An alien invader, another blue planet and a stinky flower blooms - these are just a few of the best science photos we brought you this week.
1. What a looker!
The eye-catching red lionfish is eating its way through Caribbean reefs, and nothing, not even a toothy shark, seems able to stop the voracious fish, a new study finds.
"Lionfish are here to stay, and it appears that the only way to control them is by fishing them," said researcher John Bruno, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2. Manhattanhenge
Rainy weather in the Big Apple is threatening to wash out New Yorkers' view of "Manhattanhenge" this evening (July 12), an eye-catching phenomenon when the setting sun perfectly aligns with Manhattan's street grid.
The event occurs four times a year, during which the setting sun lines up with the city's grid layout, bathing the north and south sides of every cross street with warm, orangey-pink light. Tonight's Manhattanhenge will be the second of the year; New Yorkers were previously treated to the pretty spectacle on May 29.
3. Alien planet is blue
Colour astronomers ecstatic, as they have, for the first time, deciphered the hue of a distant world. The exoplanet, dubbed HD 189733b, is a deep cobalt blue and lies some 63 light-years from Earth (our own blue marble).
While HD 189733b may boast a similar shade as our planet, the orb is not rocky and is instead considered a hot Jupiter, meaning a gaseous planet that orbits very near to its host star, according to SPACE.com. Its weather is no picnic, either. The planet likely experiences glass rain that rushes in sideways in raging winds - some 4,350 mph (7,000 km/h). Its atmosphere, according to NASA scientists, can reach 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).
4. Primeval underwater forest
Scuba divers have discovered a primeval underwater forest off the coast of Alabama.
The Bald Cypress forest was buried under ocean sediments, protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50,000 years, but was likely uncovered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Ben Raines, one of the first divers to explore the underwater forest and the executive director of the non-profit Weeks Bay Foundation, which researches estuaries.
5. Stinky bloom
One of the world's worst smelling flowers is about to make a stink in Washington, D.C.
A towering specimen of the titan arum, or corpse flower, went on display at the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory Thursday (July 11), as the plant is about to hit peak bloom - a rare and brief spectacle that reeks like rotting flesh.
6. Seafloor sponge boom
When the Larsen A ice shelf in Antarctica disintegrated almost two decades ago, the influx of sunlight breathed new life into the marine environment below. But now, the benthos, or seafloor life, is changing much more rapidly than scientists thought possible, according to a new study.
In particular, populations of glass sponges (Hexactinellida) - animals previously believed to grow and reproduce very slowly - have tripled between 2007 and 2011, allowing them to completely take over the seafloor.
7. Stellar baby photos
A giant radio telescope in Chile has captured amazing baby photos of what will eventually be a colossal star 11,000 light-years from Earth. Even more shocking: It's still growing, scientists say.
The giant star, which scientists billed as a "monster star," is forming inside a vast cloud of interstellar dust that has 500 times the mass of the sun. It was discovered by astronomers using the huge Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre array telescope, or ALMA, in Chile's high Atacama Desert.
8. Bling!
The dazzling 55-carat Kimberley Diamond makes its debut at the American Museum of Natural History in New York Thursday (July 11).
The champagne-coloured "cape diamond" was originally cut from a 490-carat stone found sometime before 1868 in the Kimberley Mine in South Africa. (A carat is a unit of weight equivalent to about a fifth of a gram, or about 0.007 ounces.) The diamond was later cut to 70 carats in 1921, and cut to its stunning present form in 1958.
9. Train fire seen from space
When a runaway oil train derailed and exploded in a small town in Quebec over the weekend, it sparked an inferno that was visible from space.
The disaster in Lac-Mégantic, near the Maine border, flattened dozens of buildings and left at least 15 people dead early Saturday (July 6). As of Tuesday (July 9), authorities were still searching for 35 people who remained missing, according to Canada's Globe and Mail.
10. Death Valley
Death Valley's record temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) - the hottest ever measured on Earth - was set exactly 100 years ago today. But the tale of how the rocky expanse of California desert came to be known as the world's hottest place involves a lengthy stretch in the number two slot, a mission to set the record straight, and a scientist who disappeared amid a revolution.
For decades, scientists debated whether El Azizia, Libya, or the eastern California desert expanse had the definitive claim to the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet. An international meteorology committee was tasked with investigating the competing claims, made decades earlier, but their efforts were disrupted by a revolution in Libya.
11. Solar plane touches down
The two Swiss pilots who flew a solar-powered airplane on a record-setting coast-to-coast flight across the United States say they hope their accomplishment will draw the world's attention to the vast potential of sustainable energy.
André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard alternated flying the solar plane, called Solar Impulse, on the five legs of the aircraft's cross-country journey.
12. A kinky hawkmoth
With perhaps the kinkiest alarm system in the animal kingdom, hawkmoths rub their genitals to create ultrasound bursts that might drive away bats, researchers say.
Moths, unlike their butterfly relatives, fly mostly during the night. This means they often share the skies with bats, which are similarly nocturnal.
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