APOD: Nearby Cepheid Variable RS Pup (2013 Sep 09)

[neufer]

scientist humor is sometimes overwhelming

<< ... Anthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him.>>

So... white cane sugar is lesslasses

• No One asked YOUR opinion

`Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--'

`What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.

`They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.

`They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; `they'd have been ill.'

`So they were,' said the Dormouse; `VERY ill.'

Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?'

`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'

`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take MORE than nothing.'

`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.

Art (definitely not No One) Neuendorffer

[Beyond]

No One asked YOUR opinion

Since when does any Asteriskian* need to be asked for their opinion

[ta152h0]

and sometimes underwhelming

[neufer]

and sometimes underwhelming

Have some draft beer, ta152h0.

[Beyond]

and sometimes underwhelming

Have some draft beer, ta152h0.

Seems more like 'daft' beer to me.

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]Artist’s impression shows the location of RS Pup in the Milky Way Galaxy. RS Pup is about 6,500 light years away, with an uncertainty of 90 light-years. It’s 10 times more massive than the sun and 15,000 times brighter. Credit: ESO / Hubble[/color][/b]

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Amazing RS Puppis, a star with a groovy echo
Astrobob, December 18, 2013

<<Have you ever seen an echo? Maybe if you’re a bat, which can form a mental picture of its environment using echolocation. Well, then, allow me to introduce you to the star RS Puppis in the constellation Puppis the Ship’s Stern. Unlike the steady sun, RS Pup pulsates like a beating heart, becoming brighter and fainter by a factor of five about every 40 days. Instabilities in the star’s core brought on by switching from hydrogen to helium fuel cause regular expansions and contractions – actual changes in the star’s size – that we see as cyclic changes in its brightness.

Lucky for us bat types, the star is swaddled in nebulosity, a swirly cloud of gas and dust. As RS Pup brightens, a pulse of light travels from near to far across the expanse of the nebula, reflecting off gas and dust to create a light echo. Watching the video might make you think you’re seeing an expanding gas cloud. That’s an illusion. Instead, light moves across the nebula like someone pointing a flashlight in a cave, the beam touching nearby walls first and then reaching farther back into the deeper recesses. Every 5-6 weeks another pulse echoes across the murky gas clouds.

We hear an echo when sound bounces off objects in the environment and reflects back to our ears; echoes around RS Puppis happen the same way except with light instead of sound.

Interestingly, as the reflected light bounces off the nebula’s nooks and crannies, it takes a variety of different paths through the gas and arrives at Earth after light that travels straight from star to telescope. This helps reinforce the ‘expanding gas cloud’ illusion.>>

[ta152h0]

now I can say I seen one. Just like I can say now I have seen a rolling cloud.

[Beyond]

How about a Rolling Stone

[BMAONE23]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Do they really gather no moss?

[Beyond]

Now-a-days, just wrinkles. Lots and lots of wrinkles.