Best Space Photos of the Week - March 16, 2014

Aurora Photographer Captures Dazzling Fireball Over Canada (Photos)

©Yuichi Takasaka/www.blue-moon.ca/TWAN

A blindingly-bright fireball blazed across an aurora-filled sky over remote Canada's Northwest Territories in these spectacular images by astrophotographer Yuichi Takasaka of the photography group The World at Night (TWAN). [Read the full story.]

Photographer Captures 'Impossible' View of Milky Way from Light-Polluted Singapore (Video, Photo)

Justin Ng | www.justinngphoto.com

An avid night sky photographer proves the naysayers wrong with this "impossible" single-exposure image and video of the Milky Way and bright planet Venus rising over the light-polluted skies of Singapore. [Read the full story.]

Earth From Space: Amazing Astronaut Photos

Rick Mastracchio (Twitter)

Astronauts adore looking at the Earth. It's something they've talked about in interviews, in books and sometimes, even in song. In recent years, space fans have been lucky enough to have astronauts sharing their amazing views of our planet on Twitter. Here: "Aurora like thunderstorms on the horizon with a bit of sunrise and Venus(?) rising up through it," wrote Rick Mastracchio Feb. 27 on Twitter. In the foreground is Canadarm2, a robotic arm used for space station assembly and repairs. [See more photos.]

Sun Unleashes Intense Solar Flare as NASA Watches (Video)

NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center

A stunning solar flare erupted from the sun Wednesday (March 12) and just narrowly missed becoming one of the strongest types of sun storms possible, NASA scientists say. [See the video.]

Largest Yellow Star Ever Seen Revealed in New Light (Video, Images)

ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

The Very Large Telescope in Chile has taken new images of the largest yellow star ever discovered. The “hypergiant” is more than 1,300 times the diameter of the sun. [See the video.]

Rosetta's Brightening Comet Emerges From Behind the Sun

ESO/C. Snodgrass (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany) & O. Hainaut (ESO)

After its long-awaited awakening on Jan. 20, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft resumed its decade-long journey to meet up with the inbound comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which recently re-emerged from behind the sun as seen from our vantage point on Earth. [Read the full story.]

Soyuz Landing Photos: US-Russian Expedition 38 Crew Returns to Earth

NASA TV

The recovery team attends to NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy after the trio's Soyuz capsule touched down in frigid Kazakhstan on March 10, 2014. [See more photos.]

Saturn's Full Moon: Rhea Shines Bright for Cassini

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

This newly-released observation of Saturn's second largest moon could be mistaken for our own moon hanging in the night sky. Although it may lack the tell-tail Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers) or famous Tycho Crater, the rocky surface of Rhea is still pockmarked with craters that etch its ancient surface with solar system history. The Saturn-facing hemisphere is almost totally bathed in sunlight. [Read the full story.]

President Obama Hopes 'Cosmos' TV Reboot Inspires Next Generation of Scientists (Video)

Patrick Eccelsine/FOX

President Barack Obama introduced the first episode of the new 'Cosmos' reboot in a 30 second ode to inspiration and discovery. [Read the full story.]

'Live From Space' Host Soledad O'Brien Would Love a Space Trip (Exclusive Video)

Space.com

Soledad O'Brien would definitely go to space. The host of the "Live From Space" TV program airing tonight (March 14), O'Brien explained that she would fly to the International Space Station if given a chance. [Read the full story.]

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Space.com Staff
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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.