Starship Asterisk*

Ron wrote:Are there any estimates out there of how much of the universe is thought to be dust ?

APOD pics frequently mention it, but has it been quantified ??
A quick google didn't actually turn up any numbers.

BDanielMayfield wrote:So galaxies tend to get dustier over time, but then there are many things that vacuum up the dust too, everything from planetoids to protostars on up to supermassive black holes. Most giant ellipticals don't appear to have much dust, or do they and we just can't see it?

Kelly in Space wrote:
There's a mound at the bottom of the image with 2 projections
that look like Star Trek character Andorian antennae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gazoo wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The Great Gazoo is a tiny, green, floating alien who was exiled to Earth from his home planet Zetox as punishment for having invented a doomsday machine, a weapon of immense destructive power. His invention was a button which if pressed would destroy the universe in an explosive "ZAM," though he insists he made it on a whim ("I wanted to be the first on my block to have one!") with no intent of using it. Gazoo was discovered by Fred and Barney when his flying saucer crashed; Gazoo recognizes Fred and Barney's world as prehistoric Earth, implying Zetox banished him through time as well as space.

Gazoo refers to Fred and Barney as "dum-dums" and constantly causes problems for them. He can materialize and dematerialize objects, teleport, freeze time, travel through time (but apparently not through space), and perform other remarkable feats, but when he attempts to help out Fred and Barney, he usually ends up causing even more trouble. The only people who are able to see him are Fred, Barney, and the children, because they believe in him; animals can also see him. A running gag is that Fred argues with Gazoo while Wilma believes that he is talking to himself. When their daughter, Pebbles, says "Gazoo," Wilma thinks Pebbles is sneezing.

Gazoo's name actually derives from the 1909 hit song, "King of the Bungaloos," by Charles Straight and Gene Greene. In it the narrator explains, "I just received a cable 'spatch from my ancestral home. It tells me I'm the great Gazoo, successor to the throne." Because Gazoo is introduced into the show midway through the final season and is considered by some to be an absurd character, he is often cited by fans and critics of the show as being an example of the show's having "jumped the shark." In all, Gazoo appeared in 11 episodes.

Joanna Lee as Tanna

The story arc regarding Gazoo trying to return home is never resolved because of the cancellation of the original series, and the character does not appear, nor is he referred to, in the immediate series follow-up The Man Called Flintstone (1966) or any of the later spin-off TV series or animated movies, rendering him effectively dropped from continuity. He played a major part in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), in which he is portrayed in a more positive tone. The film is set before the original series, but the live-action motion pictures did not follow the cartoon series' continuity. In the film, Gazoo is exiled to Earth in order to study the mating habits of humans as he is the most expendable of his race, as well as a punishment for his annoying ways. Throughout the film, he aids Fred and Barney in wooing their future wives, Wilma and Betty. As he does not appear in the original film which was set after this one, it can be assumed that Gazoo was allowed to return to his home planet after discovering the meaning of true love.

The Great Gazoo is referenced in The Simpsons episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", a metafictional episode looking at alleged future developments in the series that would never come to pass, which include Ozmodiar, a floating green alien that only Homer could see.>>

robgendler wrote:Some of the comments suggest the image was a collaborative effort between all the parties in the
credit line. In actuality the image was conceived, assembled, and processed by me. I had the idea
of using HST and Subaru data to create it but needed NB color in HST palette to go along with the
HST data so I found Martin Pugh's nice NB image of M20 and he gave me permission to use it.
So although the image data came from multiple sources the idea and work done to combine all
the data was my own.

Robert Gendler

Ron wrote:Are there any estimates out there of how much of the universe is thought to be dust ?

APOD pics frequently mention it, but has it been quantified ??
A quick google didn't actually turn up any numbers.

Beyond say:

GADZOOKS I completely missed The Great Gazoo
Didn't even know he existed, til neufer dug him up out of his bag of quoteable things.
Thanks neufer.

Kelly in Space wrote:There's a mound at the bottom of the image with 2 projections that look like Star Trek character Andorian antennae.

neufer wrote: You should get out more often, Beyond.

(To find the Truth, you must go beyond Beyond.)

bystander wrote:

Kelly in Space wrote:There's a mound at the bottom of the image with 2 projections that look like Star Trek character Andorian antennae.

[url=http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/42/image/a/][b][i]The Trifid Nebula: Stellar Sibling Rivalry[/i][/b][/url] [b][i]Credit: NASA and Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)[/i][/b]

---

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Isaac Asimov wrote a book “The Stars, Like Dust” but I’ve never understood the comma in between? It seems to me “The Stars Like Dust” might have been more appropriate. This APOD seems to demonstrate that well.

But I would never claim to say one of my favorite sci-fi and non-fiction authors got it wrong. I’m sure someone out there knows why it’s punctuated like it is. I would guess he meant “As Numerous As Dust” What’s the latest guess? 10^78 to 10^84 equivalent of hydrogen atoms?