Starship Asterisk*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LTgNVwfMAE The first festivals celebrating the sorrows and later joys of Demeter and Persephone were exclusively for women held in pre-Hellenic Greece; the festivals included the sacrifice of suckling pigs in a manner suggestive of human sacrifice. The suckling pigs...

Thank you for the clear explanation, Chris! It makes a lot more sense now.

The caption for the picture says that NGC 4298 is a "smaller companion" of NGC 4302, which I would assume means it lies at roughly the same distance of 55 million light-years. But if that's so, I'd expect to see a lot more interaction than just some tidal stretching of NGC 4298. Is it poss...

My apologies to Bruce and everyone else; I didn't make myself clear. The point I was trying to make is that if we are already picking up the dust and such from these objects as meteor showers, then an actual collision with a larger body is really inevitable at some point in the future. It may take m...

I'm a very amateur astronomer, and making my first visit back here since 2015, but even so I'd agree with Chris. After all, don't we have several thousand "micro-collisions" with the dust and rock particles these objects shed each year, better known as meteor showers? Or am I way off base ...

It's too early to be the Cabal - we haven't found the Traveler yet. I suspect instead it's the Reaper invasion force gearing up for their overwhelming invasion of Earth. Where's Commander Shepard when you need him/her?

Hello from an amateur astronomer who just (re-)discovered this site. I'd come across it years ago, but forgot about it in the bustle of my daily life. I just want to thank you all for the lovely pictures that inspire me and my children to learn more about this universe we live in! By the way, in thi...