Best Space Photos of the Week - Sept. 21, 2014

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 Winners (Amazing Photos)

© James Woodend (UK)

Each year, the Royal Observatory Greenwich and BBC's Sky at Night magazine issue a call for the most amazing astronomy photos of the year. [See more photos here.]

Aurora Photos: Amazing Northern Lights Display from Solar Storms

© Mike Taylor - Taylor Photography

Astrophotographer Mike Taylor sent in a photo of an intense aurora flare-up on Sept. 12, 2013, taken from unused train tracks along Unity Pond in central Maine. [See more photos here.]

Cosmic Lens Reveals Galaxy Crash Like Never Before

NASA/ESA/ESO/W. M. Keck Observatory

Scientists using a gigantic radio telescope have captured the best view yet of two faraway galaxies colliding in deep space. [Read the full story.]

Photography Tutorial: Revealing the Milky Way in Polluted Skies (Photos)

Justin Ng | www.justinngphoto.com

The journey to produce believable never-before-seen Milky Way images in light-polluted skies can be arduous but rewarding at the same time. [Read the full story.]

Astronomy Detectives Reveal Origin of Monet's 'Impression' Painting

Musée Marmottan Monet

Through some celestial sleuthing, researchers were able to determine the time and day Claude Monet painted his dreamy piece "Impression, Sunrise" in Le Havre, France. [Read the full story.]

NASA Unveils World's Largest Welder to Build New Mega-Rocket

NASA

NASA officials unveiled a huge new tool that will help them build the space agency's next mega rocket. [Read the full story.]

NASA's Robonaut 2 Droid Gets Its Legs on Space Station

NASA/Steve Swanson via Instagram

NASA's space station robot gets legs. [Read the full story.]

You Pull Me Apart

ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)

This Hubble Space Telescope photo shows galaxy NGC 6872 lying in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). The galaxy’s odd shape stems from interactions with galaxy IC 4970, above. Both galaxies lie about 300 million light-years from Earth. NGC 6872 stretches over 500,000 light-years across, making it the second largest known spiral galaxy. Image released Sept. 15, 2014. [See more photos here.]

Open Your Eyes, Look Up to the Skies and See

ESO/J. Pérez

European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory stands against the Milky Way. La Silla represents the first observatory built in Chile by ESO, in the 1960s. On the hill in the center stands the rectangular New Technology Telescope (NTT) on the left, and the ESO 3.6-meter telescope, with dome, to the right. The 3.58-meter NTT began operations in 1989, noted as the first in the world to possess a computer-controlled main mirror to optimize image quality. [See more photos here.]

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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.