The Week in Space

STS-133 commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe (background), and mission specialists Tim Kopra (right foreground) and Alvin Drew participate in a simulation exercise in the motion-base shuttle mission simulator in the Jake Garn Simulation and Training Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer photographed this image of the reflection nebula IRAS 12116-6001. This cloud of interstellar dust cannot be seen directly in visible light, but the Explorer's detectors observed the nebula at infrared wavelengths.

The right side of the image features the bright blue star Epsilon Crucis. In the Bayer system of stellar nomenclature, stars are given names based on their relative brightness within a constellation.

This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA's Swift spacecraft. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. Also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 is more than 220,000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away.

This artist's impression shows how the Arches star cluster appears from deep inside the hub of our Milky Way Galaxy. Hidden from our direct view, the massive cluster lies 25,000 light-years away and is the densest known gathering of young stars in our galaxy. The illustration is based on infrared observations from Hubble and with ground-based telescopes.

Fast-growing sunspot 1112 is crackling with solar flares. Also, a vast filament of magnetism is cutting across the sun's southern hemisphere. This filament is so large it spans a distance greater than the separation of Earth and the moon. A bright 'hot spot' just north of the filament's midpoint is UV radiation from sunspot 1112.

This volcanic cone in the Nili Patera caldera on Mars has hydrothermal mineral deposits on the southern flanks and nearby terrains. Light-toned patches on the closest flank of the cone, and the entire field of light-toned material on the left of the cone are hydrothermal deposits. The cone is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) in diameter at the base.

While searching the skies for black holes using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers discovered a giant supernova that was smothered in its own dust.

This photo provided by NASA shows the space shuttle Discovery on launch pad 39a early in the morning of Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA says space shuttle Discovery is finally leak-free and ready to blast off Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010.

The International Space Station celebrated a memorable anniversary: Ten years without interruption of human occupancy.

his image provided by NASA shows a night time image of the northern Gulf coast. Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile (top left, beneath one of the solar panels of a docked Russian Soyuz spacecraft), New Orleans and Houston are visible as the view "moves" southeastward. The Interstate Highway 20 cities of Jackson, Shreveport, Dallas and Fort Worth are also visible further inland. The view extends northward (left) to Little Rock and Oklahoma City.

Long March 3C (CZ-3C) carrier rocket carrying Chinas sixth Beidou navigation and positioning satellite blasts off at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest Chinas Sichuan province, 1 November 2010. China launched its sixth Beidou orbiter into space after the midnight on Monday (1 November 2010), moving it one step closer to its goal of building a navigation and positioning satellite network. The Beidou, or Compass, system is being built to rival the US-developed GPS, the European Unions Galileo and Russias Global Navigation Satellite System. It can allow travelers, drivers and military officials to know their locations. It is the fourth Compass satellite launched this year, following launches on January 17, June 2 and August 1

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