Posts Like This One Are The Best

New Avengers: Infinity War Poster

Agreed. I’m so proud of everyone who was there with us. Today I for the first time in many years felt at home in the country that I love so much. Thanks, guys

You guys, I know, this blog isn’t about politics but I want you to know that there are Anti Corruption and Anti Putin and his system Protests all over Russia, literally 10000 people in big cities. I care deeply about Russian people wanting freedom, of our LGBT, feminist, liberal communities. They are being oppressed, shut down, closed and beaten by police, that should be protecting them. They stand against system. But russian massmedia chose not to talk about it. They are trying to prevent it by enforcing the police. The protest are huge. Please give them moral support too. This is much needed in current situation.

Cassini Spacecraft: Top Discoveries

Our Cassini spacecraft has been exploring Saturn, its stunning rings and its strange and beautiful moons for more than a decade.

Having expended almost every bit of the rocket propellant it carried to Saturn, operators are deliberately plunging Cassini into the planet to ensure Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration – in particular, the ice-covered, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus, but also Titan, with its intriguing pre-biotic chemistry.

Let’s take a look back at some of Cassini’s top discoveries:  

Titan

Under its shroud of haze, Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan hides dunes, mountains of water ice and rivers and seas of liquid methane. Of the hundreds of moons in our solar system, Titan is the only one with a dense atmosphere and large liquid reservoirs on its surface, making it in some ways more like a terrestrial planet.

Both Earth and Titan have nitrogen-dominated atmospheres – over 95% nitrogen in Titan’s case. However, unlike Earth, Titan has very little oxygen; the rest of the atmosphere is mostly methane and traced amounts of other gases, including ethane.

There are three large seas, all located close to the moon’s north pole, surrounded by numerous smaller lakes in the northern hemisphere. Just one large lake has been found in the southern hemisphere.

Enceladus

The moon Enceladus conceals a global ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy surface. Some of that water even shoots out into space, creating an immense plume!

For decades, scientists didn’t know why Enceladus was the brightest world in the solar system, or how it related to Saturn’s E ring. Cassini found that both the fresh coating on its surface, and icy material in the E ring originate from vents connected to a global subsurface saltwater ocean that might host hydrothermal vents.

With its global ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Enceladus has become a promising lead in our search for worlds where life could exist.

Iapetus

Saturn’s two-toned moon Iapetus gets its odd coloring from reddish dust in its orbital path that is swept up and lands on the leading face of the moon.

The most unique, and perhaps most remarkable feature discovered on Iapetus in Cassini images is a topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator. The physical origin of the ridge has yet to be explained…

It is not yet year whether the ridge is a mountain belt that has folded upward, or an extensional crack in the surface through which material from inside Iapetus erupted onto the surface and accumulated locally.

Saturn’s Rings

Saturn’s rings are made of countless particles of ice and dust, which Saturn’s moons push and tug, creating gaps and waves.

Scientists have never before studied the size, temperature, composition and distribution of Saturn’s rings from Saturn obit. Cassini has captured extraordinary ring-moon interactions, observed the lowest ring-temperature ever recorded at Saturn, discovered that the moon Enceladus is the source for Saturn’s E ring, and viewed the rings at equinox when sunlight strikes the rings edge-on, revealing never-before-seen ring features and details.

Cassini also studied features in Saturn’s rings called “spokes,” which can be longer than the diameter of Earth. Scientists think they’re made of thin icy particles that are lifted by an electrostatic charge and only last a few hours.  

Auroras

The powerful magnetic field that permeates Saturn is strange because it lines up with the planet’s poles. But just like Earth’s field, it all creates shimmering auroras.

Auroras on Saturn occur in a process similar to Earth’s northern and southern lights. Particles from the solar wind are channeled by Saturn’s magnetic field toward the planet’s poles, where they interact with electrically charged gas (plasma) in the upper atmosphere and emit light.  

Turbulent Atmosphere

Saturn’s turbulent atmosphere churns with immense storms and a striking, six-sided jet stream near its north pole.

Saturn’s north and south poles are also each beautifully (and violently) decorated by a colossal swirling storm. Cassini got an up-close look at the north polar storm and scientists found that the storm’s eye was about 50 times wider than an Earth hurricane’s eye.

Unlike the Earth hurricanes that are driven by warm ocean waters, Saturn’s polar vortexes aren’t actually hurricanes. They’re hurricane-like though, and even contain lightning. Cassini’s instruments have ‘heard’ lightning ever since entering Saturn orbit in 2004, in the form of radio waves. But it wasn’t until 2009 that Cassini’s cameras captured images of Saturnian lighting for the first time.

Cassini scientists assembled a short video of it, the first video of lightning discharging on a planet other than Earth.

Cassini’s adventure will end soon because it’s almost out of fuel. So to avoid possibly ever contaminating moons like Enceladus or Titan, on Sept. 15 it will intentionally dive into Saturn’s atmosphere.

