Miguel Claro

A colorful mosaic of the Milky Way shows the dusty galactic core glowing over a puddle of acid water at São Domingos Mine in southeast Portugal.

The entire arc of the Milky Way galaxy extends across the southern sky in this lovely panoramic view from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile.

Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, glows brilliantly near the tip of a telescope's antenna in this photo taken at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, Spain.

Orange moonlight streaks across the evening sky as the Super Blue Moon rises behind a windmill in Sesimbra, Portugal, on Jan. 31, 2018.

The magnificent Trifid Nebula, also known as NGC 6514, is a bright cloud of cosmic dust and gas that serves as a stellar nursery for newborn stars.

A nearly full "supermoon" rises above a pink band in the sky known as the "Belt of Venus" in this photo captured above Lake Alqueva in the Portuguese village of Monsaraz.

One day after the new moon disappeared in the night sky on Dec. 18, the face of the slender, crescent moon was only 2 percent illuminated by sunlight.

Featuring the bright, red supergiant star Antares, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is one of the most vibrant and colorful nebulas in space and the closest star-forming region to the solar system.

The shimmering arc of the Milky Way stretches high in the sky in this view of Zabriskie Point in California's Death Valley National Park.

The bright planet Venus reflects off the still ocean surface and illuminates the evening sky in this view from the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland.

A faint spiral galaxy lurks in deep space in this stunning view of the Pleiades, an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus.

A skywatcher uses filtered binoculars to observe a majestic group of sunspots just a few minutes before the sun sets behind the Castle of Noudar in Barrancos, Portugal.

A blaze near Yosemite National Park has created smoky skies for days. The Milky Way is trying to shine above the band of smoke and dust visible from the Tunnel View of Yosemite.

The beautiful Heart Nebula, also known as IC 1805, is a bright, red emission nebula with a shape that resembles a human heart.

A tiny sliver of the waxing moon grows larger and brighter, slowly heating up as the moon's surface reflects more and more sunlight.

A blaze of solar plasma emerges from the surface of the sun in this photo taken of the International Space Station (ISS) as it transited the sun's disk on June 14, 2017.