wlw tumblr post notes simulator

for anyone (like myself) curious if this was real or not, it is! This photo was taken in the infrared spectrum, not in visible light, which explains both the high degree of illumination despite being on the night side of the planet (IR light shows heat, and Venus is very very very hot), and why the cloud layers look unusually well-defined for Venus. As a result of being in IR, this image is also using false-color, is cropped to focus on the planet, and it's been edited to really highlight the detail, but it's all still very much real, and the level of editing is well in line with that expected in astrophotography. Here's the original image, directly from JAXA's website:

“What is human existence? It turns out it’s pretty simple: We are dead stars, looking back up at the sky.”