Space in Month June

Window on the cosmos

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli peeks through a window of the Cupola observation deck on the International Space Station, as seen in a picture captured by a remotely operated camera on the station's exterior.The Cupola is the station's prime location for observing Earth below.

Before and after the tsunami

Satellite images from DigitalGlobe show Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Nov. 21, 2004 (at left), and on March 14, 2011 (at right), after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the plant. In the more recent picture, the plant's No. 3 nuclear reactor is burning after an explosion.

Cloud from the sun

A massive solar prominence looks like a delicate cloud as it pulls away from the sun's surface, on the left side of this image from astrophotographer Alan Friedman. But the "cloud" is actually a blast of hot plasma that is larger than the entire planet Earth. This picture was taken in a special wavelength known as hydrogen-alpha, which accounts for the unusual color scheme.

Super-moon attacks

The full moon rises red near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on March 19. This full moon was known as the "Super-moon," since it occurred while the moon was at its closest proximity to Earth. The last time that the moon was so big and close during its full phase was in 1993.

Cosmic pinwheel

The brilliant blue glow of young stars traces the graceful spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5584 in this Hubble Space Telescope image, released March 14. Thin, dark dust lanes appear to be flowing from the yellowish core, where older stars reside. The reddish dots sprinkled throughout the image are largely background galaxies.

Endeavour at the ready

Dawn breaks as photographers gather on a hill to take pictures of the space shuttle Endeavour, shortly after its arrival at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in Florida on March 11. Endeavour's mission to the International Space Station is to be commanded by veteran astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Somalia seen from space

Shades of brown dominate this view of desert terrain in Somalia, captured by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli from the International Space Station on Jan. 30.

Weird trails on Mars

Troughs and weird trails criss-cross this view of Russell Crater's sand dunes on Mars. The faint trails have been left behind by "dust devils," mini-tornadoes that whip across the Martian landscape. The troughs are formed when chunks of frozen carbon dioxide slide down the face of steep dunes. This picture was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and released on March 9.

Alaska's bright lights

A stream of electrically charged particles hit Earth's magnetic field on March 1, sparking a brilliant display of northern lights. NASA space physicist James Spann sent this picture from Poker Flat, Alaska, where he was attending a scientific conference to study auroras

Viva la space station!

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli snapped this Jan. 17 picture of Cuba and the Caribbean, as seen from the International Space Station. A Russian transport craft that's docked to the station looms in the foreground.

Look! Up in the sky!

The International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery streak across the sky above New York's Central Park on March 7, just after the two spacecraft separated. Discovery visited the station during its final spaceflight.

That's no sunspot ...

Silhouetted by the sun, the space shuttle Discovery can be seen at upper right, docked to the International Space Station on March 1 during its final mission.

Winter in China

Smoke plumes rise from power plants in Changchun, the capital of China's Jilin province, as seen in a snowy picture taken from the International Space Station by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli on Jan. 15.

Mercury rising

A bright crater called Debussy takes center stage in one of the first pictures acquired by NASA's Messenger probe during the orbital phase of its mission to Mercury on March 29. Messenger became the first space probe to orbit Mercury on March 17, after a journey of six and a half years.

Back on Earth

A Russian Soyuz capsule touches down near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan on March 16. The spacecraft brought NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri back to Earth after a months-long stay on the International Space Station.

Spider in space

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope, released March 15, provides a stunning up-close view of part of the Tarantula Nebula. This star-forming region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our Milky Way's satellite galaxies. The Tarantula Nebula is the most luminous nebula of its type in the local Universe.

Tribute to Gabby

During his ride on a Russian helicopter, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly wears a blue "Gabby" wristband in honor of his sister-in-law, wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly and his fellow crew members from the International Space Station, Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri, returned to Earth on March 16 and were put on the helicopter by their recovery crew in Kazakhstan. Kelly's twin brother, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, is Giffords' husband. The two Kellys are the only identical twins to serve together in NASA's astronaut corps.

Dancing with the stars

The galaxies NGC 6872 and IC 4970 spin around each other in a gravitational dance that even astronomers compare to a tango. The Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club won this year's competition to produce scientifically useful and aesthetically pleasing images using the Gemini Observatory. In the essay accompanying their entry, the students said the picture serves "to illustrate the situation faced by the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy in millions of years." That's right, folks ... our galaxy is on course to mix it up with the galaxy next door someday.