#top 5 planets

[linksthoughtbrambles]

Top 5 planets!!!

😍 Thanks for the fun ask, aquaticpal! I'm going to modify this slightly because I already put Earth as my favorite celestial body of all in my previous post about that. I'll do my top 5 planets excluding Earth so I don't repeat myself.

Counting down!

5. Pluto

If you've been paying attention to some astronomy in the last decade or two, you probably know Pluto isn't being called a "Planet" officially anymore.

...I don't care.

The image above shows Pluto (lower right) and its large moon Charon (upper left) as imaged by the New Horizons probe. The frozen heart-shaped feature on Pluto's icy surface melted my own heart (and I wasn't alone).

The whole hullabaloo about Pluto not being a planet is just semantics. It's a celestial body with enough gravity to be round, and it orbits the Sun. I'll count it.

So, why does it make it to my favorites list?

Pluto is geologically active (like Earth - it has its own geology happening on its surface, like volcanoes, tectonics, and erosion), a reality many did not expect until the New Horizons spacecraft started returning close-up pictures of this distant world. The smoothness of Pluto's signature heart-shaped feature (particularly the left side) is a dead giveaway that geological activity is happening on its surface. Worlds where there's no active geology are covered in craters everywhere, not just in some places, and the more recently it's been active the fewer craters there are per area. So.... Pluto is a 'living world' with enough energy inside it to make its insides move.

Cool.

It might be the close orbit of its moon Charon causing it - the shifting gravity stirring up Pluto's innards (and Charon's!), causing friction, and thus heat.

Either way, there's enough geological activity on Pluto to create these gorgeous mountains:

It has seasons during which the frozen nitrogen at its surface becomes warm enough to create mists - nitrogen fog. Imagine if Earth were cold enough that our very air would turn into blocks of ice that create white vapor - kind of like dry ice does.

Pluto is fascinating: a world that defied our expectations. I love it.

4. Trappist-1f

This artist's rendition shows what exoplanet Trappist-1f might look like if it has liquid surface water. It's too small and too far away to get an actual picture, but the evidence shows this planet exists in the habitable zone of its star.

The Trappist-1 star system lies about 40 light-years from Earth (very nearby in the grand scheme of things). Within it, seven planets orbit a small, cool red dwarf star (that's Trappist-1). The planets don't have 'given' names like Pluto or Earth. They're assigned letters b-h, with b the closest and h the furthest from the star. Planets e, f, and g are all in the star's habitable zone, which means they could have liquid water on their surfaces.

So, why did I specifically pick Trappist-1f? It's the planet most perfectly centered in the habitable zone, and its properties are all quite similar to Earth's: it's radius, mass, density, and surface gravity. In order to be hospitable to life as we know it, it's important for a planet to be able to keep itself warm (not just from the light from its Sun - it needs its own, internal heat source, too, to stay geologically active and produce a protective magnetic field - this keeps the atmosphere stable rather than letting its sun's radiative wind blow lots of it away, and also protects life on its surface from that same radiation that would split our complex organic components apart).

Trappist-1f is extremely close to its star, but the star is very cool, so it's unlikely to be very hot. It only takes the planet 9.2 days to orbit the star once. (Yes, you read that right - Trappist-1f's year is only 9.2 Earth days long! If you lived there, I bet you'd find some other way to celebrate birthdays. You'd be having a party just about every week).

I'm all for finding planets that might have water, and therefore might have life... or might be good for us to live on, some day.

The other cool thing about its place is ALL the planets are quite close to the star, so they'd appear huge in the sky regardless of which of the other planets you were standing on. This is a cool, artistic interpretation of that:

3. Proxima Centauri b

Speaking of places where we might be able to live...

...welcome to Proxima Centauri b - the nearest exoplanet to Earth... and also in its star's habitable zone.

Proxima Centauri b is a small, cool, red dwarf star part of the Alpha Centauri system, a triple-star system consisting of two brighter stars (Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both similar to the Sun) which are close to each other, and the cool red dwarf Proxima Centauri b, still orbiting the others but much farther away.

And around that small cool dwarf star is a planet not too different from Earth.

I can't stress enough how incredible that is.

This is the very nearest star system to our own, only four light-years from here.

And in it, there is already a possible stepping stone for us to move outward into the Cosmos. And not just a stepping stone, but possibly somewhere habitable.

