Starship Asterisk*

The Earth doesn't rise over the Moon unless the camera is moving. The video shows the camera as stationary. Bad video. The Moon is tidal lock to the Earth. That means the Earth's position is fixed at the same azimuth and zenith. To get the Earth to rise, the camera must be moving toward the Earth. ...

The Earth doesn't rise over the Moon unless the camera is moving. The video shows the camera as stationary. Bad video. The Moon is tidal lock to the Earth. That means the Earth's position is fixed at the same azimuth and zenith. To get the Earth to rise, the camera must be moving toward the Earth. ...

Sorry, tangential thought that is top of my mind looking at the photo.. Those "direction" arrows.. I've always wondered how and why someone would feel/decide - and obviously I'm assuming the whole scientist community agreed to - a specific direction as North/East/South/West.. When someone ...

I'm sorry to say, to me, this looks more like a sci-fi movie, super exaggerated dramatic, with all kinds of visual and audio effects (music) to make this even waaaaaaaaaaaay more explosive and dramatic than how in reality it'd be (as per many books and articles and scientists and presentations I've ...

I've always been amazed by science and capabilities of the instruments we have. In such photo, apart from obvious spikey stars in our own galaxy, when every single object scene is a galaxy, at the distance of 3.5 bly and beyond, the instruments we have (and skills of algorithms and software) and the...

I was following link for "Wolf-Rayet stars" and wondered - 1) Where do "Sharpless 2-308" and "R136a1" fit into largest known stars (e.g. compared to Antares to VY Canis Majoris range) ? and 2) I came across this paragraph - "Consequently, R136a1, and stars like it,...

Thank you Ann and Chris. As always, you help me understand things a bit better.

I wonder what makes the comet get too close to the Sun ? I'd imagine gravity pull .. but then, how long it must have taken that comet to reach that stage (i mean how many times it must have made rounds around Sun and how many years it must have been doing it before finally getting too close and gett...

Couldn't understand one basic aspect. Why the eclipse is seen starting from west coast in US to east coast in US.. Apparent motion of moon from east to waste should be faster than Sun's apparent motion from east to west.. So I was imagining it'd start from east coast and move towards west coast. And...

Beautiful and Amazing. I wish they had mentioned the range of distances to galaxies (e.g. from 170 million to 10 billion light years away etc). Just to get and give a perspective, not everything that's "seen (looks) together and close" isn't so in reality.

"NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role" .. Sorry, but where is the "bar" ? I zoomed and zoomed.. maybe I am challenged to see shapes OR people who think there's a bar are falling to brain's "looking for shapes and patterns" bias/tendency ?

Maybe the small rover should go and bump into Moon Sniper (a nudge, not a destructive bang/collision) so that it stands on it's feet (thrusters touching ground) normal ? Worth experimenting instead of letting it lay there in "vegetable state".. just wondering..

From bay area California, whenever I saw Pleiades, I saw "Y" shaped star cluster, with 6 stars I can see with naked eye on most nights even from urban location. In this image, I am not able to figure out where's that "Y" shape (that makes it difficult to relate to what I see) and...

Good angle, good view, good perspective. Not so usual. I also like that we are able to see some portion of moon that we never get to see from earth but I wish we could see it better (I'm thinking the cameras on Artemis I don't have good resolution), i've never seen so much large portion of the moon ...

Sorry, what's today's APOD got to do with "A" in "APOD" ? It happens from time to time, I wonder what the person in-charge of posting APOD was drinking last night..

Quick question on Barnard's loop - 1) Why it's called a "loop" when all we can see (at least prominently and obviously) is a C shaped arc ? I did quick Google search and couldn't see an answer in a few clicks :( 2) How do they measure distances to such objects and why it has large margin o...

Thank you Ann and Chris. I can understand the other reasons (not a question of pride anymore, not a military operation anymore.. etc) but with trillions of $$ of spending at federal and state levels in US and with many private companies $$ also coming in, I'm surprised "money (or lack thereof)&...

Tangential question (related to moon) - If NASA managed to land many astronauts on moon till 1972 (they even drove there), after 50 years, achieving same should have been piece of cake (considering that capability/expertise, instruments, technology, money - everything - we have much more/better toda...

Slightly tangential question - if there's BH there (around 1500 ly), then it'd be even closer than the closest we know so far (Gaia BH1/BH2). I wonder if there'd be a BH much closer (e.g. just outside Neptune's orbit) and we just don't have a way (technology, instruments, skills, knowledge) to detec...

I recall somewhere it was mentioned that some star was moving in our direction that is expected to be closer to us than Alpha Centauri is, I'm assuming that star is a runaway star..

Hi Chris, I acknowledge and appreciate your knowledge and thoughts, only thing I have difference of opinion is about "possibility of radically different understanding of universe" that humanity will have in next 100 years if not just 25-50 years. Just imagine how understanding changed/evo...

Hard to fathom that all we see and think we understand comprises only 5% of the universe: https://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0108/universe/pie.jpg But that doesn't mean that our understanding of nature is 95% incomplete! If it means we "understand" that we don't understand 95%, then ye...

It's great experiment and am sure lot of time, money, efforts, knowledge involved in creating this but I can't help resist the thought that maybe all this is moot with latest discoveries James Webb ? I mean, the whole thing was based on 2014, 9 years ago and tons of things have changed since then w...

It's great experiment and am sure lot of time, money, efforts, knowledge involved in creating this but I can't help resist the thought that maybe all this is moot with latest discoveries James Webb ? I mean, the whole thing was based on 2014, 9 years ago and tons of things have changed since then wh...

Thank you Ann and Chris for detailed explanation, thoughts and comments. I always find it useful, it adds to my knowledge (or curiosity).