#shoutout also to signals in space. crab nebula pulsar you have a beautiful voice (multiple blasts of radiation a second)

[boxheadpaint]

love artist impressions based on data of exoplanets but for some reason absolutely thrilled by the Shittiest Actual Photographs we have of them. the obvious thing is that unlike stars, exoplanets are 1)small and 2)not usually emitting any strong visible light. this makes them near impossible to get a clear photo of and every image you see of a fully defined sphere with colors or clouds is entirely from the mind of an artist based on the available data and conclusions of said data of that particular insterstellar piece of Thing. every photograph of the real physical object is always Very small and ... doesn't tell you much because the planet itself only takes up maybe 3% of the image

if i had to take a guess, to get any visual on them you need them to be reflecting the light of their nearby star At An Angle Facing The Camera, and slash or giving off their own infrared light, and even then theyre still So Small that they show up as just little glowing jellybeans

when it comes to Different Kinds Of Stuff In Space just being able to barely see these things that we know exist makes me bizarrely nervous and delighted, not for the fear of like oh aliens are gonna fucking get me or anything but i think for just being aware of something unfathomable far out of our reach. like an ant suddenly realizing that its living on a massive globe larger than anything its ever understood and on the other side of that globe is like, a dilapidated barn or something else seemingly inane in the grand scheme of things and the ant has to sit and think about what that barn is like for the thrill i suppose