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Best Space Photos of the Week — June 28, 2015

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Pluto Probe Spies Weird 'Dark Pole' on Big Moon Charon

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

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has spotted a strange dark patch at the pole of Pluto's big moon Charon, further whetting researchers' appetites ahead of the probe's epic flyby of the dwarf planet system next month. See the Full Story.

Ceres' Odd Bright Spots Coming Into Focus

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

New images of Ceres reveal the dwarf planet’s mysterious bright spots in sharp detail. See the Full Story.

140 Million Suns! Monster Black Hole Weighs In

ESO/R. Gendler

ALMA uses new measurements to weigh black hole. Read the Full Story.

Sun Storm Supercharges Northern Lights, Wowing Skywatchers

Scott Kelly/Twitter

A powerful solar storm made northern lights arrays visible across Canada, in the northern US, and as far south as Philadelphia and northern New jersey. Astronaut Scott Kelly said the lights woke him up aboard the international space station. Read the Full Story.

First Color Movies of Pluto Reveal Double-Planet Dance

NASA

The first color "movies" of Pluto as seen by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal the sheer strangeness of the orbital dance between the dwarf planet and its largest moon Charon. Read the Full Story.

Mighty X-Ray Echos Circle 'Lord of the Rings' Neutron Star

NASA/CXC/U. Wisconsin/S. Heinz

Chandra X-Ray observatory caught a vivid picture of x rays reflecting off of dust rings encircling Circlinus X-1. Read the Full Story.

Spectacular Northern Lights Show Could Continue This Weekend

Shawn Malone

Another solar storm may be headed toward Earth, which could continue the amazing northern lights displays seen as far south as Philadelphia this week. Read the Full Story.

Student Experiments Fly High on NASA Suborbital Rocket

NASA Wallops Optics Lab

A NASA suborbital sounding rocket flew more than 71 miles (114 kilometers) high yesterday (June 25), laden with student experiments. Read the Full Story.

Three of a Kind

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Three of Saturn’s moons appear as crescents in this Cassini spacecraft image. Titan, the largest, stretches 3,200 miles (5,150 km) across, and only shows fuzzy cloud layers. Read the Full Story.

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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.