Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

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

Fight them, without becoming them!

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Please don’t feed the bears.

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

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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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