I like pretty pictures. I like nature. I like science. This is a thread where all three can be in the same place. I'll be posting pictures (usually the Astronomy Picture of the Day), with some explanation of what they have to do with science. If I don't think today's APOD fits or is pretty enough, I'll probably post a picture of a strange/awesome animal that has scientific import. I won't be copying the APOD descriptions verbatim because they can get technical, I'll try to summarize. I ask people not to quote the pictures, because that'd make this thread unreadable and/or slow to load with lots of copies of the same big picture.
Today's is the Astronomy picture of the day, which is a composite. It seems to be an attempt to demonstrate what the Milky Way would look like if we could see it all from one spot. Each half was taken in a different hemisphere. The s shaped light trail is because of dust from the plane the Earth orbits the sun around. The picture was obtained from two originals partially through a math/photography/art technique known as projection. That's why there's distortion at the edges, the original pictures were more circular. If you're interested in learning more, check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day website.
Today's is the Astronomy picture of the day, which is a composite. It seems to be an attempt to demonstrate what the Milky Way would look like if we could see it all from one spot. Each half was taken in a different hemisphere. The s shaped light trail is because of dust from the plane the Earth orbits the sun around. The picture was obtained from two originals partially through a math/photography/art technique known as projection. That's why there's distortion at the edges, the original pictures were more circular. If you're interested in learning more, check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day website.
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