Giant Crater on Saturn Moon Tethys Dazzles in Spectacular Photo

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The giant impact basin Odysseus on Saturn's moon Tethys distinctly appears brighter than the rest of the visible icy crescent. Image released July 27, 2015. [Read the full story.]

Stunning Photo Shows SpaceShipTwo Pilot Parachuting to Earth After Crash

Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic

A newly released photo shows SpaceShipTwo pilot Peter Siebold floating down to Earth via parachute after the space plane broke up on Oct. 31, 2014. [Read the full story.]

Beautiful Photo of New Moon Evokes 'Star Wars' Cloud City

Project nightflight submitted a new photo that looks like the floating metropolis from Star Wars. [Read the full story.]

Inside the First 100 Days of a Year in Space: Photos

NASA

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is one of two people trying to last a year in space. These are some of his best pictures so far. [Read the full story.]

Dwarf Planet Ceres' Mountains and Craters Get Names in NASA Maps

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show the topography of Ceres and some landmarks. [Read the full story.]

Amazing Africa: Continent Spied from Space in Gorgeous NASA Pic

NASA

Africa takes centerstage in new photo of the sunlit side of Earth by the satellite. [Read the full story.]

Zoom In on NYC in United Nations' 'My Planet from Space' (Video)

European Space Agency

My Planet from Space exhibit is up until Sept 9. This ties in with Steve’s posted video. [Read the full story.]

Tiny Galaxy Bursting with Star Creation Is Spied by Hubble

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Dwarf galaxy is rich with young stars and harkens back to the universe’s first galaxies.[Read the full story.]

Cloud of Dust

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum

Barnard 92 consists of interstellar gas in a dense cloud which blocks the background light, as it floats in front of an extended hydrogen emission nebula. Dust intermixed with the gas absorbs and scatters starlight through a reflection effect, revealing the three-dimensional structures of the cloud. Image released July 2015. [Read the full story.]

I Blew It Off

ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: M. Novak

Planetary nebula NGC 6565 glows in space, as seen by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This object consists of a dying star’s last remnants, after it has blown its outer layers into space. A cloud of gas surrounds the now-exposed luminous core, which excites the gas, causing it to radiate in various colors. Planetary nebulas remain illuminated for about 10,000 years before the central star begins to cool, and shrinks to become a white dwarf. (Planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets, but were so named owing to misidentification by William Herschel as he viewed these objects in his telescope.) Image released July 27, 2015. [Read the full story.]

Take a Rocket Ride

NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

A long-exposure photograph shows the Soyuz TMA-17M rocket streaking through the night sky over Kazakhstan, after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 23, 2015. The spacecraft carried Expedition 44 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the International Space Station for their five-month mission. [Read the full story.]