THE SUN

This all-around view of the sun and its surroundings was created from three perspectives. The sun itself was imaged by the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. The inner corona was recorded by Williams College observers during the July 22 total solar eclipse. The outer view of the corona was produced using SOHO's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph.

NOVEMBER IN SPACE

Crab Nebula reloaded
A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of the year 1054. Now, almost a millennium later, a super-dense neutron star left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. This composite view, released Nov. 23, combines imagery from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (shown in blue) with visible-light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red and yellow) and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (purple).

A galaxy's leftovers
This near-infrared image from the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile, released Nov. 20, shows the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A eating a smaller spiral galaxy. The dark brown, parallelogram-shaped band of material represents "leftovers" from the galaxy that was gulped down 200 to 700 millon years earlier. Centaurus A is an elliptical galaxy 11 million light-years from Earth in the southern sky.

Martian lessons in the layers
Different layers of rock stand out in this color-coded picture of the Martian region known as Arabia Terra, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and released Nov. 18. Scientists think the picture may show how different beds of sediment were laid down during climatic cycles on Mars.

Power-packed Pinwheel
This Hubble Space Telescope image, released Nov. 11, shows a detailed view of starbirth in the spiral galaxy M83, 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The image reveals in unprecedented detail the current rapid rate of starbirth in this famous "grand design" spiral galaxy, known as the "Southern Pinwheel.

Milky Way Marathon
A new panoramic image of the full night sky — with the Milky Way as its centerpiece — has been made by piecing together 3,000 individual photographs.

Dark dunes
Martian sand dunes seem to glow a deep violet in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The picture, acquired Aug. 24 and released Oct. 28, is actually color-coded to reflect subtle variations in surface composition.

Red Planet blobs
A close-up from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, released Oct. 28, provides a rare look at different layers in the carbon dioxide ice near Mars' south pole.

Chaos on Mars
This mosaic of images from Europe's Mars Express orbiter, released Nov. 6, provides a spectacular view of the chaotic terrain at the boundary between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae. The area shown is roughly half the size of the Netherlands. The rim of the crater seen at far right was likely eroded in ancient times by flowing water.

Polar patterns
Carbon dioxide ice makes weird patterns in Mars' south polar region, as seen in this picture from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, released Nov. 18. High-standing smooth material is broken up by semicircular depressions and linear, branching troughs that look like fingerprints.

Milky Way: Some like it hot...
This spectacular image uses different colors to chart the Milky Way's central region in visible light (yellow) as well as infrared (shown in red) and X-ray light (blue and violet). The Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes all contributed to the picture, which was released Nov. 10. Telescopes that detect infrared and X-ray wavelengths can see through obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core.

Sunny day in space
The sun greets the International Space Station on Nov. 22, as seen from the Russian section of the orbital outpost. The photo was taken by a visiting member of the shutltle Atlantis' crew.

BOLIDE METEOR

SALT LAKE CITY -- A fast-moving meteor lit up the night skies over most of Utah just after midnight Wednesday. Moments later, the phones lit up at KSL as people across the state called to tell us what they saw and ask what it was.
Scientists are calling it a "remarkable midnight fireball." The source of all the excitement was basically a rock, falling from space.

LEONIDS METEOR SHOWER

FIREBALLS AND METEORS

As forecasters predicted, the Leonid meteor shower peaked during the late hours of Nov. 17th, favoring sky watchers in Asia with an outburst of 100+ meteors per hour.

Just as the outburst was dying down, an even bigger event took place over the western USA.

Something hit Earth's atmosphere and exploded with an energy equivalent of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid. It was probably a small asteroid, now scattered in fragments across the countryside. Efforts are underway to measure the trajectory of the asteroid and guide meteorite recovery efforts.
A remarkable midnight fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was not a Leonid. Infrasound measurements suggest a sporadic asteroid not associated with the Leonid debris stream. The space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equivalent to 0.5 - 1 kilotons of TNT.
Approximately 6 hours later, observers in Utah and Colorado witnessed a twisting iridescent-blue cloud in the dawn sky. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by that time, but the cloud remains unexplained; we cannot yet rule out a connection to the fireball event. Stay tuned for further analysis

http://www.spaceweather.com/

MARTIAN CARBON DIOXIDE ICE

Lines in the ice
A high-resolution image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured in April and released in September, shows a sawtooth pattern in the Red Planet's carbon dioxide ice.

MARS

Lines in the (Martian) sand
Whirlwinds have left behind subtle dark tracks that are visible in this orbital image of a Martian dune field. The picture was taken by a high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August and released on Sept. 16.