Falcon 9 Streak with EchoStar 23
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the EchoStar 23 satellite streaks into space in this long-exposure view of its nighttime launch from Par 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the wee hours of March 16, 2017.
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Sunrise in Space
Good morning from the International Space Station! NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough tweeted this photo of the sunrise from orbit yesterday morning. Because the space station circles the Earth every 92 minutes, the crew experiences 16 sunrises every day.
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'Pink' Moonrise over Boston
The full "pink" moon rises over Boston in this photo taken by Chris Cook on April 11. April's full moon isn't actually pink; it's named after the wild ground phlox, one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. Cook said the full moon appeared red-orange that evening due to "the thick atmosphere, dust, haze and pollen in the air."
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'Star Shower' at the Space Station
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured star trails swirling around the Earth in this photo he took from the International Space Station. "It's not a star shower, but sure looks like it," Pesquet tweeted on April 16. "Flying at 28,000 km/h [17,400 mph] allows us to see the starry sky parading before our eyes like a mobile in a children's room... except life-size."
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The Heart Nebula
This heart-shaped cloud of cosmic gas and dust is called the "Heart Nebula," or IC 1805. It lies about 7,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.
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Minimoon over NYC
As the Strawberry Minimoon rises over New York City, a British Airways plane descends toward Newark Liberty International Airport in this photo taken by Stan Honda on June 9.
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Comet 45P in Hawaii
Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusáková captured in Kekaha, Hawaii on Dec. 23, 2016.
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Barnard 343
Astrophotographer Jeffrey O. Johnson took this image from his backyard in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
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A gorgeous, green meteor flies toward the northern lights in this stunning image by astrophotographer Matthew Skinner. He captured the meteor over a mountain range near Palmer, Alaska just after midnight on Dec. 14, when the Geminid meteor shower was at i
Photographer Tony Corso captured a bright Geminid meteor under clear, starry skies just south of Paris, Texas. [The 2017 Geminid Meteor Shower: Amazing Photos by Stargazers]
VLT & the Milky Way
Zodiacal light and a shimmering Milky Way illuminate the night sky in this stunning panoramic view of the Very Large Telescope array (VLT). Located at the European Southern Observatory's remote facilities on the Cerro Paranal mountain in northern Chile, VLT isn't exposed to much light pollution. This makes the observatory not just a good place for telescope observations, but also for amazing astrophotography.
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