Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Everybody saw this coming.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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Reader Interactions

38Comments

  3. 3.

    Radon Chong

    These pictures are our civilization’s answer to the pyramids, and are perhaps even more mind blowing.

  9. 9.

    Keith G

    @CaseyL: Somewhere out there is a civilization which many light years from now will receive our off-cast communications. Once translation achieved, they will be seriously thinking “WTF?”

  10. 10.

    Redshirt

    For those wondering where the mystical elements of any future, rational based Religion will come from – you’re looking at them. Our reality is wondrous beyond belief. This wonder can fulfill that craving many people have for something bigger than themselves.

    We need a new Carl Sagan to guide us.

  14. 14.

    colleeniem

    These are truly amazing, I should look at this type of stuff more often.
    It makes my problems seem a lot smaller.

  19. 19.

    flukebucket

    @Dave C: I’ve never read Bad Astronomy before. I picked up on the ten best pictures from a comment somebody left in one of the threads downstream.

    Balloon-Juice is always a treasure trove of links from commenters.

  27. 27.

    growingdaisies

    Heh heh. I work for Hubble. Really cool to see this thread on what has otherwise been a pretty crappy day.

  29. 29.

    freelancer

    @MR Bill:

    It’s sometimes depressing that modern religion is not celebrating these images as the sign of a creator’s creativity.

    “In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.”
    -Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

  31. 31.

    canuckistani

    The lunar landing image is my fave, a) because it’s a gold mine of snarky jokes and b) it is a truly awesome achievement.

  34. 34.

    Leeds man

    Well, as long as no-one thinks this is what the Butterfly Nebula would actually look like to the naked eye, yeah, it’s pretty.

  37. 37.

    growingdaisies

    @freelancer:

    We get a lot of e-mails from religious people thanking us profusely for the pictures and talking, often eloquently, about the wonder and awe they feel looking at them. So I can’t speak for the major religions, but many of the individuals in ’em seem to feel the way Sagan wished they would feel.

  38. 38.

    S. cerevisiae

    growingdaisies, as an amateur astronomer I am green with envy that you get to work with the most amazing scientific instrument ever made. I watched Atlantis lift off on the last service mission in May and I was SO grateful that the service mission went so well (after wondering if it was even going to happen at all).

    Stunning photos and great science – keep up the good work.

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