Window on Infinity, Thanksgiving Edition: Pictures From Space

This image, taken by astronaut Karen L. Nyberg aboard the International Space Station, shows Super Typhoon Haiyan on Nov. 9, 2013. The storm looks fearsome enough from space; on the ground, it was devastating.

A view from the shadowed side of Saturn looking toward the sunlit side, taken by the Cassini spacecraft and released on Nov. 20, 2013. The picture was taken from about 18 degrees above the planet's ring plane.

Comet ISON taken by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Nov. 8 at 5:40 a.m. EST (1040 GMT). At the time of this picture, ISON was 97 million miles (156 million km) from Earth, heading toward a close encounter with the sun.

The NGC 6946 medium-sized, face-on spiral galaxy which is about 22 million light years away from Earth, as seen on Nov. 8, 2013. In the past century, eight supernovas have been observed to explode in the arms of NGC 6946. The galaxy's less technical—more memorable—name? The Fireworks Galaxy.

The Dasht-e Lut salt desert in southeast Iran, captured by the European satellite Envisat. The desert is often called the hottest place on Earth—a label it comes by rightly. The highest land surface temperature ever recorded there was 70.7ºC—a staggering 159.26ºF—in 2005.

On July 19, 2013, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and photographed the planet and its rings, seven of its moons, and, in the background, the blue speck that is Earth. The image was assembled from 141 mosaic-like pieces. It spans about 404,880 miles from one side to the other.

Three nanosatellites, known as Cubesats, are deployed on Nov. 19, 2013 from a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD) attached to the a robotic arm on the International Space Station.

Sandstone cliffs and deposits of the mineral hematite cover portions of the Ophir Mensa on Mars. The lighter-toned areas are formed when downslope winds carve the fragile sandstone into channels. Over time, gravity works with the wind to erode material downslope and onto the canyon floor.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, on Nov. 18, 2013, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. MAVEN will study Mars's tenuous atmosphere for clues to what stripped most of it away billions of years ago.

The Galactic supernova remnant 3C 397 in an image released on Nov. 6, 2013. Researchers think the formation's box-like appearance is produced as the heated remains of the exploded star—detected here by the Chandra x-ray observatory—run into cooler gas surrounding it.

This sprinkling of cosmic glitter makes up the galaxy known as ESO 149-3, located 20 million light-years away from Earth. It is an example of an irregular galaxy, characterized by its undefined shape.

Tethys, a mid-sized moon of Saturn, hangs seemingly motionless and alone in space. The craters Melanthius (near the center), Dolius (above Melanthius), and Penelope (upper left, almost over the edge of the moon) are visible.