Wow.

We need to learn more about this planet. It may or may not be hospitable. It may or may not have an atmosphere. We just don't know yet. But it's hope. It's one of many signs that the galaxy is absolutely littered with planets, and there may be many worlds like ours.

2. Jupiter

This image taken by the Juno Probe shows a lot of what makes Jupiter awe-inspiring: roiling masses of hydrogen and helium gas with traces of methane, ammonia, silica, and sulfur creating myriad colors in its clouds, storms which could swallow several Earths whole, and of course its huge mass which make it a gravitational well, holding on to a minimum of 80 moons. The huge shadow of its moon Ganymede is visible on the left-hand side in the picture.

First of all, Jupiter is, quite simply, beautiful. Just look at it.

All those colors, the swirls, its absurdly fast rotation (a 10-hour period!) pulling its clouds out into these thin bands. It's so striking. Add to that the shadows of its many moons crossing its surface, and you have a recipe for endless visual fascination.

But that alone isn't enough to make it one of my favorites.

I love Jupiter because it protects us.

Jupiter's gravity is so strong it tends to divert and even capture many objects which hurtle inward toward the Earth and the other inner planets, meaning fewer things actually hit the Earth than they otherwise would. Jupiter is the batter at plate, and we're the catcher. We really don't want any of those strikes thrown to cross the plate.

Thank-you, Jupiter.

I also love Jupiter because it provides a home for other worlds - the moons Europa and Ganymede in particular - which might be places to find life. Europa's the far more likely of the two, but I won't belabor that point. Suffice to say, Jupiter's gravity provides the energy that keeps Europa active, with an underground ocean, potentially a safe haven for organic life. I hope to live long enough to find out.

Mars

My pattern by this point is probably clear. I'm rooting for life and for places we could move to one day. The absolute tippy-top of that list is Mars.

This image shows many features of Mars which show past geological activity and the outline of what once was the shore of a truly vast ocean.

The more missions we send to Mars, the more likely we realize it is that Mars could once have had life on its surface, and could even harbor it right now below ground.

You can see the outlines of several ancient volcanoes in the left-hand side of this picture, and a truly massive TEAR in the planet's surface front-and-center. That thing is as long as the entire continent of North America. There are plenty of craters, which means it hasn't been geologically active ( at least not much) in a long time, but the signs of past activity on its surface are clear. It has dry riverbeds. Dry ocean beds. Dry lake beds. Dry glacial footprints. Ancient volcanoes. The robots we've landed to explore the surface have found clear, smoking-gun type evidence of past running water in these places (clay is a big one, and there's hematite, too), and the basic components for life are there. The one thing we haven't found yet is life itself.

We now understand Mars lost its once-watery exterior thanks to it being too small. Its interior cooled off, slowing and nearly stopping geological activity entirely, and stopping Mars' rotation from creating a magnetic dynamo like Earth has - so Mars lost its protective magnetic bubble stopping the Sun's radiation from striking its atmosphere and surface. The Sun basically blew Mars' air away into space, and irradiated its top soil. So.. the top two inches of the soil are entirely barren.

But RIGHT below that.... we have found water ice. And below that... there are underground rivers. Sinkholes and orbital measurements of density have shown that.

We might be able to send people there and have them survive underground. We'd need some way to deal with Mars' lost protective bubble at some point if we wanted to make the surface habitable. Dome cities might be okay, though those always creep me out. I just picture something puncturing it and causing problems. But.... it's so close. And it might have life, or once had it.

I have so much to say about all these places, but if I keep going this will just become interminable. So... I'll stop. Here's my list. I hope you enjoy!

[roseworth]

hi. here are my top 5 favorite comic moments ever (sort of in order, they can all be switched around sometimes depending on my mood)

"the son has not surpassed the father" (batman #645)

i cant even put into words what i like about this scene because everything about it makes me insane. its just so beautifully written and fits so well thematically and shows so much about how bruce is feeling without explicitly saying anything. so fucking good

2. "maybe he did. but my little girl is still dead." (batgirl #19)

fucking. fuck. again this moment just shows so much about how cass feels without saying it explicitly. theres a flashback to the man she murdered right after this because she sees herself in the murderer and doesnt believe she can be redeemed. itsfuck ignf. yeah. maybe he changed but she's still dead

