This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA's Curiosity rover. The panorama was made from thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera. The images were taken late Aug. 8 PDT (Aug. 9 EDT) by the 34-millimeter Mast Camera. [Full Photo Gallery]
Veteran astrophotographer Roberto Porto snapped this spectacular view of a Perseid meteor over Mount Tiede National Park in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa on Aug. 11, 2012 during the peak of the 2012 Perseid meteor shower. The Milky Way and rock arch Zapata de la Reina (Queen's Shoe) are visible. [Full Photo Gallery]
According to the declassified CIA document, "On 10 July 1971, the third HEXAGON RV was lost. The parachute failed to reef before fully deploying, and it was snapped off at the swivel. The RV entered ballistically and impacted the water with a force of approximately 2600 g's and settled in 16,000 feet of water." Image released August 8, 2012. [Full Photo Gallery]
A spectacular photo by a spacecraft orbiting Mars has captured NASA's new rover Curiosity as it plunged toward the Martian surface under a giant parachute. [Full Story]
Amateur astronomer Jim Lafferty captured a mesmerizing photo of the sun as three huge prominences erupt off of its surface. [Full Story]
NASA’s Curiosity rover snapped its first color photo of the north wall and rim of Gale Crater using its Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. [Full Story]
The first pictures of NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars have been taken from above by a spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. [Full Story]
A stunning photo shows NASA's Mars Curiosity rover heat shield looking like a flying saucer as the vehicle plunged toward the Martian surface Aug. 5. [Full Story]
A video captures the sun unleashing a “filament eruption” on Aug. 4. [Full Story]
The crescent moon can be seen at dawn sitting between bright Venus, Jupiter and the constellation Taurus in this stunning photo. [Full Story]
Adam Block photographed spiral galaxy NGC 5033 at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter of the University of Arizona. The galaxy lies approximately 50 million light years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Astronomers classify it as a Seyfert galaxy, meaning it possesses an extremely bright nucleus, and spectra which have very bright emission lines of hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, and oxygen. Image obtained May 2012. [See more Images]
