Best Space Pictures of the Week - June 23, 2012 | Space Images

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Inside NASA's Space Weather Tracking Center (Photos)

In curling billows of smoke and steam, space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida beginning its final flight, the STS-133 mission, to the International Space Station.

Photos: Shuttle Discovery Sets Sail on Final Voyage

Comet Pan-STARRS and Moon Over Woodside, CA

Best Space Photos of the Week - March 17, 2013

Video Still of Northern Lights Over Leland, MI

Best Space Pictures of the Week - Nov. 17, 2012

This new image of the Orion Nebula was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Gallery: The Splendor of the Orion Nebula

Venus’ atmosphere traps heat from the Sun as an extreme version of the greenhouse effect that warms Earth. The temperature on Venus are hot enough to melt lead.

Photos of Venus, the Mysterious Planet Next Door

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Between Night and Day

Credit: ESA/NASA

Astronaut Andre Kuipers took this image of solar panels glinting in space. He wrote, "For days we've been flying along the border between night and day. Beautiful." The image was taken June 8, 2012. Screensaver Image]

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Surprise! Big Asteroid That Flew By Earth Larger Than Thought

Credit: USRA

A massive asteroid that zipped by Earth a week ago is actually twice as large as scientists originally thought, according to astronomers who studied the behemoth space rock as it flew past, well beyond the orbit of the moon. [Full Story

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Mercury Craters Look Like Mickey Mouse in NASA Photo

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washingto

A NASA spacecraft has captured a spectacular photo of Mercury craters arranged in a shape that looks just like Disney's iconic cartoon mouse. [Full Story

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Solar Flares Fire Double Sun Storm at Earth

Credit: NASA/SDO

An active sunspot is amping up the sun's activity, and has already unleashed two strong solar flares that triggered weekend geomagnetic storms on Earth, NASA officials say. [Full Story

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Amazing 'War and Peace' Nebula Picture Worth 1,000 Words

Credit: ESO

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has taken the most detailed image so far of a spectacular part of the stellar nursery called the War and Peace Nebula (NGC 6357). [Full Story

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Launch Photos: Secret US Spy Satellite NROL-38 Blasts Off

Credit: Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launches the classified NROL-38 spy satellite into orbit from Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 20, 2012. Liftoff occurred at 8:28 a.m. EDT. The national security satellite will be used by the National Reconnaissance Office. [Full Launch Photo Gallery]

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Shenzhou 9: China's 1st Manned Space Docking Mission (Pictures)

Credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches on the Shenzhou 9 mission, China's first manned space docking flight and first flight of a female astronaut, on June 16, 2012 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. [Full Launch Photo Gallery]

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Huge Moon Crater's Water Ice Supply Revealed

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS

The moon, once thought to be bone dry, has now been shown to harbor significant water. These photos show the search for water on the moon. [Full Story

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NASA Spacecraft Spies 'Alien' Prominence on the Sun

Credit: NASA/SDO

Footage from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar prominence that one public outreach officer labeled "Alien Prometheus Prominence" because of its resemblance to the extraterrestrials from director Ridley Scott's sci-fi blockbuster. [Full Story

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Space Shuttle Enterprise Encased in Inflatable Shelter at NYC Museum

Credit: Intrepid/Earthcam

Two weeks after "landing" on top of the aircraft carrier-turned-Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, NASA's prototype space shuttle Enterprise is now underneath the inflatable canopy that will house its public display.[Full Story

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Northern Lights Dance Across Sweden Night Sky in Amazing Video

Credit: Chad Blakley

Aurora photographer Chad Blakley created a movie called "Lights over Lapland," that compiles thousands of still images of the Northern Lights as seen from Abisko National Park in Sweden. [Full Story

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Dark was the Nebula

Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

Adam Block of the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter took this photo of LDN 673, a dark nebula in the constellation Aquila, in April and May 2012. [More Amazing Daily Space Photos]

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The Stars Surround You

Credit: ESO/S. Brunier

This amazing image seems to show the Milky Way streaming down not once, but twice, at ESO's Very Large Telescope on Chile's Cerro Paranal mountain. Actually, the photo shows a 360-degree panorama of the sky, so the two streams of stars are two halves of the band of the Milky Way arcing across the sky. [More Amazing Daily Space Photos]

Best Space Pictures of the Week - June 23, 2012