3. "i owe you no explanations. i took the only compassionate option." (titans #12)

hoooooooly shit. i get chills every time i think about this im serious. adeline was suffering and about to die and kory killed her. kory saw herself in the suffering of someone else and KILLED HER. hard as fuck. i will refrain from going on a whole tangent about this but i feel like writers sometimes have the Good Guys kill someone and it doesnt really feel right, but this does it so well because it makes sense within the story AND for kory's character. she was right

4. "the last two bullets are for us" (green arrow #32)

this was so fucked up. can i call this a power couple moment. dinah has so much fucking kidnapping & torture trauma then she finds ollie after he was kidnapped & tortured and she goes dw babe we're gonna kill ourselves later. HELLO. i need to chew on them

5. "for all the times i will never forget. for all the things i can never forgive" (gotham city sirens #21)

everyone drop what youre doing and read gotham city sirens #20-21 right now. or read til the end of the book. gcs is mostly just an okay book but it fucking nails the ending. but this moment in particular makes me lose my mind because harley shows exactly how competent she is and gets into joker's cell in arkham with a gun when she thinks about how he hurt her. then the second she sees him she joins him again. its the ideal pre-breakup harley writing to me and this issue (this entire arc tbh) changed me

in conclusion i love my picture books 💞💞 i think more people should post their fav comic moments too because i wanna see everyone else's plsssss

also im putting honorable mentions under the cut:

"its not them" (blackest night: titans #3)

"i still dream of krypton" (supergirl woman of tomorrow #8)

"to the microscopic beings alive on his skin, this child is the entire universe" (poison ivy #6) (basically this entire issue is my favorite but i had to choose one page)

[fuumiku]

Sweet & salty can be a good mix! Idk about syrup in sandwiches though… 

It’s bicorn day!!!

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Films watched in 2023.

Top 10 July.

Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)

Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986)

Suzume (Makoto Shinkai, 2022)

Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)

Jane B. par Agnès V. (Agnès Varda, 1988)

What Places of Heaven, What Planets Directed, How Long the Effects? or, the General Accidents of the World (David Gatten, 2013)

Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1972)

How Do You Measure a Year? (Jay Rosenblatt, 2021)

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (James Signorelli, 1988)

Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)

(My list on Letterboxd -click here-)

[phanboyo]

Captain Marvel had been left on monitor duty on Saturday night. Again. He couldn't really complain, since he'd started to try going back to school his availability for JL duties had been limited a little bit on weekdays. Not that he wouldn't cut school to help out if he were called, but the JL generally tried to be pretty accommodating when it came to civilian identity stuff, even if they didn't know his. And it's not like he usually had any weekend plans as Billy, anyway. Besides, the Watchtower had better food than the stuff he could usually scrounge up himself on the weekends.

Admittedly he hadn't been paying much attention to the monitors. Most of the JL were on Earth in their respective cities doing whatever it was they usually did on Saturday nights, and though it may be irresponsible, Marvel figured they could handle things as usual.

This is how Marvel justified taking a short break to grab a snack from the cafeteria, empty save for Hal, who had microwaved a burrito and left. This is also how Marvel let his short break turn into a long break while he read through a couple of the comic books Freddy had leant him. This long break is why Marvel had completely missed the entire earth being engulfed in supernatural plants.

Staring out the large window in the monitor room at the big green ball that had been his planet, Captain Marvel dropped the blueberry muffin he had brought from the cafeteria.

"Oops."

Marvel flew to the monitors and flitted from screen to screen, trying to figure out what had happened. There were a few short calls that had come through from Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and a few others inquiring what was happening. Marvel hadn't answered because he had been in the cafeteria. "Crap, crap, crap," he muttered, "I am so going to get in trouble for this."

The timestamps showed that the calls began to peter out until stopping entirely, the last one from the Flash, a little over 40 minutes ago.

"-ny input from the Tower would be helpful, no one's answering my calls. I don't know how long I can outrun these vines, they're everywhere and they're taking pe—whoa!" There was a crackle of wind, Captain Marvel thought he heard an echoing voice saying something about "feeding the children," straight out of a horror movie. "Man, she's creepy," said Flash under his breath, "the vines are—ah!—Taking people's minds or some—" there was another crackle and the recording lapsed into silence before cutting off entirely.

