What you may not know about NASA is that they have an official “Galaxy of Horrors” website, a portal for discovering and learning about what they refer to as “the most terrifying and mind-blowing destinations in our galaxy… and beyond.” NASA cautions in true horror movie fashion, “After a visit to these nightmare worlds, you may never want to leave Earth again!”
Part of that spooky “Galaxy of Horror” initiative, NASA has just debuted three brand new faux horror posters, presented in the style of vintage horror movie advertisements and featuring a dead galaxy (Galactic Graveyard), an explosive gamma ray burst caused by colliding stellar corpses (Gamma Ray Ghouls), and ever-elusive dark matter (Dark Matter).
NASA explains, “They’re based on real phenomena. In a dead galaxy, new star birth has ceased and most remaining stars are the long-lived variety, which are small and red, giving the galaxy a crimson glow. Likewise, when dead stars collide, they sometimes create a gamma ray burst, one of the most energetic explosions in the universe. And while dark matter may sound like it’s right out of a Halloween tale, its gravity keeps stars inside galaxies and holds groups of galaxies together in clusters – yet scientists don’t know what this invisible stuff is made of.”
“One of the things I really like about these posters is that if you spend some time studying the art and then maybe go learn a little more about each of these topics, you’ll see there was a lot of thought by the artists about the choices they made to highlight the science,” said Jason Rhodes, an astrophysicist at JPL who consulted on the project.
To learn more, read the press release and head over to the “Galaxy of Horrors” website!
