Best Space Pictures of the Week - Sep. 8, 2012 | Space Images

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Astronaut 'Touches' the Sun in Spacewalk Photo

Credit: NASA

In legend, the bright sun was a dazzling temptation for Icarus and so, too, it is for NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who appears to touch our closest star in a photo snapped during a spacewalk this week. [Full Story]

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Wow! Spectacular Sun Photos Catch Colossal Solar Storm in Action

Credit: NASA/SDO/GSFC

Huge string-like filaments of plasma leaped from the surface of the sun recently, and NASA satellites caught the scene on film. [Full Story]

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Perseid Meteor Streaks Over Medieval Castle in Picturesque Photo

Credit: Sebastian Voltmer

A shining Perseid meteor flies on a clear night sky over medieval Albrechtsberg castle near the northern bank of the Pielach river near Melk, Austria. Photographer Sebastian Voltmer took this striking photo on Aug. 12, 2012. [Full Story]

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Stunning Mars Photo Shows Curiosity Rover's Tracks from Space

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA's newest Mars rover Curiosity is taking its first tentative drives across the Martian surface and leaving tracks that have been spotted all the way from space in a spectacular photo snapped by an orbiting spacecraft. [Full Story]

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Hubble Telescope Sees Two Galaxies in Cosmic Dance

Credit: NASA, ESA

The Hubble telescope has snapped a stunning new portrait of a pair of peculiar galaxies. [Full Story]

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NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Says Goodbye to Giant Asteroid Vesta

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. [Full Story]

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Strange Star in Nearby Cluster Resists Aging

Credit: ESO

A new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. [Full Story]

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Spacewalkers Fix Space Station Power Unit (Photos)

Credit: NASA

Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide works on the exterior of the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Sept. 5, 2012. A cloud-covered part of Earth is visible in the background. [Full Photo Gallery]

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Gorgeous Cosmic 'Superbubble' Observed by X-Ray Space Telescope

Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m

Huge stars carve out gas cavities called superbubbles in a nearby dwarf galaxy, as shown in a new photo from the Chandra space telescope. [Full Story]

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Northern Lights Blaze Up After Big Sun Storm

Credit: Ole Salomonsen (http://www.facebook.com/arcticlightphoto)

Skywatchers around the world were wowed by the northern lights show produced by a recent solar storm. [Full Story]

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Photos: Blue Moon of August 2012

Credit: Tom Sajinsa

New reader-submitted photos of the August 2012 blue moon. [Full Photo Gallery]

Best Space Pictures of the Week - Sep. 8, 2012