Captain Marvel hit the call button to the Flash. With each ring his heart climbed higher in his throat, no answer. He called the Batman, no answer, Wonder Woman, Superman, Cyborg, Aquaman, no answer. The planet had stopped emitting signals of any kind, and it seemed that no one was receiving them either.

"Holy heck," Captain Marvel muttered, staring at the hologram of Earth, a big green ball that had gone completely dark.

"Lantern!" Marvel shouted, flying out of the monitor room. "Lantern, there's an emergency!"

The Green Lantern popped his head out of his quarters, his expression turning serious as he saw the panic on Marvel's face as he shot down the hallway. "Cap, what's happened?"

"Mind controlling plants or something?" He said quickly. "No one's answering their comms, I didn't mean to—I didn't think anything would—I just wanted a muffin!"

"What?" Lantern asked, "a muffin?"

"Okay maybe I read some comics too, but it's not even a full moon—weird stuff usually happens on fulls moons and solstices—and with the Tower so empty I didn't think anything bad would—"

"Cap!" Lantern interrupted, "slow down, what happened?"

Marvel took a deep breath. "The Earth has been overtaken by mind-controlling plants?"

Lantern blinked and the two of them sped to the monitor room, a green planet sitting innocently below the Watchtower with the darkness of space as its backdrop. "Well... that's new," he said, his hand coming to scratch at the back of his head. He turned to look at Cap. "Do you know what it is? Or who?"

Marvel shook his head. "It happened too fast, no one knew what was going on. His face suddenly brightened. "Maybe there's something at the Rock of Eternity," he said. With a muttered word an a wide gesture, a portal opened, showing a stone room with glowing arches.

Marvel stepped towards it, but the Green Lantern grabbed his arm. "Wait," he said, "are those vines usually there?"

Marvel looked into the portal and saw fat green vines crawling out of one of the archways. "No," he said, eyebrows furrowing. The vines began to creep towards the portal, spines on the tips glowing green as if in anticipation. "How did they...?" The vines picked up speed and shot towards the portal.

"Close it! Close it!" Lantern shouted, leaping back, hand out, ring glowing green.

With a snap, the portal shut, cutting off the tips of the vines. In a second, they were enveloped in a translucent green sphere, containing them as they grew to fill the small space.

"I don't understand," Captain Marvel said, "the Rock exists in its own realm, it's supposed to be separate from Earth."

"Can't really help you with the magic stuff," Lantern said, examining the ball of vines in its green cage. "Who else is on the Tower tonight?"

"Uh," Captain Marvel shook himself and went to the screens to check. "Plastic Man and the Atom?"

"That's it?" Lantern asked.

Cap shrugged. "It's a Saturday night."

He hummed in acknowledgement. "Well, I guess we'd better let them kn—"

There was a light crackling noise and the vines in the green sphere shriveled. Lantern and Marvel both stared at it.

"Did you do that?" Cap asked.

"Don't think so," he answered. They stared at the black shriveled vines a little longer. Cautiously, Green Lantern opened the top sphere. When the vines didn't move, he dissolved it entirely, and the vines fell to the floor with a wet smack. The two stared at them a little longer.

"So... are they dead?" Captain Marvel asked.

"I think so?" Green Lantern replied.

Captain Marvel looked up out the window at the planet again to find it more or less back to normal. "Oh, I—huh." Another glance at the monitors showed that the planet was transmitting radio again, and signals received were back to normal range. "Crisis averted?"

The Green Lantern looked from the planet to Captain Marvel. "Guess so. Good job." His ring glowed and the blueberry muffin floated up from the floor. "You gonna eat that?"

[caramellashton]

Ashton in a lace top!

[skysometric]

my 3rd favorite game that i played in 2023 is...

Freedom Planet 2

i was originally planning to wait on this one until the console version came out in "summer 2023." after it was delayed to the end of the year, i decided to grab the game on pc so i didn't have to wait… and i'm glad i did, because the console versions have been delayed a second time??

