Real life science fiction

[Esav Benyamin]

When I clicked on Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 5, 2009, I thought I was looking at
one of their artist's renditions of an exotic scene. But this one is for real: Titan Beyond the Rings

A similarly unbelievable view from April 24, 2009 showed what
looked like two moons in the sky! Moon and Morning Star​

Astronomy Picture of the Day​

the universe is watching us
now we can watch it back​

 

[gajinoz]

It's great, isn't it. Space is even more amazing than SF paints it. All the way from galaxies colliding to superstrings, it's endlessly fascinating.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Periodically, I bring up APOD, since so many people don't know about it, and end up amazed at what's available. There are NASA sites with good pics, too, of course, but I like APOD for the explanatory text, too.

 

[Rat Finkenstein]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090503.html

Some stuff that, if it was added to a sci-fi movie, people would think it looked fake.

 

[b.c.molin]

Humbling experience looking at those photo's ...humanity is really such a small part of the cosmos.

I recall the most amazing astronomical sight I witnessed last year, perhaps ever, was this:

 

[markksr]

Some pictures I took of the Space Shuttle launch on March 15. I live about 100 miles north of Cape Canaveral.

The two objects you see in this one are the main Shuttle and the spare fuel tanks falling away.

 

[bobofish]

Fun little article about space craziness:
http://gizmodo.com/5238308/get-ready-humanity-because-space-is-a-freak-show?skyline=true&s=i

 

[Carolina River Rat]

That's an awesome site, Esav. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Steve Hayden]

I have it favorites and check it out almost every day. I discovered it in 1996. If you go to the Archives, you can access photos from the whole time it has existed.

 

[Daniel Dorn]

Like Steve, I discovered it about the time Comet Hale-Bopp (97-98?)was making a splash in the skies.

I have over 100 photos from there set in rotation as background on my computer. It's been a chore to save them when one computer or another would crash in the last 13 years!

Daniel

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Put them on Photobucket or copy them to an external drive.

 

[T.K.C.]

AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[mwerner]

I too check the astronomy pic-of-the-day site constantly; that shot this morning was terrific.
Very nice shots of the shuttle launch!

 

[b.c.molin]

Very nice shots of the shuttle launch!

Despite over 30 years of watching first Apollo rocket and then Space Shuttle launches on tv, it has not been until I looked at markksr's own photo's that the launches have taken on a 'reality' for me ...many thanks from an old space fan.:thumbup:

 

[Daniel Dorn]

Put them on Photobucket or copy them to an external drive.

That wasn't too easy a few years ago. I finally got a computer with a CD burner, and that worked until I bought my first thumb drive (128mb for $40!)

Daniel

 

[YayILikePie]

Ooh, an APOD thread. I used to have it set as my homepage some time back, and one image sticks in my mind. Apparently, they discovered water on Mars.

 

[J.Mattson]

That’s really cool. I think I’ve got a new tab in my favorites. If I remember correctly aren’t the separations in the rings made by moons passing within them?

 

[UffDa]

"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

Sir Arthur Eddington



This also applies to many of the people who post on BF.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

If I remember correctly aren’t the separations in the rings made by moons passing within them?

Between Saturn's gravity and the gravity of the moons, they set up stresses on the rings that open the gaps.

 

[OldPhysics]

Between Saturn's gravity and the gravity of the moons, they set up stresses on the rings that open the gaps.

Close enough for me.

It is certainly not due to the moons passing through them. Rather, an initially unexpected consequence of dynamic gravitational fields interacting, as Esav has already explained.