Replace Sisko with Bill Adama and I think you're good to go.

Fhqwhgads.

There are lots of fields like you say. Technology isn't good or evil. It's up to us to decide how to use it.

That front saucer, and the layout of the windows and the implied deck within, don't really make sense from a spacecraft engineering perspective. I presume the artist put them there just to make it look like Star Trek.

The thing that made Boba Fett so cool in the first place was his mystery. The more we know about him, the less cool he becomes. So, I'm all in favor of those secondary- (or new-) character ideas!

I wish there was a good story to go with this!

...we learn some fundamental fact about the universe we inhabit?

Tidal forces actually tend to circularize orbits, not make them more eccentric. The abstract you linked to mentions a possible orbital evolution of planets that happen to start with large eccentricity, it doesn't suggest that tides cause orbital eccentricity.

Exoplanet astronomy: an awesome field where impossible things happen on a weekly basis!

I'm not saying it can't happen by accident. After all, our most utilitarian manned spacecraft is also the one I happen to think looks the coolest - the Lunar Module!

The idea that this will take a lot of computing power is actually untrue. Look at all the pinpoint landings we achieve on Mars: they are solving the same problem, but with much smaller and radiation hardened (therefore less powerful) computers.

Just a reminder to everybody: in space engineering, making things looking "sleek" or "cool" or "futuristic" doesn't even register as a design consideration.

This comic will give workers in scientific fields a chuckle, but it could also seed massive misconceptions in the general public. Just wait for climate change deniers and creationists to start citing this comic...

Not surprising - both the Sun and Jupiter are bright enough! Plus, you've got all the weird colors from lava flows and plume deposits.

Looks like Io tripped up a lot of people, too.

This doesn't sound like a defense of GIFs in science writing. It's an argument for relevant visual aids.

"What's wrong with Perry?"

I think Mariner 9 is incredibly compelling - and I wish I could see it full-size! The juxtaposition of the desolation of space with the evidence of human endeavor is part of it. But there's also a juxtaposition between the exploration missions of the past and some kind of current activity - since I notice some small…

The Wall Street Journal article indicates that it was the "late introduction" of the suits that was a problem, not the suits themselves.

I'd put in a vote for Brent Week's new installment in the Lightbringer series, The Broken Eye:http://www.brentweeks.com/books/the-blac…