Starship Asterisk*

I think the popularity of this image on FB is because it is a combination of the familiar and the unfamiliar. The familiar is the iconic disk of Jupiter, and the unfamiliar is that unusual red hue that colors the Great Red Spot and some of the belts. This red was derived, I am told from real infrare...

Interesting, given that it appears about the least popular here in this forum. Anybody ever compare posting frequency on Asterisk to popularity in external forums? I think the lack of popularity in this forum is partly related to the fact that the Asterisk was down for several hours soon after this...

This APOD did very well on Facebook, garnering, so far, 3.1K "Likes" and a "Reach" of over 120K, making it currently the second most popular APOD on FB this April. But why? I think there is a lesson buried here about about image popularity, and it would be insightful to uncover i...

It has been pointed out to me that this APOD is now highlighted on Metafilter.
- RJN

At the request of the sonifier, I have now linked Matt Russo to SYSTEM Sounds on the NASA APOD.
- RJN

It would be better if today's image was rotated 180°. The horsehead is upsidedown compared to the comparison link(s). I agree, and have now rotated the image in the NASA APOD. Also, I have now corrected the text to say that Nu Scorpii is the reddened star left of center. I apologize for the "o...

In the explanation given I miss the info about how far it`s supossed to be. The word redshift is linked. Please follow the link get the distance in other units! I see this type of hyperlink one of the main utilities of hypertext writing in general -- by linking a word, the hypertext-writer has less...

It has been pointed out in the Facebook comments that, effectively, there are even older cave paintings that might depict stars. See, for example http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/871930.stm . I therefore have modified the first few words of the NASA APOD to indicate that the designation as ...

At the request of the astrophotographer, the larger "click through" image has been replaced by one with attribution only in the lower right corner. This refers to the main NASA APOD page. - RJN

richardschumacher wrote: ↑Sun Mar 11, 2018 5:46 am "Dual", not "Duel".

Yes. Sorry. My bad. Oops! Fixed it on the main NASA site. - RJN

Emails indicate that the annotation was done by Sakib Rasool, who is now credited on the NASA APOD.
- RJN

After some communication from someone directly involved with Juno, the APOD text on the NASA site has now been changed. Unofficially, the timing of Juno's demise is somewhat unclear but now seems unlikely to occur during summer 2018. For more information, please contact the Juno team directly. We ap...

Thanks to bystander for pointing several typos and an html error, all of which have now been fixed in the main NASA APOD. My apologies for the typos!

- RJN

Victor Buonadonna wrote:Does anyone see the connection between this image and the opening scenes in the anime cult movie "Heavy Metal"?

Yes. Please check the links to see this video and a modern re-make.

Dear Fans of the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) , If the US Government shutdown affects APOD's main NASA site at http://apod.nasa.gov/ , many of APOD's mirror sites will still be updated and operational during this shutdown. A list of these sites can be found here: http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~ap...

moonshadow1 wrote:Check the spelling of fluorescent.

Thank you. I have now corrected the spelling of "fluorscent" on the main NASA APOD. After pointed out by an emailer, I also lower-cased the "k" in keV. I apologize for the oversights.

- RJN

At 480 kilometers distance, an emailer pointed out that Vemdalen is not really very "near" Stockholm. I therefore tweaked the NASA APOD's text to now say that the ski resort is in "central Sweden". We apologize for the oversight.

- RJN

Thanks for the Chicago invitations! I have now contacted one of the above commenters about a possible APOD presentation in or near Chicago near the start of 2019 (as it is too late to organize an event near the start of 2018). Things look promising!

Guest wrote:Falcon 9, but not Heavy.

Thanks. Yes, it was "just" a Falcon 9 and not a Falcon 9 Heavy. My mistake. I have now updated the APOD.

- RJN

vichug wrote:"you're view" ??

Thanks! This has now been fixed.

​There are currently two APOD presentations that will occur in early January. Both events are free and open to the public. ​The level of the lectures is appropriate for all audiences, including children and people who are just really interested in science and space. ​ ​New York City on Friday, 2018 ...

Thanks to feedback both here on the Asterisk and over email, two corrections have been made to the NASA APOD text. First, it is made clear that the times of sunrise and sunset at several latitudes can be read from the clock, and that the solar calendar actually does rotate -- in fact once a year. I ...

FJ Piccino wrote:Hey, all: Just a heads-up. There is a typo in your URL on this one.
Looks like it should be https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/N ... e_2000.jpg
BTW great site.

This URL typo has now been fixed in the main NASA APOD. I apologize for the mistake.

- RJN

The APOD text (on NASA's APOD web site) has been updated to indicate that ESA's INTEGRAL observatory also saw prompt gamma-rays, just a few seconds after the gravitational wave signal. We apologize for the oversight.

Note: "bright steaks" has been corrected to "bright streaks" ("r" added) in the NASA APOD. This was to fix a typo and to correct the seeming assertion that food is particularly easy to come by on Ceres. - RJN