Best Space Photos of the Week - April 29, 2012 | Space Images

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Moon, Milky Way, and ALMA Telescope

Credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard)

This amazing panorama depicts the site of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, in the Chilean Andes. When ALMA is complete, it will have 54 of the 12-meter-diameter dishes shown. Above the array, the arc of the Milky Way glistens while the moon bathes the scene in an eerie light. ESO Photo Ambassador Stéphane Guisard took the shot, released April 23, 2012. Click the picture to see a larger version of the astounding image. [More amazing daily space photos]

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Shuttle Debuts on Broadway

Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz

Space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), is seen as it flies near the Empire State Building, Friday, April 27, 2012, in New York. Enterprise, NASA's prototype shuttle, arrived in New York to join the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum's space collection. [Full Photo Gallery]

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Lyrid Meteor Shower 2012: Brian Emfinger

Credit: Brian Emfinger

Skywatcher and photographer Brian Emfinger captured this magnificent Lyrid fireball with the Milky Way in the background from Ozark, Ark., during the April 21-22 peak of the 2012 Lyrid meteor shower. [See our full gallery of 2012 Lyrid meteor shower]

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President Obama Spots Venus and the Moon

Credit: whitehouse.gov

President Obama eyes Venus and the crescent moon at Colorado's Buckley Air Force Base on April 24, 2012. Venus is at its brightest of the year this week. [Full Story]

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Lava Coils in Cerberus Palus, Mars

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona]

Giant lava spirals on Mars, like these, patterned volcanic crust in Cerberus Palus on the Red Planet, scientists say. [Full Story]

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Daytime Fireball Seen Over Nevada on April 22, 2012

Credit: Lisa Warren

A huge fireball was captured in the sky above Reno, Nevada on April 22, 2012. []

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Trails in Saturn's F Ring

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/QMUL

New Cassini photos show mini jet trails in Saturn's outermost F ring, likely created by snowballs flying through the icy ring. [Full Story]

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Sombrero Galaxy

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed that the Sombrero galaxy -- named after its appearance in visible light to a wide-brimmed hat -- is in fact two galaxies in one. It is a large elliptical galaxy (blue-green) with a thin disk galaxy (partly seen in red) embedded within. Previous visible-light images led astronomers to believe the Sombrero was simply a regular flat disk galaxy. [Full Story]

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Capturing a Water-Rich Asteroid

Credit: Planetary Resources, Inc.

Small, water-rich near-Earth asteroids can be captured by spacecraft, allowing their resources to be extracted, officials with the new company Planetary Resources say. [Full Image Gallery]

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Star Cluster NGC 6604

Credit: ESO

The star cluster NGC 6604 is shown in this image taken by the Wide Field Imager, which is attached to the 2.2-meter MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. [Full Story

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Evaporating Blobs in Carina Nebula

Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

The brownish "blobs" floating at the upper right of this Hubble Space Telescope image are known as dark molecular clouds. The energy of light and winds from nearby stars break apart the dark dust grains that make the forms — reminiscent of painted words by artist Ed Ruscha — opaque, thus making them disappear. The Great Nebula in Carina lies about 7,500 light years away, toward the constellation of Keel (Carina). [More amazing daily space photos]

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Lake on Saturn Moon Titan Like Namibian Salt Pan

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech and NASA/USGS

The lake known as Ontario Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan (left) bears a striking similarity to a salt pan in Namibia known as Etosha Pan (right), a new study finds. Ontario Lacus, imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Jan. 12, 2010, covers an area about 140 by 47 miles; Etosha Pan, imaged by a NASA/USGS Landsat satellite on Jan. 21, 2003, covers an area about 75 by 40 miles. [Full Story]

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Saturn's Rings and Four Moons

Credit: Sander van den Berg/Vimeo

This still from the video "Outer Space" shows Saturn's rings and four of the giant planet's moons. [Full Story and Amazing Video]

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Hubble Space Telescope Sees Cluster of Stars in Large Magellanic Cloud

Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA and D. A Gouliermis. Acknowledgement: Flickr user Eedresha Sturdivant

On the 22nd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch, NASA released an image captured by the observatory of a young stellar grouping in one of the largest known star formation regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. [Full Story]

Best Space Photos of the Week - April 29, 2012