To Be Fair, A Lot Of Goofy-sounding Rocketry/aerospace Terminology Has A Legitimate Nomenclatural Role

To be fair, a lot of goofy-sounding rocketry/aerospace terminology has a legitimate nomenclatural role beyond just being silly euphemisms.

"Unplanned rapid disassembly", for example, exists as the necessary counterpart to planned rapid disassembly: sometimes a rocket is legitimately supposed to fall apart or blow up, so you need a specific term to emphasise that it wasn't supposed to do that.

Similarly, "lithobraking" was coined by analogy with aerobraking (shedding velocity via atmospheric friction) and hydrobraking (shedding velocity by landing in water), and it does have some intentional applications; the Mars Pathfinder probe, for example, was deliberately crashed into the Martian surface while surrounded by giant airbags, and reportedly bounced at least 15 times before coming to rest.

(That said, aerospace engineers absolutely do use these terms humorously as well, because engineers are just Like That.)

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Butterfly Nebula

The Butterfly Nebula, also known as NGC 6302, is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Scorpius.

It is named for its striking appearance, which resembles the wings of a butterfly when viewed in certain images.

The nebula is approximately 3,800 light-years away from Earth.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)

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3 months ago

The North American Nebulae

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3 months ago

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3 months ago

High, autistic, I rlly like space, m space sounds

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3 months ago

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4 weeks ago

The Map of Dione

Credits: Paul Schenk, LPI, Cassini, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

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4 weeks ago

Star cluster NGC 346 with mosaic imagery from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, JWST, XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory, and the New Technology Telescope.

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2 months ago

IC 405 & 410 Mosaic - Flame and Tadpole Nebulas

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