Space Photos from the 221st American Astronomical Society Meeting

Asteroid Belt Around Vega

This artist's concept illustrates an asteroid belt around the bright star Vega. [Read the Full Story]

Milky Way 'Bone' Spotted

This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a newly identified "bone" of dust and gas in the Milky Way galaxy's skeleton. The structure, visible toward the bottom of the frame, is about 300 light-years long but just 1 or 2 light-years wide. [Read full story, "New 'Bone' in Milky Way Skeleton Discovered"]

Curious Spiral Spotted by ALMA Around Red Giant Star R Sculptoris

Observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed an unexpected spiral structure in the material around the old star R Sculptoris. [Read the full story, "

1991 Total Solar Eclipse

Shown here, the path of the total eclipse that occurred on July 11, 1991, predicted by the Mayans. [See full story, "

Dreseden Codex

Anthropologists decoded early Mayan hieroglyphics from four codices, finding the Maya accurately predicted modern-day astronomical phenomena. Shown here, an image from the so-called Dresden Codex.

Spiral Galaxy IC 342

This new view of spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5, includes data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. High-energy X-ray data from NuSTAR have been translated to the color magenta, and superimposed on a visible-light view highlighting the galaxy and its star-studded arms.

Cassiopeia A

This new view of the historical supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located 11,000 light-years away, was taken by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Image released Jan. 7, 2013.

Orbital Sciences Booth at the AAS Meeting 2013

SPACE.com infographic makes American Astronomical Society Meeting appearance at the Orbital Sciences booth, January 2013.

461 New Alien Planet Candidates for Kepler

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space observatory has discovered 461 new potential alien planets, boosting its total to 2,740 potential extrasolar worlds. [Full Story]

AAS Meeting Sunset

Attendees of the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Long Beach, CA, were treated to a colorful sunset on Jan. 7, 2013.