Best Space Pictures of the Week - Sep. 8, 2012

Astronaut 'Touches' the Sun in Spacewalk Photo

NASA

In legend, the bright sun was a dazzling temptation for Icarus and so, too, it is for NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who appears to touch our closest star in a photo snapped during a spacewalk this week. [Full Story]

Wow! Spectacular Sun Photos Catch Colossal Solar Storm in Action

NASA/SDO/GSFC

Huge string-like filaments of plasma leaped from the surface of the sun recently, and NASA satellites caught the scene on film. [Full Story]

Perseid Meteor Streaks Over Medieval Castle in Picturesque Photo

Sebastian Voltmer

A shining Perseid meteor flies on a clear night sky over medieval Albrechtsberg castle near the northern bank of the Pielach river near Melk, Austria. Photographer Sebastian Voltmer took this striking photo on Aug. 12, 2012. [Full Story]

Stunning Mars Photo Shows Curiosity Rover's Tracks from Space

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA's newest Mars rover Curiosity is taking its first tentative drives across the Martian surface and leaving tracks that have been spotted all the way from space in a spectacular photo snapped by an orbiting spacecraft. [Full Story]

Hubble Telescope Sees Two Galaxies in Cosmic Dance

NASA, ESA

The Hubble telescope has snapped a stunning new portrait of a pair of peculiar galaxies. [Full Story]

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Says Goodbye to Giant Asteroid Vesta

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

NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. [Full Story]

Strange Star in Nearby Cluster Resists Aging

ESO

A new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. [Full Story]

Spacewalkers Fix Space Station Power Unit (Photos)

NASA

Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide works on the exterior of the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Sept. 5, 2012. A cloud-covered part of Earth is visible in the background. [Full Photo Gallery]

Gorgeous Cosmic 'Superbubble' Observed by X-Ray Space Telescope

NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m

Huge stars carve out gas cavities called superbubbles in a nearby dwarf galaxy, as shown in a new photo from the Chandra space telescope. [Full Story]

Northern Lights Blaze Up After Big Sun Storm

Ole Salomonsen (http://www.facebook.com/arcticlightphoto)

Skywatchers around the world were wowed by the northern lights show produced by a recent solar storm. [Full Story]

Photos: Blue Moon of August 2012

Tom Sajinsa

New reader-submitted photos of the August 2012 blue moon. [Full Photo Gallery]

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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.