Starship Asterisk*

Sigh - Nice Art! Now there's a sight to pray for.

It does make you wonder if the rack and pinion gear got "off track" somehow and now isn't in the proper focus range

While gazing at the Milky Way in Cygnus Friday night our backyard was visited by some owlish aliens.
Western screech owl?

Maybe this was a better place to discuss possible alien life. 1,500 light "ears" away.

The Drake Equation uses a number of fractions very hard to estimate. Other equations come to an estimate using different criteria. We know some reasons why Earth is unique for the types of life which have developed over the millennia. No Earthlings from our future or aliens from a distant past have ...

geckzilla wrote:But it's enough to say that all the important things got their own little patterns to follow because it just so happened to work, whatever pathway it takes.

I think I see what you are saying. Just because we don't know "why" is no reason to jump to conclusions?

geckzilla wrote:The same way they automatically breathe. It's not hard! Down the rabbit hole of non-free will, we go.

Exactly how we know to carry out certain functions is up in the air. Pheromones? But when and how we breathe seems less uncertain. When I can't it's usually because I'm apneathetic.

You can have a design without a designer. Especially when you've got a brain capable of seeing designs in purely random data, much less something with structure formed through physical interactions. Then why do newborn mamals, without any previous instruction or patterning, automatically seek out t...

How boring would life be if we didn't have weather to change things up? Just like urban renewal our atmosphere has to change periodically. Thankfully the Earth's orbit is tilted. Of course some places get pretty consistent weather. Just ask an astronomer in Seattle.

I might be put off by the name but the image itself is almost immaculate. I don't have the expertise to begin to understand the magic that goes into processing the Hubble data into what we see today but I do like the outcome. On high resolution the diffraction spikes of the foreground stars are quit...

Is the name for such a galaxy a euphemism? Grand design is a philosophically loaded gun. Taken individually the words might portray an impressive structure but put together their meaning has been very divisive. Hawking and Mlodinow attempt to use their similarly-titled book to take us through the hi...

As a common ancesto r the Bristlecone Pine leaves us in the dust. Likewise, the Milky Way and the universe have timelines so dissimilar that comparison may be irrelevant. Bristlecone Pine.jpg Still I look at the Bristlecone Pine in my backyard and think it could be possible humanity will be among th...

In 1910 Paris was "Then" ice and Europe was about to change dramatically. Humans think our brains are so superior and then we forget.

At least Paris will remain the Seine.

It doesn't appear one might find himself there by chance. Quite off the beaten track - Reine.

Nice Job!

If we could only "catch a wave" we'd be sitting on top on the world.

I'll bet today's sound will eventually make the "Top Ten"

Two black holes merging. That's not a good place to be at the wrong time.

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article ... -turns-60/

I'd say we should throw them a birthday party but not many would show up? Guess we might be able to send them an e-card

tennisjazz wrote:"scientifically assigned colors]" (https://petlawblog.files.wordpress.com/ ... -paint.jpg, ha ha.

I liked that too. As opposed to "artistically" appointed colors.

As with many APOD's the high resolution version reveals a great amount of detail. However, some detail is lacking in the wavelengths used for this image. For example, stars are generally weak, so the mini-Orion asterism off the Gulf of Mexico in the North America Nebula, which shows nicely in a pre...

Trent Franklin wrote:What if light spectrums actually have slightly different speeds?

In trying to explore the answers to many questions we have great tools right at our fingertips. That often points one in a direction not always expected but usually enlightening.

As with many APOD's the high resolution version reveals a great amount of detail. It must represent how much more one can see from such a "dark location". Either that or one of Alex Filippenko's versions of a black hole finally made it to APOD.

Great way start to the week! When a "sober scientist" decides to acronym her paper with "WTF" it activates my already overstimulated imagination to a manic proportion. :shock: The other methods of exoplanet detection do add clarity but I'm sure many will be brainstorming this for...

A Wolf -Rayet star – it'll huff and puff and blow itself in . :ssmile: Okay, Fred! So maybe WR stars of type WN do blow themselves up in terrific explosions, then. Perhaps they go out with a real howl, blowing all little piggies and riding hoods to smithereens! Ann You have to admit the Crescent Ne...

A Wolf-Rayet star – it'll huff and puff and blow itself in.