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    HUBBLE'S 36TH B-DAY: STILL TAKING PICS, STILL REFUSING TO ANSWER WHY URANUS SMELLS

    AI-assisted satire and parody — fictional, not real news.

    As the world celebrates three dozen years of interstellar photography, the Hubble Space Telescope has once again ghosted NASA's inquiries regarding the specific methane-funk emanating from the solar system's most embarrassing giant.

    By Festus Quark

    BOARDED-UP SEARS, LOADING DOCK — SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2026

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    The Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 36th birthday this week by sending back a stunning, ultra-high-definition photo of a distant star cluster, while simultaneously maintaining a stony, icy silence regarding the pungent mystery of Uranus. Despite being equipped with the most advanced sensors in human history, the aging satellite continues to provide breathtaking views of the birth of galaxies while completely ignoring the 'Egg-Scented Elephant' in our own backyard.

    Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center held a modest party for the telescope, complete with a cake shaped like a lens cap, but the mood turned sour when the latest data dump contained zero information about why the seventh planet from the sun smells like a flooded basement at a Renaissance Faire. "Hubble has the resolution to see the buttons on an alien's shirt, yet every time we point it toward Uranus, it suddenly 'needs to calibrate its gyroscopes,'" complained Dr. Arlo Stink-Detector, Chief of Planetary Olfactory Studies.

    Internal memos suggest that the telescope has developed a form of 'Cosmic Snobbery,' preferring to document the majestic collision of black holes rather than the atmospheric flatulence of a cold gas giant. One leaked email from an frustrated technician hypothesized that Hubble is actually 'embarrassed' for humanity and refuses to be the one to officially confirm that a major part of our solar system is basically a giant, floating dumpster fire.

    "It's the ultimate gatekeeper," said area amateur astronomer Larry 'Big Lens' Henderson. "We know Uranus is mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane, but NASA keeps asking for the specifics of the 'funk factor.' Hubble just sends back some artistic shots of the Pillars of Creation. It’s like asking your grandfather about his war stories and he just starts showing you slides of his flower garden to avoid the uncomfortable truth."

    "We asked for the spectral analysis of the gas clouds. Hubble just sent back a picture of a nebula that looks like it's holding its nose. It’s being extremely unprofessional."

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    NASA officials have confirmed they will try one last time to get an 'Aroma-Map' during the telescope's 37th year, but they are already preparing for another decade of gorgeous, high-resolution avoidance. Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope has reportedly refused to even join the group chat, citing a 'lack of interest in smells that are less than 13 billion years old.'

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