Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: This Globular Cluster's Over the Hill

  • Image may contain Nature Universe Space Astronomy Outer Space Outdoors and Nebula
    <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/a-hubble-sky-full-of-stars"> ESA/Hubble and NASA</a>
    01

    SPoW-Aug5-04.jpg

    Located approximately 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Musca (The Fly), this tightly packed collection of stars — known as a globular cluster — goes by the name of NGC 4833. This Hubble image shows the dazzling stellar group in all its glory. NGC 4833 is one of the over 150 globular clusters known to reside within the Milky Way. These objects are thought to contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. Studying these ancient cosmic clusters can help astronomers to unravel how a galaxy formed and evolved, and give an idea of the galaxy’s age.
  • Image may contain Moon Universe Space Night Astronomy Outdoors Outer Space and Nature
    <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20495/regarding-rhea"> NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute</a>
    02

    SPoW-Aug5-05.jpg

    Rhea, like many moons in the outer solar system, appears dazzlingly bright in full sunlight. This is the signature of the water ice that forms most of the moon's surface. Rhea is Saturn's second largest moon after Titan. Its ancient surface is one of the most heavily cratered of all of Saturn's moons. Subtle albedo variations across the disk of Rhea hint at past geologic activity.
  • Image may contain Nature Storm and Hurricane
    <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/earl-caribbean-sea"> NOAA/NASA</a>
    03

    SPoW-Aug5-03.jpg

    Tropical Storm Earl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Belize on August 4, and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw the storm move over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula the next day.
  • Image may contain Ground and Soil
    <a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/08/Comet_on_31_July_2016_OSIRIS_narrow-angle_camera">ESA/Rosetta</a>
    04

    SPoW-Aug5-02.jpg

    This OSIRIS narrow-angle camera was taken on July 31, when Rosetta was was 6.5 miles from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
  • Image may contain Plot Diagram Map Atlas Land Outdoors and Nature
    <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20723/nasa-spacecraft-spots-aftermath-of-destructive-wildfire-in-la-s-backyard">NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems</a>
    05

    SPoW-Aug5-06.jpg

    The Sand Fire, in the Santa Clarita area northwest of Los Angeles, has burned more than 41,000 acres, destroyed 18 houses, and caused one fatality. By August 1, 2016, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft acquired this image, the fire was more than 90 percent contained. Vegetation is displayed in red, and the burn area is the irregularly shaped dark area in the middle of the imag
  • Image may contain Universe Space Astronomy Moon Night Outdoors Outer Space Nature Eclipse Lunar Eclipse and Planet
    <a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/08/August_Mars">ESA</a>
    06

    SPoW-Aug5-01.jpg

    Mars as seen by the low-resolution Visual Monitoring Camera on board ESA's Mars Express orbiter this week.
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