Starship Asterisk*

Thank you for reinforcing my belief, neufer! I've watched the prog again, in which Al-Khalili is discussing the history of cosmology, and the "Alphabetical Article", by Alpher, Bethe and Gamow which proposed Big Bang nucleosynthesis (as I now learn to call it). He never got to Eddington's...

For those un-versed here is a X-Ray Ted Talk - Exposing the invisible

Who would guess which author might be attributed with the first work of science fiction? I think many might say Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And that's probably correct but some think an earlier work would qualify. Johannes Kepler A "waking dream" at the age of 18 was the inspiration for h...

From the top of the image along the diagonal, the galaxies of this image are : IC 5168, NGC 7214, HCG 91d, ESO 467-13 and ESO 467-15. Thank to Aladin, but i would like to know which are HCG 91a, HCG 91b and HCG 91c. Also, how many galaxies compose that group, 4 or more? The large central galaxy wit...

The link to 'The Keyhole Nebula changing appearance' is showing as http://i.imgur.com/3BlMICY.jpg, which takes me to a picture of a cat! It initially showed as being to an APOD site, but immediately changed. Can you fix it, please? Thanks, Mike. Eta Carina or Car in a Eat Taco ? Palindrome was the ...

geckzilla wrote:Given your question there, you may have meant to post this in the found images thread?

Thanks Geck. For some reason I thought that section was only for images that "found" their way on to your own pad. I didn't know a stray cat could nominate another cats 'fluff".

It's amazing to see how many people confuse gravitational waves with atmospheric gravity waves. Not that I understand them to a high degree but I was curious if atmospheric gravity waves present themselves with destructive and constructive interference patterns after looking at today's APOD. Searchi...

...I should pick up a cheap pair of binoculars for marginal situations like this. Can anyone recommend an unserious, inexpensive pair for informal viewing? Preferably one that minimizes hand-shake (I'm not gonna use a tripod)? I've used a Nikon Action 8x40 for the last 7 years. There are certainly ...

This amazing pattern is found in "octahedrite iron meterites and some pallasites" per Wikipedia. It's a beautiful structure from time long ago.

It might make for a fun APOD someday.

Are they sure those are land masses? If they were a less dense floating solid on a liquid hydrocarbon lake and the density of the liquid was fluctuating per season wouldn't they change buoyancy? Of course then the liquid hydrocarbon might expand also and rise its surface level which wasn't detected....

Phoenix, pigeon or something else ?

starsurfer wrote:I would like to see a similar illustration of the Milky Way that shows its many tidal streams. Maybe there is one out there?

Lots out there! That's for sure

Guess it just takes a while to get things moving - galactically speaking?

How can we type galaxies by age – look further back in the universe?

The fractal appearance of the tributaries leading into the lake is surprisingly like that of Earth's water networks. Fractals must have more in common with geometry than chemistry.

But is "fractisity" a universal feature that is related to gravity or scale?

Chappy is quite a blast!

In the first link to the constellation Sculptor there is an image of R Scuptoris . R Scuptoris is an interesting sight. It almost looks like it could be a planetary nebula in the early period of its formation. If it does have a companion it would surely be affecting the shedding of its outer shell. ...

Why couldn't ancients have thought that Jupiter was another star that had its own planets? Of course they rapidly shifted position but I might think that the ability to observe the moons of Jupiter without aide may have given insight into planetary arrangement very long before Galileo used his teles...

I've always pictured Cassiopeia as a woman sitting reclined knees bent head back.
To me it seems very obvious but I suspect others see it differently.

I'm curious about the interesting bright object in the upper left of today's image. It seems disconnected from the Tarantula nebula, unlike the various filaments, etc., elsewhere in the image. This is probably just a matter of perception because of it's unique appearance. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/...

neufer wrote:After a kill, some ant-mimicking spiders hold their victims between themselves and large groups of ants to avoid being attacked

Now I know where Hollywood gets its material.

While the Tarantula Nebula got its name for resembling the legs of the spider I think it’s the face that stars.

The acceleration of gravity isn't determined only by the distance from Earth's center, but by the local density of the crust. As a result, Huascarán Peak in Ecuador, which is slightly closer to Earth's center than Chimborazo, actually has the smallest acceleration of gravity on Earth, 9.7639 m/s 2 ...

If you think of the crew living in a hula hoop 50 feet in diameter circle the Earth 250 miles above Earth's surface (being about 4000 miles from its center) then using 4250 miles as a major radius and 50 ft (0.01 miles) as minor radius the volume of the area http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume...

I always thought it would be really mean to take apart the cube then put it together with one corner turned, then mix it up and hand it to a genius quick solver, sit back, and enjoy As many really smart people as our world has produced - it makes one think "God" beat us to the punch. :win...