Best Space Photos of the Week - May 25, 2014

Huge New Mars Crater Found by NASA Spacecraft (Photos)

An eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft has spotted a fresh crater on Mars large enough to cover half of a football field, and it's no puny Martian pockmark. In fact, the crater is the largest new impact site ever seen on the Red Planet using orbiter photos. [See the video here.]

Two Worlds Collide

Adam Block of the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter produced an image of this bizarre-looking item in April 2014. Arp 184, as it is classified in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, also goes by the name of Mayall’s Object. The strange entity lies 500 million light years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. The unusual shape of Arp 148 may have resulted from the collision of two galaxies, which created the new object consisting of a ring-shaped galaxy with a tail. [See more images here.]

See Earth from Space With a Pink Floyd Soundtrack (Video)

If you've ever wondered what the view of Earth from space would be like set to a Pink Floyd soundtrack, wonder no more. The band is counting down to the launch of something on Tuesday (May 20), and is using stunning views from the International Space Station to do it. [See the video here.]

NASA's Vintage ISEE-3 Spacecraft in Pictures (Gallery)

Artist's concept of the ISEE-3 probe's anticipated lunar flyby on Aug. 10, 2014. [See more images.]

Wanting to Drill Fully

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover examined and even drilled into the rock target "Windjana" and its immediate surroundings after inspection of the site by the rover. The drilling of a test hole and a sample collection hole produced the mounds of drill cuttings that appear less reddish in color than the other visible surfaces. This represents material that the drill pulled up from the interior of the rock. This view came from the 627th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 12, 2014). The open hole from sample collection measures 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter. Curiosity drilled it on Sol 621 (May 5, 2014). [See more images here.]

Spitzer Sees Supernova Through 'Cigar Smoke' (Photo)

A NASA space telescope captured an amazing view of a new supernova, seeing the star explosion through the cosmic smoke of the relatively nearby Cigar Galaxy. [Read the full story.]

Defying Gravity: Lighting Weightless Fires for Science (Photos)

In April 2014, Space.com shadowed a group of students from the University of California, San Diego who were selected by NASA to test an experiment on board a zero-gravity flight. [See more photos here.]