h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No, it was cloudy here too. Tonight, on the other hand, is a lovely clear night.

typical! I don't know anyone who *did* see it I'm guessing my astronomy club members didn't fare any better, being local, although Barrie has a great telescope and he lives out in the countryside, fabulous dark skies. I'll find out at the next meeting.

Have you see today's APOD? The Russian meteor, caught on camera. http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/ap130218.html
I love those shadow shots!

finally they've been named

http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/ap130708.html

GB

That's a great collection of names:

The God of the Underworld
Night
The River of Death
The Ferryman of the River of Death
The Nine-headed Monster
The Three-headed Dog

I've been writing that up since January 2012. As there were 13 moons I decided to finish it off for my "13 in 13" project. I finished it on Sunday and submitted it to PR. On Monday Elektra informs me that Neptune's 14th moon has been discovered - the first in a decade.

And it gets better.

The man who headed the team who discovered Neptune XIV was also responsible for detecting those two new Pluto moons, and he works for SETI

I wonder if you've seen this? http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/

Looks interesting.

Hi

I've written up A87823768 The Chelyabinsk Superbolide for February's Create challenge.

I'm not sure whether it should be called an asteroid or meteor, though, it came from the asteroid belt, is an Apollo class asteroid, yet I've found many references to it being a "meteor" and the remains called "meteorites".

What do you suggest?

If it is a small rock in orbit around the sun, it is an asteroid.

If it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere, it is a meteor.

If it reaches the ground, then it is a meteorite.

I'm not familiar with the term 'bolide'.

This one was an asteroid before it reached the Earth. Then it became a meteor as it struck the Earth's atmosphere, causing it to heat up and glow so that it became a fireball.

Finally, it exploded, and bits of hit the ground as meteorites.

Have you seen the Hand of God?

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/nustar/B1509-pia17566/#.VDvp5_nF9H8

Unfortunately, I can't tell from the page when it was published.

Yes thanks, it's quite stunningand great to see it again

I don't think I covered pulsar wind nebulae in my overview of Nebulas so maybe it's time for an update

http://m.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30721794

Have you seen http://twistedsifter.com/2014/11/2200-year-old-mosaics-discovered-in-ancient-greek-city/ ?

Those are beautiful, GB.

There are a lot of mosaics in Istanbul although they're only about 1000 years old. I intend to photograph a few of them when I'm there in March.

Excellent

We have an artist image for A87851172 which I have applied

Please look at where I have moved the constellation artwork (Statistics) and let me know if you'd prefer it somewhere else (like centered between the first and second paragraphs of that section)

GB

Cool picture!

The entry looks good in Pliny (which always right-aligns the pictures), and that's the way most people are going to see it, so I'm happy.