Astronomy Pic of the Day

[BrainSmashR]

Originally Posted by Neo

I don't think braindead knows how to lay down sword

You're absolutely right....giving up is a Christian trait.

Notice no other religion has a "savior" who was beaten, tortured, and then crucified by mere mortals.....

[AnimeSpirit]

Originally Posted by BrainSmashR

You're absolutely right....giving up is a Christian trait.

Notice no other religion has a "savior" who was beaten, tortured, and then crucified by mere mortals.....

I'm not sure he was "crucified" per say, but Mithra was a sacrificed for mankind much the way Jesus was. In fact, Mithra has a LOT in common with Jesus.

Rev. Derrek Younger spoke in one of his sermons all about Mithra. He said, "Mithra is one of your Pagan deities. Mithra's birthday was Dec 25. He had 12 disciples. He was sacrificed to redeem mankind. Before his death, he had a last supper with his 12 disciples of bread and wine. And upon his death, he prophesized that he would once again return to redeem mankind."

Other than him, the Buddhist monks reach Nirvana (oneness with the divine) by fasting and meditating straight until the moment of their death. They literally starve themselves to death in order to reach their equivalent of Heaven.

They are out there, believe me. Christians are not as alone in this respect as you my think.

Anywho, we're off-topic. Let's get back to the Astronomy discussion and leave religion in its proper topics.

[BrainSmashR]

Originally Posted by AnimeSpirit

I'm not sure he was "crucified" per say, but Mithra was a sacrificed for mankind much the way Jesus was. In fact, Mithra has a LOT in common with Jesus.


Rev. Derrek Younger spoke in one of his sermons all about Mithra. He said, "Mithra is one of your Pagan deities. Mithra's birthday was Dec 25. He had 12 disciples. He was sacrificed to redeem mankind. Before his death, he had a last supper with his 12 disciples of bread and wine. And upon his death, he prophesized that he would once again return to redeem mankind."

Some would say Christanity was copied directly from Mithra and that the two are basically one in the same.

Other than him, the Buddhist monks reach Nirvana (oneness with the divine) by fasting and meditating straight until the moment of their death. They literally starve themselves to death in order to reach their equivalent of Heaven.

Buddah was not an omnipotent being allowing himself to be sacrificed by mere mortals and neither are his followers.

They are out there, believe me. Christians are not as alone in this respect as you my think.

That may be true, but you certainly haven't proven it.

Anywho, we're off-topic. Let's get back to the Astronomy discussion and leave religion in its proper topics.

I can agree, but I doubt it's going to happen.

[BrainSmashR]

Explanation: Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster is well-known in astronomical images for its striking blue reflection nebulae. At visible wavelengths, the starlight is scattered and reflected by the dust, but in this portrait in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope, the dust itself glows. The false color image spans about 1 degree or seven light-years at the distance of the Pleiades, with the densest regions of the dust cloud shown in yellow and red hues. Exploring this young nearby cluster, the Spitzer data have revealed many cool low mass stars, brown dwarfs or failed stars, and possible planetary debris disks. Want to see the Pleiades tonight? Look near Venus, the brilliant evening star in the west just after sunset.

Tomorrow's picture: Venus by the Lake

[BrainSmashR]

Explanation: Star clusters appear constant because photographs of them are frozen in time. In reality, though, cluster stars swarm the center and frequently fluctuate in brightness. Although the time it takes for stars to cross a cluster is about 100,000 years, the time it takes for a star to fluctuate noticeably can be less than one night. In fact, the above time lapse movie of bright globular cluster M3 was taken over a single night. Most of the variable stars visible above are RR Lyrae stars, stars that can quickly double their brightness while becoming noticeably bluer. Furthermore, RR Lyrae stars vary their light in a distinctive pattern that allows unique identification. Lastly, since RR Lyrae stars all have the same intrinsic brightness, identifying them and measuring how dim they appear tells how far they are, since faintness means farness. These distances, in turn, help calibrate the scale of the entire universe.

Tomorrow's picture: sky square

[BrainSmashR]

What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922, however, appears to be imbedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The above image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings of supernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.

[BrainSmashR]

Explanation: Planet HD 209458b is evaporating. It is so close to its parent star that its heated atmosphere is simply expanding away into space. Some astronomers studying this distant planetary system now believe they have detected water vapor among the gases being liberated. This controversial claim, if true, would mark the first instance of planetary water beyond our Solar System, and indicate anew that life might be sustainable elsewhere in the universe. HD 209458b is known as a hot Jupiter type system because it involves a Jupiter-type planet in a Mercury-type orbit. Although spectroscopic observations from the Hubble Space Telescope are the basis for the water detection claim, the planetary system is too small and faint to image. Therefore, an artist's impression of the HD 209458b system is shown above. Research into the atmospheric composition of HD 209458b and other extrasolar planets is continuing.