Best Space Pictures of the Week - Aug. 18, 2012

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Take Me Down to California

Robb Rosenfeld

Night sky watcher Robb Rosenfeld took this photograph of a Perseid meteor with Venus, Jupiter, and the moon. He caught the scene on August 12, 2012, in Joshua Tree National Park, located in southern California east of Los Angeles. [See more Images]

Simply (Not) Red

ESA/Hubble & NASA

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula. The bright wispy structures signal an environment rich in ionized hydrogen gas. In reality these appear red, but the various and filters and exposures of this image make the gas appear green. These regions contain recently formed stars emitting powerful ultraviolet radiation ionizing the gas around them. [See more Images]

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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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.