NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK LXVII

Space Pictures This Week: A Celestial Dumbbell and a Dying Star
By Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic News, 19 July 2013.

An astronaut says "cheese" during a spacewalk, a star dies, and storm clouds gather in this week's best space pictures.

1. Brewing Up a Storm

Storm clouds brew over the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil in this striking photo snapped by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on July 4.

Glints of sunlight play off the water and clouds, while the setting sun peaks out from behind a Russian spacecraft docked with the orbiting laboratory.

2. A Beautiful End

Resembling a face with a furry hood, the iconic Eskimo nebula is some 4,000 light-years from Earth. It shines bright in this composite image - released July 11 - created from optical data taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The colourful "parka" or outer shell of gas and dust is expanding at speeds of 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometres) an hour, and is lit up by the radiation blasting out from the remains of a dying red giant at the centre of the nebula.

The part of the gas cloud glowing at a million degrees near the centre appears pink to Chandra's x-ray eye, while Hubble's vision highlights intricate streamers of gas in the outer shell in red, green, and blue.

3. Eye in the Sky

Photograph by Nikhil Devasar, Your Shot

Perched atop a desolate mountain in the western Himalaya at 14,800 feet (4,517 meters) above sea level, the Indian Astronomical Observatory is the world's highest telescope facility.

Located in the cloudless, high-altitude desert near the Chinese border in the village of Hanle, India (map), the Chandra telescope is touted as one of the most sophisticated in the Eastern Hemisphere.

In this long-exposure photograph of the mountain observatory - released July 13 - bright stars create curved trails over the course of a few hours.

The sky appears to turn as the Earth rotates around its axis. The North Star (centre), to which our planet's north axis appears to point, remains motionless. (Related: "North Star Closer to Earth Than Thought.")

4. Celestial Dumbbell

Photograph by Andre van der Hoeven, Your Shot

The Dumbbell nebula, a favourite target for generations of backyard telescopes, appears in this image released July 13 with a ghostly outer halo or shell.

Located 1,360 light-years away from Earth in the northern Vulpecula constellation, this colourful bubble of gas and dust is all that remains of a dying sun-like star.

The many shells of hot gas puffed away from the outer atmosphere of the star stretches across 4.5 light-years - wide enough to fill the space between our solar system and the nearest star.

5. Say Cheese!

American astronaut Chris Cassidy poses with his digital still camera in front of one of the International Space Station's solar panels during a spacewalk on July 16.

A little more than an hour into the outing, fellow spacewalker Luca Parmitano reported water accumulating in his helmet and ground controllers decided to end the extravehicular activity early.

Top image: Eskimo Nebula. Credit: NASA/Andrew Fruchter (STScI)

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited.]