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ghost king danny?

Sure thing!

Scary Space Stories to Tell in the Dark

The universe is full of dazzling sights, but there’s an eerie side of space, too. Nestled between the stars, shadowy figures lurk unseen. The entire galaxy could even be considered a graveyard, full of long-dead stars. And it’s not just the Milky Way – the whole universe is a bit like one giant haunted house! Our Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will illuminate all kinds of spine-chilling cosmic mysteries when it launches in 2027, but for now settle in for some true, scary space stories.

Flickering Lights

One of the first signs that things are about to get creepy in a scary movie is when the lights start to flicker. That happens all the time in space, too! But instead of being a sinister omen, it can help us find planets circling other stars.

Roman will stare toward the heart of our galaxy and watch to see when pairs of stars appear to align in the sky. When that happens, the nearer star – and orbiting planets – can lens light from the farther star, creating a brief brightening. That’s because every massive object warps the fabric of space-time, changing the path light takes when it passes close by. Roman could find around 1,000 planets using this technique, which is called microlensing.

The mission will also see little flickers when planets cross in front of their host star as they orbit and temporarily dim the light we receive from the star. Roman could find an additional 100,000 planets this way!

Galactic Ghosts

Roman is going to be one of the best ghost hunters in the galaxy! Since microlensing relies on an object’s gravity, not its light, it can find all kinds of invisible specters drifting through the Milky Way. That includes rogue planets, which roam the galaxy alone instead of orbiting a star…

…and solo stellar-mass black holes, which we can usually only find when they have a visible companion, like a star. Astronomers think there should be 100 million of these black holes in our galaxy.

Stellar Skeletons

Black holes aren’t the only dead stars hiding in the sky. When stars that aren’t quite massive enough to form black holes run out of fuel, they blast away their outer layers and become neutron stars. These stellar cores are the densest material we can directly observe. One sugar cube of neutron star material would weigh about 1 billion tons (or 1 trillion kilograms) on Earth! Roman will be able to detect when these extreme objects collide.

Smaller stars like our Sun have less dramatic fates. After they run out of fuel, they swell up and shrug off their outer layers until only a small, hot core called a white dwarf remains. Those outer layers may be recycled into later generations of stars and planets. Roman will explore regions where new stars are bursting to life, possibly containing the remnants of such dead stars.

Cosmic Cobwebs

If we zoom out far enough, the structure of space looks like a giant cobweb! The cosmic web is the large-scale backbone of the universe, made up mainly of a mysterious substance known as dark matter and laced with gas, upon which galaxies are built. Roman will find precise distances for more than 10 million galaxies to map the structure of the cosmos, helping astronomers figure out why the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

Learn more about the exciting science this mission will investigate on Twitter and Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

Into the Frozen Wastes Yep, I will probably never stop asking for commissions featuring death knights. I wanted some atmosphric landscape so @lesoldatmort was the best person to ask for one!

Just a creepy little boy,with creepy little powers.

Is the Sun proud, or perhaps even envious, of the way her student can connect to mortal ponies? (Thinking specifically of the Alicorn Twilight summary post, and her being able to have in-depth conversations with multiple ponies that "can last hours")

Celestia is proud of Twilight, yes. She is not envious, as having a relationship with tiny mortals is beyond what the sun cares about. They are so small, like motes of dust. She barely even misses them. She knows she is disconnected from mortal affairs and the chasm is far too deep for her light to reach.

Which is precisely why the sun took notice of Twilight Sparkle: she saw hope for a generation of magic where it's very definition is connection with mortals. Twilight created a friend for herself out of a rock, that's how important friendship was to her. If the gods could nurture this ache, could craft her life's path around connection with her fellow ponies, then she could become a bridge between gods and mortals for eternity.

It came with some unexpected consequences though. A goddess who cares first and foremost for mortal affairs is going to disagree with the way the other goddesses ran things for millennia. Celestia and Luna installed their own budding ruler as monarch of the crystal empire. But Twilight came in, listened to the subject's wishes, and convinced Cadance and the others to step down and allow a crystal pony to lead the crystal ponies instead of a colonist.

So rather than envy, there is a certain level of irritation. Twilight is here to promote the will of the people rather than the will of the gods. It's a direct consequence of her divine essence. She is the goddess of friendship, not of the sun or moon or romance. So of course she would have different priorities than the others. She is doing exactly what she was chosen to do and so much more.

As Twilight grows, Celestia and Luna realize more and more they are disconnected from mortals, and their will in picking rulers and making laws is out of touch, confusing, and damaging. They begin work to leave the kingdom in her hooves, trusting her to handle mortal affairs for the benefit of all. They shouldn't be surprised, then, when she dismantles the monarchy and steps down herself.

It's still shocking! But by now they've learned to listen to Twilight when she tells them of her conversations with tiny, insignificant ponies. They trust her to always prioritize harmony even at the expense of her own power.

This is why she was chosen, after all. To be what the sun could not be, forevermore.

I find the fact that the closest mountain point on earth to the moon, the highest mountain and the tallest mountain are 3 different mountains to be a tiny bit disturbing

the horse stays on

assorted brainrot from like 2 months ago

I still think that my favorite urban legend/folklore fact is that there are certain areas in New Orleans where you cannot get a taxi late at night not because it isn’t safe, but because taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts in those areas who are not aware that they are dead and disappearing from the cab before reaching the destination and therefore stiffing the driver on the fare causing a loss for the company.

"space exploration" by eren arik