OT: Astronomy Picture of the Day

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061003.html The Heart Nebula
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061004.html Comet SWAN
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061005.html Galaxy IC 342

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061002.html

Panoramic view from the Mars rover Opportunity, showing Victoria Crater.

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060822.html

[PvK]

From http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060730.html ,

"The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled."

Planetary orbits seem to be more stable than stars themselves.

I don't think planets are likely burped out of stars, but are probably formed back when the star itself was formed.

However, the star's behavior can change, and things can smash into planets and change their environments (or, their human-stupid inhabitants can destroy their environments themselves...).

PvK

[AngleWyrm]

These guys suggest orbital "changes" are the reason that gas giants have been found in very close proximity to their host stars.

"we might expect any planetary system to follow the general plan of our own, with small, dense, rocky worlds occupying orbits close to the central star and large, low-density, gassy worlds orbiting at much greater distances. However, the majority of the first batch of extrasolar planets to be confirmed do not conform at all to this scheme. Planets with masses even greater than that of Jupiter have been found in near-circular orbits within 2 astronomical units (and, in some cases, within 0.1 AU) of their host stars."

Perhaps the concept of changing from one stable position to another isn't necessary. One can just envision a decaying orbit.

Perhaps Global Warming is just orbital decay.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I think the astronomers would notice that.

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061001.html

[Kamog]

It's fascinating that the lights at night indicate the locations with the most population: Eastern U.S., Western Europe, Japan are brightest. It's easily seen that there's way more people living in U.S. than in Canada.

Somehow they edited out all the clouds and the daytime areas by combining multiple images, and the picture is actually from August 2002 if you look at the big image, not October 2006.

[Randallw]

Hmm I guess Hobart counts for more than I thought. We only just register.

[Renegade 13]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060925.html