The Week's Coolest Space Images
Upstaged By A Fireball (Header Image)
When Uwe Reichert grabbed his camera and tripod on the evening of 16 June 2018, he intended simply to image the conjunction of the then-three-day old Moon and the bright Venus.
Reentry Test Of QARMAN CubeSat
ESA's next CubeSat mission seen enduring the scorching heat of simulated atmospheric reentry inside the world's largest plasma wind tunnel.
On The Horizon
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this image from onboard the International Space Station. He posted it on social media ten days into his mission Horizons, commenting: "Horizon. Today first day off after some of the busiest 10 days in my life. I thought long about which should be my first photo from space. When I saw this sunrise, I immediately knew this would be it. What a fascinating planet."
A Good Ol' Red Nugget (Illustration)
Red nuggets were first discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope at great distances from Earth, corresponding to times only about three or four billion years after the Big Bang. They are relics of the first massive galaxies that formed within only one billion years after the Big Bang. Astronomers think they are the ancestors of the giant elliptical galaxies seen in the local Universe.
Avoid That Supermassive Black Hole (Illustration)
For the first time, astronomers have directly imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the powerful gravity of a supermassive black hole ripped apart a star that wandered too close to the massive monster.
Hawaii's Lava Flows From The International Space Station
We've seen incredible satellite images of Kilauea's lava flows already, but this shot from the Space Station, taken by astronaut Ricky Arnold, takes things to the next level[.]