Gallery: Space Photos of the Week: Apollo Packs a Punch
<a href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/45/">NASA, ESA, and L. Infante</a>01SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-09
This is a massive cluster of galaxies known as MACS J0416.1-2403 captured by Hubble Space Telescope. The inset image is an extremely faint and distant galaxy that existed only 400 million years after the big bang. Hubble was able to capture it because the gravitational lense makes it appear 20 times bright than normal. Astronomers hope to capture even more early universe galaxies with the James Webb Telescope in the near future.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-distant-close-up-new-horizons-camera-captures-a-wandering-kuiper-belt-object"> NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI</a>02SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-17
This animation is of a moving object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Captured by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, the images allow you to see the 90-mile-wide ancient body 1994 JR1 moving across the stars. Mission scientists plan to use images like these to study ancient Kuiper Belt objects from New Horizons if an extended mission is approved.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/to-jupiter-with-junocam">NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</a>03SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-08
These photos were taken in 2013 with the JunoCam during a close flyby of Earth. The Juno spacecraft is now headed to Jupiter and expected to arrive on July 4, 2016, where members of the public will be allowed to choose what images the camera takes and be a key part of the processing. Juno will get closer to Jupiter than any previous orbiting spacecraft, and will capture the best close-ups of the planet’s colorful clouds.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/hubble-peers-through-the-elliptical-haze">European Space Agency</a>04SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-07
This is a photo of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2768, located in the constellation of Ursa Major. The bright center is home to a supermassive black hole that feasts on a constant stream of gas and dust. It also has a prominent plume of dust reaching out from the center and lying perpendicular to the galaxy’s plane.
<a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20107">NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU</a>05SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-05
This false color image gives a glimpse at the small dunes and sand near Mars’ Arabia Terra, a northern region covered with craters. The false color processing may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/lro-finds-apollo-16-booster-rocket-impact-site"> NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University</a>06SPoW-Nov30-Dec7-01
After decades of uncertainty, the Apollo 16 S-IVB impact site on the lunar surface has been identified. S-IVBs were portions of the Saturn V rockets that brought astronauts to the moon. The site was identified in imagery from the high-resolution LROC Narrow Angle Camera aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
