Best Space Pictures of the Week - July 15, 2012

The spiraling clouds and eye of Hurricane Daniel was spotted by a satellite as it churned away in the Pacific Ocean. [Full Story]

An image gallery that looks at the different stages of the Mars Science Laboratory’s descent and landing on the Red Planet. [Full Photo Gallery]

Veteran skywatcher Ajay Talwar took a spectacular photo of star trails over one of the world’s most stunning natural wonders—Japan’s Mount Fuji. The World at Night astrophotographer captured this image in May 2012. [Full Story]

A strange type of lightning called a sprite that occurs above thunderstorms and extends to the edge of space was photographed by an astronaut aboard the space station. [Full Story]

The New York City-based startup Final Frontier Design aims to develop a $10,000 spacesuit for the commercial space industry. [Full Photo Gallery]

- New observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a polar vortex swirling over the south pole of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. [Full Story]

A new moon has been discovered orbiting Pluto, bringing its total to five satellites, scientists announced today (July 11). Alan Stern, lead scientist for NASA's New Horizons probe to Pluto, announced the discovery on Twitter. [Full Story]

Night sky watcher Paul Zizka caught the aurora on July 9, 2012, at Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. [Full Photo Gallery]

The dazzling rings of Saturn are taking center stage in amazing new pictures snapped by NASA's Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting the planet. [Full Story]

Thackeray's Globules are opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas large enough to potentially form stars. They lie in IC 2944, a stellar nursery located about 5,900 light years away in Centaurus. The dark globules were first spotted by South African astronomer A. D. Thackeray in 1950. This image was obtained with the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo, Chile, on Jan. 12 and Feb. 7, 2012. [More Amazing Daily Space Photos]

Mysterious red sprites appear when electrical discharges take place about 50 miles (80 kilometers) up in the atmosphere during thunderstorms. The short-lived flashes only last a few milliseconds and can extend vertically 20 to 30 kilometers. Since the crimson apparitions manifest above thunderstorms, observers on the ground usually cannot see them. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station, on the other hand, have no such obstructions blocking their view. The red sprite seen here (above the bright lightning spot at right) was captured as the ISS was travelling over Myanmar (Burma) into Malaysia on April 30, 2012. [More Amazing Daily Space Photos]

The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday, July 15, 2012 carrying Expedition 32 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko, NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide to the International Space Station. [Full Story]