The Week's Coolest Space Images
Wildfires Blanket California In Smoke (Header Image)
All of these fires are causing huge amounts of destruction, but they are also creating health hazards with the amount of smoke that is being pumped into the atmosphere.
Soaring Into An Orbital Sunrise
The International Space Station soars into a sunrise every 90 minutes, each and every day. This image, taken on July 20, 2018, shows one of four basketball court-sized main solar arrays that power the space station, in contrast to the bright blue glow of Earth's limb in the background as the orbital complex flew over eastern China.
Stormy Seas In Carina
This ESO Picture of the Week shows a crescent-shaped cocoon of gas and dust — a nebula known as NGC 3199, which lies 12 000 light-years away from Earth. It appears to plough through the star-studded sky like a ship through stormy seas.
The Orbits Of Stars Around A Black Hole (Illustration)
This simulation shows the orbits of stars very close to the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. One of these stars, named S2, orbits every 16 years and is passing very close to the black hole in May 2018.
Hubble Images Milky Way's Big Sister
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows a beautiful spiral galaxy called NGC 6744. At first glance, it resembles our Milky Way albeit larger, measuring more than 200,000 light-years across compared to a 100,000-light-year diameter for our home galaxy.