Best Space Photos of the Week - July 14, 2013

News
By Space.com Staff
published

'Monster Star' Baby Photos Captured by Giant Telescope

ALMA (ESO/NRAJ/NRAO)/NASA/Spitzer/JPL-Caltech/GLIMPSE

New observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) have given astronomers the best view yet of a monster star in the process of forming within a dark cloud. A stellar womb with over 500 times the mass of the Sun has been found - the largest ever seen in the Milky Way - and it is still growing. [Watch the video]

Images: Blue Alien Planet's True Color Revealed by Hubble

NASA, ESA, M. Kornmesser

This illustration shows HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star HD 189733. The planet's atmosphere is scorching with a temperature of over 1000 degrees Celsius, and it rains glass, sideways, in howling 7000 kilometer-per-hour winds. Image released July 11, 2013. [See More Images]

NASA Spacecraft Photographs Pluto's Largest Moon Charon

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

A NASA spacecraft bound for Pluto has captured its first photo of the dwarf planet's largest moon Charon, a cosmic snapshot snapped from nearly 550 million miles away. [Read the Full Story]

Photos: Space Shuttle Enterprise Exhibit Reopens NYC Museum

collectSPACE.com/Robert Z. Pearlman

Space shuttle Enterprise relaunched on public display July 10, 2013 at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. [See More Images]

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

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.