I had some time to surf through portions of the NASA library that pre-date my fortnightly exercise and cherry-pick enough for a mid-fortnight posting (a sennight).
Much of what passes for art nowadays strikes me as little more than yet another (yawn) transgressive attempt to shock the bourgeoisie. I wouldn’t be surprised if years from now historians consider the fantastic images we’re collecting of the universe and the subatomic universe to be the pinnacle of our era’s artistic achievement.
Think of the technology, ambition, and imagination involved to remotely capture and transmit back over enormous distances such beauty – revealing beauty that teaches and inspires and echoes the holy.
Can that compete with dung smeared on Mary? Pickled cows? A crucifix in urine? This Philistine wishes he could be around to learn The Future’s answer.
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- “Trees” on frosted pink sand dunes on Mars
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- Martian tornados (dust devils) leave trails in the red sand
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- Palm leaves serving as so many pinhole cameras for an eclipse
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- North Pole of Saturn, with hexagonal cloud system
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- Saturn’s moon Tethys behind Titan
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- Neptune & Triton as never could be seen from Earth: crescent and not blue
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- A moon larger than Mercury or Pluto: Jupiter’s Ganymede
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- Erupting ice jets on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
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- Large dust ring around Saturn (diameter = 50x the E ring)
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- The Magellanic Stream: gas streaming around the Clouds of Magellan