The spacecraft is expected to lose radio contact with Earth within about one to two minutes after beginning its decent into Saturn’s upper atmosphere. But on the way down, before contact is lost, eight of Cassini’s 12 science instruments will be operating! More details on the spacecraft’s final decent can be found HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

OMG this is the best  XD

stevetony will never be canon, keep dreaming

there goes all my hopes cRUSHED, anon. all of this time spent shipping them meANINGLESS. empty. how will i gO ON knowing that they will never be elevated to the mythic untouchable status of canon. it’s so sad that all i have is

steve riding tony

steve defending naked tony’s honor

the way tony likes to launch himself face first at steve in order to protect him

tony stark: steve rogers’ personal chauffer

it’s

kind of

a thing

for them

but let’s not forget

steve carries tony out of burning buildings in the bridal carry

in fact steve guest stars in an iron man comic just to carry tony out of a burning building

the fireman’s carry is actually reserved for the cartoon

marvel funded & created a CGI animation film featuring 71 minutes of them sassing each other and taking names

once upon a time the current writer for the avengers, jonathan hickman (2012-present) implied that tony’s method of choice to make up to steve were blowies

and yes he might be torturing us all but at least he’s man enough to admit that the avengers is really about their relationship

and is that surprising i mean there’s an entire comic that’s based on a narrative arc, again, aBOUT THEM

comic writer brian michael bendis on how avengers: prime was framed as an adventure they had to go on to remind them why they love each other so much

here it is in tony’s own words

tony looking like he’s having a religious experience and seen the light or smth while being hugged by steve

60′s comics written like all the best terrible fanfiction where tony stark refers to steve rogers’ eyes as clear azure and composes poetry about his grace and daring

“i know you believe in the future, but i believe in people. and i choose to believe in your, iron man.”

retro comics were just really gay

animated tv show avengers assemble opens with steve facing off against red skull, his presumed “death” is the catalyst for tony reforming the avengers. their mid-season finale ended with tony “almost dying”

not very pg-13 for a kids’ show if you ask me

it’s really also extremely gay

tony stark no. 1 fanboy

in all the universes

what’s his username? captain america. what’s his password? captain america. foolproof. no one would ever guess. totally unhackable.

avengers tower: home and HQ of the earth’s mightiest heroes but also the site of the one and only “cap tribute room”

all the best superhero bases have framed portraits of captain america it’s interior designing 101

in fact tony thinks steve’s pretty no matter what skintight navel-bearing costume he’s wearing

tony thinks ultimates cap just so happens to be america’s hottest president

“CAPTAIN HANDSOME”

“good morning beloved” to which steve answers without even batting an eye

are they flirting??? was there really another horse?? we just don’t know

“where is here? is this a dream? tell me it is, tony. tell me you can wake me. tell me i’m not going to die in my sleep. don’t let this old soldier just fade away” – marvel comics?? or soap opera love story?? who can even tell the difference???

pictured: assorted superheroes with representatives from the avengers, the fantastic four, the x-men discussing how much tony and steve love each other while in the background steve and tony have a conversation

a married couple and leaders of the next generation of avengers referring to steve and tony as the mother and father of the avengers

sometimes they hold hands

actual canon universe earth-3490 where cis female tony married steve and their marriage helped end the civil war.

“mr. stark, when i woke up in this era, i had no one, nothing. you gave me a purpose, somewhere to belong. you gave me a home.”

tony and steve’s lips have touched bc tony was giving him cPR TO SAVE his life at the risk of his own

tony referring to the day he met steve as the greatest day of his life

civil war: the confession. where tony stark admits to steve rogers’ cold dead body that worse than the equivalent of selling his soul, alienating half of his friends and family from him, destroying his moral integrity combined, the one thing he couldn’t live with was steve being dead

“maybe… maybe there was a reason you had to be on the other side of every argument. how you could be my rudder, steering me when other’s couldn’t… i don’t know if i can do it without you… i certainly won’t do it as well…”

like they’re standing there reincarnated as walking corpses and steve’s missing half his face and they’re still acting like an old married couple

“guess they’ll have to learn to love me. you did.”

they jOKE ABOUT HAVING THE KIND OF ROUGH SEX THAT REQUIRES SAFEWORDS.

why dream when i have all this cold hard reality staring me in the face

Tumblr: Don’t go see Doctor Strange, everyone. It’s going to be just a shitty movie. It’ll be so terrible. Just don’t go see it. It’s gonna be so bad.

Me:

The thing about "Steve stuck in the past re: Bucky/Peggy/life in general" is that, by itself, I think it's a valid writing choice. There are scenes that could support that interpretation, and it's a plausible way to add depth to Steve's character and create some conflict. But it's so often done in a "Steve should just get over himself" kind of way, rather than a "Steve is understandably struggling here" kind of way, which sucks.

Point. It’s presented as this unhealthy thing…almost a character flaw that Steve is ‘stuck in the past’. As if he’s an old man whining about the good old days and not someone who is grieving the destruction of his entire world. And it’s not just done in a way where “Steve should just get over himself” but also in a way that Steve being stuck in the past makes him toxic to Bucky/Tony/the team/ and he needs to get over himself because he’s hurting someone else. It’s never about what that grief is doing to him.

Sometimes I think the magnitude of Steve’s loss is what makes his trauma so completely incomprehensible to fandom while they sit and churn out overused childhood abuse tropes for Tony or Loki. Or it could just be the fact that Steve is a stoic character because Bucky’s trauma should also be absolutely incomprehensible but fandom sure manages to give a tonne of shits about it. 

Awww. Steve would be embarrassed. Poor guy.

today I learned the Avengers’ Chinese nicknames and now I’m crying

Steve Rogers,  July 4, 1918.-