Master Ninja Theme Song @MasterNinjaTS@qoto.org

Whether sharp or blurry, it's mind blowing that this is a celestial object that's larger than our solar system.
(image by Medeiros et al. 2023)

Ya'll can dump me in Antarctica.
(photo by Mike Lucibella/NSF)

If a studio needs an idea, a space vampire movie called Forty-Two Years of Night has potential.
(photo by NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

We'll see in time how far Aurora gets, but props to Dawn Aerospace for adding the Earth flag.
(Aurora Mk-II photo by Dawn Aerospace)

"I don't know therefore aliens, and btw everyone else is wrong." AND a promo image for Breakthrough Starshot in the same article? That's efficiency right there.

*chef's kiss*

"VHS 1256b, what would you do if you had a million dollars?"
"I'll tell you what I'd do man. Two stars at the same time man."
(image by NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI))

Pyxis was used as a company name in a novel I'm reading, and it stirred ancient memories of Sony's Pyxis GPS receiver. It's cliché to say it, but tech has come really far.

One of AxEMU's most innovative features is integrating a light wind stunt kite into the front for astronaut downtime.

I'm forgoing pi(e) jokes today in favor of highlighting the roundest natural object observed so far: KIC 11145123, a star 5000 light-years from Earth.
(image by Mark A. Garlick)

Straight up, the 90 inch Bok Telescope is a gorgeous piece of equipment. Built in 1968 and still going strong.
(Photo by KPNO)

It's the two year anniversary of Perseverance landing on Mars to do cool science stuff. It's also the two year anniversary of Sky Crane making the ultimate sacrifice to deliver Percy to the office safely. So pour one out for her.

Happy February 14th, or whatever.

Super Bowl day means you're stuck with a Large Dish post from me. This time it's the NRAO's Very Long Baseline Array. Ten 25m dishes across CONUS, Hawaii, and St. Croix which combine through the magic of interferometry to work as a dish that's approximately 8000km in diameter.
Below is the Owens Valley antenna in California.
(photo by NRAO/AUI/NSF)

.....but with missiles.

If at this point you're still blaming HAARP for stuff (like an earthquake), you should be asking yourself if it's weird that a secret government super-weapon is owned and operated by a university and offers summer school and public tours.
(photo by The University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Climate change has the potential to shift the Jet Stream significantly north, so spy balloons probably won't be a problem by then.
However, the extreme weather that we're in no way prepared for definitely will be.
(image by NASA and Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

One of the technical changes that was introduced to the shuttle fleet after the loss of Challenger was the In-Flight Crew Escape System. Its purpose was to give the crew a safe way to bail out if a safe landing site could not be reached.
At 60,000 feet the decision would be made, and the autopilot mode selected to control the vehicle down to 25,000 feet, slowing to 230 mph.
The escape pole was manually deployed after jettisoning the side hatch and moves the crew away from the vehicle's left wing.
The photo shows the system being tested on a C-141 Starlifter

Awwwww yeah! Faces on Mars are a thing again! 😀
(image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona)