The Crew-1 mission team gears up for launch this weekend, an astronomer captured a "lunar halo " and supernovas may have helped to shape Earth's climate history. These are some of the top photos this week from Space.com.
Mars simulation EVA
Space.com writer Chelsea Gohd goes on an extravehicular activity (EVA) with other participants of the two-week HI-SEAS habitat Mars simulation in November 2020. The HI-SEAS habitat is located in Hawaii, and during this hour-long EVA the team explored a large volcanic crater filled with hardened pahoehoe lava.
Full story: A mission to 'Mars' at the HI-SEAS habitat: Live updates
BioRock experiment microbe
This image shows Sphingomonas desiccabilis, one of three microbes chosen for the European Space Agency's BioRock experiment, growing on basalt. BioRock operated for three weeks on the International Space Station in 2019. The microbe grew at simulated Mars gravity, suggesting that microbes might help extract elements from rocks off of Earth in the future.
Full story: Microbe 'biominers' could help humanity build settlements on other worlds
Tycho supernova
This photograph of the Tycho supernova remnant was taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Low-energy X-rays (red) in the image show expanding debris from the supernova explosion and high energy X-rays (blue) show the blast wave, a shell of extremely energetic electrons. This structure is found in the constellation Cassiopeia. A new study suggests that these stellar deaths may have shaped the climate of planet Earth.
Full story: Supernova explosions may have helped shape Earth's climate history
Dazzling Leonid Meteors from November 2001
This image is a composition of 33 Leonids captured overnight from Nov. 18 to 19, 2001. In 2020, the Leonid meteor shower will peak overnight on Nov. 16-17. Observers located in dark skies can view about 10 to 15 meteors per hour.
Full gallery: The most amazing Leonid meteor shower photos
International Space Station
The fully assembled International Space Station (ISS). The orbiting laboratory is a collaboration between 25 space agencies and organizations. In the last 20 years it has hosted a permanent human presence, which includes 241 crew members and a few tourists from 19 countries.
Full story: How to live in space: What we've learned from 20 years of the International Space Station
A ring around the moon
A lunar "halo" glows like an orb in the night sky above the Very Large Telescope in northern Chile, in this photo by European Southern Observatory astronomer Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos. This optical phenomenon occurs when moonlight gets refracted by tiny ice crystals and water droplets in the atmosphere. — Hanneke Weitering
Space Dragon
A new space dragon is born as SpaceX's next Crew Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts arrives at the Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida ahead of a Nov. 14 launch. The spacecraft reached SpaceX's Pad 39A hangar on Nov. 5 after a short trip from its processing facility at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The spacecraft will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA as part of the Crew-1 mission, SpaceX's first operational crewed flight for NASA under the agency's Commercial Crew Program. The Crew-1 astronauts — NASA's Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi — arrived at the launch site on Sunday.
Live updates: SpaceX's Crew-1 astronaut launch for NASA
Crew Dragon on the launch pad
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket stand ready to launch NASA's Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. The rocket went vertical on the pad at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida, early this morning after rolling out from the horizontal integration facility overnight. SpaceX is scheduled to launch the Crew-1 mission with NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, on Saturday (Nov. 14). — Hanneke Weitering
ESO's New Technology Telescope is back in action
The three brightest planets in the night sky flaunt their colorful features in this montage of images captured by the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope, located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. After taking a hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, the telescope captured these images to test out its instruments before resuming science operations.
The relative sizes of the three planets in this montage is proportional to their apparent size in the night sky. Mars appears a bit bigger than usual because the photo was taken around the same time the Red Planet was at opposition, the point in its orbit where it is directly opposite the sun in Earth's sky, in mid-October. The Red Planet was also at its closest point to Earth on Oct. 6. — Hanneke Weitering
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