook
- Topic: APOD assessment poll #7
- Replies: 108
- Views: 99755
Re: APOD assessment poll #7
A little bit under 2 years, since I discovered you. You're not well publicized, so to speak, and if astronomy enthusiasts hadn't started a thread about space on our forums, I still wouldn't have heard of you. :) Moira, where would you publicise such a thing? APoD has been mentioned on UKland's BBC ...
- Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:42 am
- Forum: Starship Asterisk: Handbook
- Topic: APOD assessment poll #7
- Replies: 108
- Views: 99755
Re: APOD assessment poll #7
THANK YOU! Enjoy especially the pictures of the planets with their rings and satellites. Why are so many, if not all, satellites in the same plane? Much I don't understand, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying and appreciating the picture. I may not check daily, but I do catch up on all. Staggers...
- Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:49 am
- Forum: Starship Asterisk: Handbook
- Topic: APOD assessment poll #7
- Replies: 108
- Views: 99755
Re: APOD assessment poll #7
Had to put my guess at between 5 to 10 years. I'm sure I visited it many times over 10 years ago before actively following it. "Follow" is slightly ambiguous, I would have preferred something like "viewed" or "looked at" or "visited". I've had APoD as my home...
- Mon May 28, 2012 1:13 pm
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: At the Edge of NGC 891 (2012 May 26)
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2958
Re: APOD: At the Edge of NGC 891 (2012 May 26)
Galaxian - I think Ann was referring to the elliptical galaxy that is at the 11 o'clock position to the core (orient 3 and 9 o'clock to the dust lane) The bright thing between the two really tiny spirals? I though that was a foreground star. Sorry. Even on the largest sized image available it looks...
- Sat May 26, 2012 10:47 am
- Forum: The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Topic: APOD: At the Edge of NGC 891 (2012 May 26)
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2958
Re: APOD: At the Edge of NGC 891 (2012 May 26)
The small galaxy is so featureless that it's hard to say if it's a satellite galaxy or a more distant galaxy, but its non-reddened color suggests that it is nearby. If so, it might influence the star formation in NGC 891. Fascinatingly, there is also a small round satellite galaxy just "above&...