The Lonely Neutron Star In Supernova E0102 72.3

I will be honest, I just thought this was my astigmatism acting up the first time I saw it.

Artemis II Stacking Operations Update

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program continue stacking the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s twin solid rocket booster motor segments for the agency’s Artemis II mission, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Currently, six of the 10 segments are secured atop mobile launcher 1 with the right […] from NASA https://ift.tt/1uI7Dtq

Science Services’ Science Program series booklet Moon. Nelson Doubleday - 1967.

To be fair, a lot of goofy-sounding rocketry/aerospace terminology has a legitimate nomenclatural role beyond just being silly euphemisms.

"Unplanned rapid disassembly", for example, exists as the necessary counterpart to planned rapid disassembly: sometimes a rocket is legitimately supposed to fall apart or blow up, so you need a specific term to emphasise that it wasn't supposed to do that.

Similarly, "lithobraking" was coined by analogy with aerobraking (shedding velocity via atmospheric friction) and hydrobraking (shedding velocity by landing in water), and it does have some intentional applications; the Mars Pathfinder probe, for example, was deliberately crashed into the Martian surface while surrounded by giant airbags, and reportedly bounced at least 15 times before coming to rest.

(That said, aerospace engineers absolutely do use these terms humorously as well, because engineers are just Like That.)

Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster

Credits: Blake Estes, Christian Sasse

Here's a rare mind blowing moment in the astronomy world. Clearest images ever taken of Equatorial Ridge on Saturn's moon 'Iapetus'.