(i do not envy their situation and i hope the console versions are better for taking their time. honestly, i'll probably double dip anyway!)

the original Freedom Planet was a formative game experience for me during college. there was something inspiring about the way it shot for the moon – full voice acting, a fun cast of characters, a lived-in world with political intrigue, a focus on adding fast-paced combat – all trying to prove that it's more than just a Sonic fangame in new clothes.

and it worked. it gripped me and never let go! i must've replayed the story half a dozen times, speedran the levels dozens of times each. that's the reason i decided not to wait on the sequel any longer after the first console delay; i grabbed the game on pc and hit the ground running.

one aspect of what makes Freedom Planet special is its level design, and the sequel delivers – every single level is massive, open-ended, and absolutely GORGEOUS. the unique gimmicks, secret collectibles, and speedrun strats are what encouraged me to endlessly replay the first game, and each of those categories has been expanded here into some of the beefiest and most explorable levels i've ever seen in a 2D platformer, hands down. i'm so glad the sequel took its time in the oven, the levels alone were worth the wait!

to me, though, what really makes Freedom Planet stand out from other Sonic-inspired games is its fast and fluid brawling. enemies in each stage take a few hits to defeat, and every stage ends with a grand, bombastic boss fight – you get a handful of moves to tackle these fights with, and each character has very different fighting playstyles! crucially, though, there is no contact damage, meaning you can run circles around enemies while whacking away at their health bars with momentum-based attacks.

it's an incredibly fun and well-thought-out combat system, and its complexity is right at that sweet spot where it feels deep but not overwhelming. honestly it reminds me a lot of kirby's combat, which is one of my favorite combat systems in any video game! (that RtDL remake very nearly made my Top 5 this year…)

Freedom Planet 2 augments the combat system of the original in two ways. one is the addition of a spot-dodge, which feels so perfectly at home that i'm shocked it wasn't in the first game to begin with?? every game with combat benefits from the addition of a dodge, of course, but in this game especially it allows you to keep your momentum while attacking in a way that just feels so natural. there's nothing else quite like learning a boss's attack pattern enough to spot-dodge directly into a powerful counterattack!

but there's also nothing quite so discouraging as getting the boss's health down to a sliver… and biting the dust. here, too, is a place where the sequel shines: if you lose a life, you can choose to restart from a checkpoint with all your health recovered, or you can get back up on the spot with just 1 HP. the push and pull on this system is incredible – you risk getting a game over and having to redo the whole stage… but you could clutch out a victory at the last second! it has the capacity to turn near misses into huge successes, and it saved my ass countless times over the course of the adventure.

tying this all together is a great story that isn't quite as Big and Grand as the first game, but instead serves to deepen the connection between this loveable cast of characters by exploring their history and personalities in more detail. i'm still floored by the fact that these games have full voice acting – it truly makes the characters feel more alive, their personalities shine! the style of VA isn't everyone's cup of tea, i'm well aware… but as someone with fond memories of saturday morning cartoons, i find that it's very genuine and full of heart in a way that most films and AAA games don't really hit me. it's obvious that everyone involved had a ton of fun!

my one regret is that i haven't returned to the game since my first playthrough – i'd really like to replay those levels and see how fast i can clear them! and try out the other characters, and see what the arcade mode is like, and go for the achievements, and…

[rawliverandgoronspice]

the green skin is very obviously also the big nosed green skinned red haired born evil thief antisemitic stereotypes too, his moms are even witches

Also: yes, this.

[waywardvagabonds]

I am experiencing entirely too many emotions at once right now and it is literally making my head hurt.

[icewindandboringhorror]

more photo diary posts.. various life images...

[lottieurl]

spent like a good 10 minutes trying to fit 9 characters into "top 5" before realizing it's not doable

[skitskatdacat63]

SHRIEKING AT THE DDR NATIONAL ANTHEM BEING MY TOP 3 SONG ON YOUTUBE SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPP

[goblinpussy]

Shakespeare stage directions:

exit, pursued by a bear!! 🤪

Critics for the last 500 years: "wow, truly a masterpiece, the Bard has done it again, how eccentric,"

John Waters script:

Ok in this scene Divine will have sex with a giant lobster

Critics, somehow:

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

y'know i like fever set 9 cuz transgender but also fever remix 6 is the most consistently great set in fever i think. launch party, donk-donk, bossa nova, love rap n remix 6. what isn't there to like.

[seokmattchuus]

Matthew jelly pop center 🧘🏻‍♀️

Gyuvin hot summer center 🧘🏻‍♀️

[itsmemothman]

Shane is correct:

Birds are tiny dinosaurs.