Astronomy picture of the day

**qweek** · September-13-09, 01:41 PM

http://digg.com/d312ZvF

Can you see it? So bizarre how the mind works.

**qweek** · September-13-09, 01:42 PM

Geez, the link takes you to the wrong day, go to 9/13/09.

**gazhekwe** · September-13-09, 02:03 PM

This one? http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090913.html

What IS that thing? I'm thinking of the Mad Hatter.

**humanmachinery** · September-13-09, 02:21 PM

I love the "pic of the day" features, as well as reading Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy" blog.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...sts124_big.jpg

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

I have not been moved by any sort of organized religion in over a decade, but the cosmos, the stars, an eclipse...profoundly unsettling to me. No matter how great any of our deeds are in our lives, we are but dust to the universe. We are one planet among the innumerable cosmos, orbiting an unremarkable star in a nondescript galaxy.

My jaw drops, and I am filled with awe and wonder. More importantly, I am humbled.

**Jimaz** · September-13-09, 03:09 PM

That's an autostereogram of Newell's Utah teapot.

We figured out how to make those. You start out with any random pattern in a vertical strip about 2 inches wide and repeat the strips side by side. Then you copy & paste a piece of that pattern representing each layer of the object. You paste it one pixel to the side of the previous layer. That's all there is to it!

**gazhekwe** · September-13-09, 03:20 PM

I think my eyes are still crossed.

**humanmachinery** · September-13-09, 03:30 PM

The Milky Way is estimated to be one of approximately 125 billion galaxies in the universe.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...y_string_4.jpg

Each of the objects in this picture is a galaxy. Our galaxy is one of the most beautiful sorts, known as a 'spiral bar.'

**Jimaz** · September-13-09, 06:37 PM

You start out with any random pattern in a vertical strip about 2 inches wide and repeat the strips side by side.

I have to retract that. Now that I think about it, I think it's more like 1-1/2 inches. It's related to average interocular distance. I'm playing around with it now.

**qweek** · September-13-09, 06:59 PM

Playing around with interocular anything sounds painful

. Jimaz, I missed you and that brain of yours!

**Jimaz** · September-13-09, 09:22 PM

Cripes, everyone has a brain. It's just that some don't enjoy playing with it!

Ravine · September-13-09, 10:29 PM

I saw nothing but a bunch o' purty colors, and I have absolutely no idea of what any of you are talking about.

The one thing I am sure about, though, is that I am really glad to see Qweek coming back around these here parts.

Other than that? In the dark & lost, as usual.

Good thing I got insects to play with.

**humanmachinery** · September-13-09, 10:42 PM

Well then, sing along with me.

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, its hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth thered be no life
Without the light it gives

We need its light
We need its heat
We need its energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
Thered be no you and me

**humanmachinery** · September-13-09, 11:22 PM

Let's take it back to a basic level.

When you look up on a clear night [[especially if you're far from a city), what do you see?

Stars.

Our sun [[upon which all life on this planet depends) is also a star, much like many of those other stars we see.

Sol [[our sun) just looks bigger and brighter, because it is much much closer than any other star.
The distance from Terra [[the earth) to Sol [[the sun) is about 93 million miles. This is an average distance, because the earth doesn't orbit the sun in a perfect circle. For a more practical measurement, we'll say Sol about 8.3 "light minutes" away from Terra. That's how long it takes a photon [[a unit of light) to travel from the sun to the earth.

But how far is the nearest star from Sol? That would be Proxima Centauri. If a photon were to travel from Prixima Centauri to Sol, it would take 4.2 light years.

And these are two neighboring stars in the same galaxy. You want to travel to the closest independent galaxy –as in a cluster that's not orbiting another galaxy? That's Andromeda. Andromeda is 2.56 MILLION light years away.

Here, let's have Morgan Freeman help explain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXf7AJZ73A

Now that Carl Sagan is gone, I can't see a reason for a science program to be narrated by anyone other than James Burke or Morgan Freeman.

Ravine · September-14-09, 03:07 PM

Or Qweek.

I have learned, just now, that a post has to be of at least 10 characters in length.

Just what I needed. On the rare occasion when I wish to be, and am capable of being, concise, I am forced to ramble.

So don't blame me. It's on, now.

**Ray1936** · September-14-09, 03:15 PM

"Now that Carl Sagan is gone, I can't see a reason for a science program to be narrated by anyone other than James Burke or Morgan Freeman."

Oh, I can. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is positively outstanding. How could you possibly overlook him?

**rb336** · September-14-09, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

"Now that Carl Sagan is gone, I can't see a reason for a science program to be narrated by anyone other than James Burke or Morgan Freeman."

Oh, I can. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is positively outstanding. How could you possibly overlook him?

frankly, better than sagan as far as I am concerned. he doesn't "dumb it down" in order to explain the science in accessible terms

**Gistok** · September-14-09, 03:43 PM

And then there's this leviathan galaxy.... IIRC it is 800 times the size of the Milky Way!!

**qweek** · September-15-09, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

Or Qweek.

I have learned, just now, that a post has to be of at least 10 characters in length.

Just what I needed. On the rare occasion when I wish to be, and am capable of being, concise, I am forced to ramble.

So don't blame me. It's on, now.

Is it on? Bring it!