From 1,500 light years away, the dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula.
Scientists are puzzled about this odd spiral structure. They think the glow may be caused by light reflected from nearby stars. And what about the funky spiral? It may be produced by a a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when its outer atmosphere is ejected.
There are few places on Mars lower than this. Melas Chasma on Mars is 9 kilometers deep in some places, or nearly six times deeper than the grand cancyon
It's been labeled the strangest moon in the solar system. This unusual surface of Jupiter's moon, Io, was photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. Molten rock explodes through the surface of Io and some of its volcanic lava is hot enough to glow in the dark.
Soyuz rolls to the pad prior to launch.
The Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, October 7, 2010. Two days later, Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Scott J. Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka docked at the International Space Station.
The aftermath of a massive star that exploded as a supernova in the Milky Way galaxy.
Meteorite captured by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It was photographed on the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars.
The space race turned into an earnest competition on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite.
Three views of Saturn's moon Rhea made from data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite is almost ready for a December delivery to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where it will be joined to the Curiosity rover mission scheduled for launch in the fall of 2011.
Cracks, ridges and terrain where the surface has been disrupted and ice blocks have moved around on Europa's icy surface.
The Hartley comet make its closest approach to Earth on October 20 and its closest approach to the Sun on October 28.
The Cassini spacecraft photographed four plumes of water ice in the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus.