Space Photos of the Week July 14 2017
01This composite image captured W51, a stunning giant molecular cloud just 17,000 light years away from Earth. The extremely dense mix of hydrogen molecules and helium atoms make it a hotbed for star and planet formation — during the Chandra telescope’s 20-hour exposure, over 600 young stars were spotted as well as interstellar gas with temperatures over 100 million degrees.
02NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this fascinating enhanced image of exposed bedrock of an ejecta blanket in the Mare Serpentis region of Mars. Ejecta is material forced or thrown out from an eruption or some sort of impact. This ejecta is possibly from two unnamed craters, revealing previously unseen subsurface.
03The Juno spacecraft made a close sweep ever over Jupiter’s great red spot, soaring just 5,600 miles above the raging storm. NASA invited citizens [to edit the raw images](https://www.wired.com/story/check-out-junos-stirring-closeups-of-jupiters-big-red-spot/), like this one by Gerald Eichstädt.
04NGC 2500 is a barred spiral galaxy some 30 million light-years away in the Lynx constellation, characterized by its spindly arms swirling out from the bright core. About two-thirds of spiral galaxies have bars, including the Milky Way, acting as luminous nurseries for young stars.
05This shot by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captures details of Vera Rubin Ridge. It's Curiosity's next big mission, studying four geological layers.
06Saturn’s moon Epimetheus gets a close-up with the highest resolution photo ever taken by the Cassini spacecraft. The new image shows the moon’s surface mottled with craters, which can't heal because the moon is too small to be geologically active.
