Located about 5,000 light years from Earth, this composite image shows the Rosette star formation region. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored red and outlined by a white line. The X-rays reveal hundreds of young stars in the central cluster and fainter clusters on either side. Optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey and the Kitt Peak National Observatory (purple, orange, green and blue) show large areas of gas and dust, including giant pillars that remain behind after inten...
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Giant planet GJ 436b in the constellation Leo is missing something--and that something is swamp gas. To the surprise of astronomers who have been studying the Neptune-sized planet using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, GJ 436b has very little methane--an ingredient common to many planets in our own solar system. This artist's concept shows the unusual, methane-free world partially eclipsed by its star. Models of planetary atmospheres indicate that any world with the common mix of hydrogen, car...
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NASA's Desert RATS, or Research and Technology Studies, team made its 13th trip to the desert for another round of analog testing. The Desert RATS tests offer a chance for a NASA-led team of engineers, astronauts and scientists to conduct technology development research in the Arizona desert. The location offers a good stand-in for destinations for future planetary exploration missions. This year's tests take place Aug. 31-Sept. 15. This image is a night-time shot of the rover and habitat uni...

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As if surrounded by a celestial halo, space shuttle Discovery made its way towards the expansive confines of NASA Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building following a move from its processing hangar on Sept. 9, 2010. A metal sling will be carefully connected to the spacecraft and then operators will hoist it from transfer aisle to the high reaches of the 52-story building before lowering it into place beside the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters. Crews then will conne...
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Filled with trash and discarded items, the unpiloted ISS Progress 38 supply vehicle departed from the International Space Station at 7:22 a.m. (EDT) on Aug. 31, 2010. Russian flight controllers conduct thruster tests with the Progress to gather engineering data until it deorbited and burned up in Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Its departure cleared the way for the arrival of the next Russian resupply vehicle, ISS Progress 39, which launched Sept. 8 and will dock Sept. 10, deliveri...
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This composite image shows the Rosette star formation region, located about 5,000 light years from Earth. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored red and outlined by a white line. The X-rays reveal hundreds of young stars in the central cluster and fainter clusters on either side. Optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey and the Kitt Peak National Observatory (purple, orange, green and blue) show large areas of gas and dust, including giant pillars that remain behind after ...
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The Fourmile Canyon Fire continued to burn west of Boulder, Colo., in this image taken on Sept. 7, 2010, casting a long line of smoke to the east that was visible from NASA's Aqua satellite in its orbit around the Earth. MODIS, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of the fire at 2:40 p.m. local time (20:40 UTC) on Sept. 7. The red outline corresponds with the unusually high surface temperatures associated with an activ...
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This image from the GOES-13 satellite, taken at 10:32 a.m. EDT on Sept. 3, shows a huge Hurricane Earl northeast of North Carolina with cloud cover stretching over the northeastern U.S. A disorganized Tropical Storm Fiona is located in the bottom right of this image. Image Credit: NASA/NOAA Goes Project

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Two extremely bright stars illuminate a greenish mist in this image from the Spitzer Space Telescope's "GLIMPSE360" survey. This mist is comprised of hydrogen and carbon compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which also are found here on Earth in sooty vehicle exhaust and on charred grills. In space, PAHs form in the dark clouds that give rise to stars. These molecules provide astronomers a way to visualize the peripheries of gas clouds and study their structures in great d...

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