Following the explosion of the Antares rocket, Astronaut Reid Wiseman shot this picture of the sunrise, captured from the International Space Station (ISS).
“Not every day is easy,” Wiseman wrote. “Today was a tough one.”
He was referring to the failure of the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, moments after launch at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft was filled with about 5,000 pounds of supplies slated for the ISS, including science experiments, hardware, spare parts and crew provisions. The station crew is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies, NASA said.
See the Spookiest Space Photos
The Witch Head Nebula This infrared image shows the Witch Head nebula hundreds of light-years away in the Orion constellation, taken by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light.
NASA/JPL-CaltechThe Reflection Nebula Reflection nebulae do not emit light on their own, they are illuminated by a light source embedded within. The bright, young star left of center gives NGC 1999 its brightness. The gas and dust of the nebula is left over from the star's formation.NASA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI)The Black Widow Nebula Astronomers suspect that a large cloud of gas and dust condensed to create multiple clusters of massive star formations in the Black Widow nebula. The combined winds from these groups of large stars likely blew out bubbles into the direction of least resistance, forming a double bubble which appear as the spider's legs.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Wisc.Great Eye of Sauron The large disk of gas surrounding Fomalhaut, dubbed the 'Great Eye of Sauron' by New Scientist magazine, is clearly visible in this image. Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.NASA/ESA/P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley, USA)Franken Nebula The stellar cluster NGC 2467, also known as Franken Nebula, is located in the southern constellation of Puppis. NGC 2467 is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.ESOJack-o-Lantern Sun Active regions on the sun combined to resemble a jack-o-lantern’s face on Oct. 8, 2014. The active regions in this image appear brighter because they emit more light and energy.NASA/GSFC/SDOJupiter's Giant Eye On April 21, 2014, when Hubble was being used to monitor changes in Jupiter's immense Great Red Spot (GRS) storm, the shadow of the Jovian moon Ganymede swept across the center of the GRS giving the giant planet the appearance of having a pupil in the center of a 10,000-mile-diameter "eye." NASA/ESA/A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)Spooky Sprite In this image of LBN 438 nebula, dubbed Spooky Sprite by astronomer Adam Block,
the cloud of dust glows both from scattered starlight and extended red emission due to the radiation of some nearby star. Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenterZombie Star Tycho's supernova remnant is perhaps the most famous of the Type Ia supernovae, known as 'zombie' stars, which are white dwarves that feed off of stellar neighbors.Chandra X-ray Observatory Center/X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/K.ErikThe Ghosts of Cepheus In this image of SH2-136 nebula, also known as the Ghosts of Cepheus, a few bright stars
illuminate an otherwise dark and cold molecular cloud of gas and dust some
1,200 light years away.Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenterWizard Nebula NGC 7380, also known as the Wizard Nebula, is a star-forming region surrounding a cluster of young stars. Radiation from the developing stars lights up the nebula.Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
