Space photos: The most amazing images this week!

Hubble saw a gorgeous spiral galaxy in a constellation known as the Giraffe, NASA’s Curiosity  Mars rover takes a selfie with a fascinating rock formation and an astronaut aboard the space station gets a ”squashed” view of the moon.

China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft captured this stunning view of a crescent Mars on March 18, 2021. This image, taken from a distance of 6,850 miles (11,000 kilometers), is one of several Mars pictures taken by Tianwen-1’s high resolution camera. The images allow the currently-orbiting mission to prepare for a landing attempt in May or June, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took a selfie with a fascinating rock formation. It’s nicknamed Mont Mercou after a mountain in France and stands about 20 feet (6 meters) tall. The rover is working its way up Mars’ Mount Sharp, and is currently transitioning from the “clay-bearing unit” — an area characterized by minerals that usually form in water — to the “sulfate-bearing unit,” an area characterized by minerals that form when water evaporates. NASA released this image on Tuesday (March 30).

NASA’s Ingenuity is the first helicopter on Mars. In this image, it is seen half unfolded beneath the space agency’s Perseverance rover during deployment operations on Monday (March 29). Ingenuity is expected to attempt its first flight in mid-April according to NASA.

In this annotated image, red arrows point to a Martian geographical phenomenon called recurring slope lineae (RSL). They are found on some Martian slopes in the warmer months of the planet’s southern hemisphere, and the lines creep down steep inclines. RSL fades away as the weather cools, according to NASA. This bird’s eye view was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter via the mission’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera system.

The glow of the scorching lava from the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland could be seen from space. This image uses data from the Earth-observing Landsat 8 satellite, and NASA data visualizer Joshua Stevens pieced together the information into a false-color image of the eruption. The picture shows the eruption at 10:25 p.m. local time (2225 GMT) on March 22, 2021, three days after it started on March 19.

The swirling galactic picture seen here was taken by the iconic Hubble Space Telescope on March 5. The featured galaxy in this beautiful shot is NGC 2336, which is 200,000 light-years across and located about 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Camelopardalis (aka the Giraffe). NGC 2336 is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning it has a star-dense center in the shape of a bar.

Practicing capturing spacecraft
This snapshot shows NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Kjell Lindgren and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti practicing capturing visiting vehicles like a Cygnus cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station. Hines and Lindren have been announced as part of the crew for SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission, which will send astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station. The next SpaceX Crew launch is Crew-2, which is set to launch in April, 2021.

(Image credit: NASA/Bob Hines Twitter)
This snapshot shows NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Kjell Lindgren and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti practicing capturing visiting vehicles like a Cygnus cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station.

Hines and Lindren have been announced as part of the crew for SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission, which will send astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the space station. The next SpaceX Crew launch is Crew-2, which is set to launch in April 2021. — Chelsea Gohd

Inspiration4 is ready
Inspiration4 mission crew members (from left) Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski pose at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, March 29, 2021.

(Image credit: SpaceX)
Today, the full crew for the upcoming Inspiration4 mission was announced. The crew, led by commander and billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, will include physician assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaus as well as Lockheed Martin employee and U.S. Air Force veteran Christopher Sembroski and Sian Proctor, a geologist, analog astronaut and artist who is a professor of planetary science at the South Mountain Community College in Arizona, both of whom were announced today. The mission will see the crew spend about three days orbiting the Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle, which Isaacman has chartered. — Chelsea Gohd

Magical hour with the moon
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared this view of the squashed moon that he captured from the International Space Station on March 31, 2021.

(Image credit: JAXA/Soichi Noguchi/NASA via Twitter)
March 31, 2021: Astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared this view of the squashed moon that he captured from the International Space Station in a Twitter post today. “Magical hour – 17th moon rise over Earth atmosphere,” Noguchi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, wrote.

The squashed view of the moon is an optical illusion created as the moon was rising over edge, or limb, of the Earth as viewed from the space station. From Noguchi’s perspective, the moon looked squashed, but the distortion was caused by the interference of the Earth’s atmosphere between the astronaut and the moon. — Tariq Malik

A bright spiral galaxy
In this image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, you can see the brilliant spiral galaxy NGC 7678. The galaxy, which was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, is located about 164 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Stretching about 115,000 light-years across, the galaxy is about the same size as the Milky Way galaxy.
In this image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, you can see the brilliant spiral galaxy NGC 7678. The galaxy, which was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, is located about 164 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Stretching about 115,000 light-years across, the galaxy is about the same size as the Milky Way galaxy. — Chelsea Gohd

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