You’ve Grown So Much! [Via @badsciencejokes]

June 5, 1966 – Beautiful views of planet Earth captured from the orbiting Gemini 9 space capsule. (NASA/ASU)

u know what’s my favourite from the 55 greetings to potential extraterrestrials from the Voyager. the Punjabi one. “Welcome home. It is a pleasure to receive you.” like. look, i know i’m reading too much into this, but. the implication of “welcome home”… that a universe in which we are no longer alone feels more like home. that when we find each other in the emptiness of space it’ll feel like coming home.

Caldwell 103 by NASA Hubble

Squidolus [Day:1295 Hour:12]

It was a huge disappointment as a child to fall in love with the stars and then find out how much math it requires to get anywhere near them. 

Laika's still up there. not her body, sure, but her soul is. i saw it through my telescope one night when i was looking for aliens. she was sniffing for table scraps under saturn's ring. she chases comets and bites down on satellites. i saw her napping by neptune, she was kicking her feet. passing through the oort cloud is like the stroke of a hand on her fur. eyes like marbles and four little paws like flames. she bobs through jupiter's moons like cold moscow streets. up there the stars are a great big field. and look, she's running so fast. god damn, look at her go.

TRAPPIST-1 Planets - Flyaround Animation

Credit: NASA/Spitzer