DANCE OF THE GALAXIES

Dance of the galaxies
An arrangement of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet sparkles in a Hubble Space Telescope image released on Sept. 9. Four of the galaxies are interacting in a gravitational dance - but the fifth galaxy, at upper left, is actually much closer to us and just happens to be in the same line of sight.

BUTTERFLY IN SPACE

Butterfly in space
Colorful jets stretch out into space from the planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula or the Bug Nebula. The image, captured on July 27 and released on Sept. 9, was one of the first taken by the Hubble Space Telescope since its overhaul in May

NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS

Layers upon layers
Deposits of light-colored material lie atop sand dunes in the Noctis Labyrinthus formation on Mars, as shown in this picture from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Readings from another instrument, known as CRISM, suggest that the material contains iron-bearing sulfates and clay minerals.

The photo was released on Oct. 7.2009

A CLASH OF GALAXIES

Clash of galaxies
An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies merging into one beautiful mess known as NGC 2623.

The picture, based on data acquired in 2007, was released on Oct. 13.2009

SATURNIAN MOON

Two-tone moon
Dark dust coats half of a Saturnian moon named Iapetus, as seen in this photo captured by the Cassini orbiter in September 2007. In the Oct. 8 issue of Nature, researchers suggested that the source of the dust was a nearly invisible ring of debris kicked off from another moon, Phoebe. The ring starts about 3.7 million miles away from Saturn and extends outward another 7.4 million miles.

WHERE STARS ARE BORN

Where stars are born
An infrared image from the European Space Agency's Herschel probe, released Oct. 2, shows clouds of dust and gas in our own Milky Way galaxy. Scientists say the clouds shroud hordes of newborn stars.

LAVA ON MARS

Lava on Mars
Over the course of Martian geological history, volcanic lava has flowed repeatedly over a region known as Daedalia Planum, southeast of a large volcano called Arsia Mons. This picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, released Oct. 9, shows the tracks left behind by those flows.