NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK LXXI

Best New Space Pictures: Meteoric Meadow, Milky Way Shoreline
By Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic News, 16 August 2013.

We rounded up the best new pictures from space this week, including spectacular images from the Perseid meteor shower.

1. Meteoric Meadow

Photograph by Leif Smith, National Geographic Your Shot

A flurry of meteors fills the starry skies above a lupine meadow and Mount Hood in Oregon on August 11.

This year's Perseid shower produced an exceptionally high rate of meteors, with the bright moon out of the sky during peak nights.

Observation reports from around the world suggested as many as 70 to 80 shooting stars per hour could be seen from dark locations away from city lights. (Related: "Your Best Photos of the Perseid Meteor Shower.")

2. Cosmic Graffiti

Photograph by Arlene Schlazer, National Geographic Your Shot

Meteorite collector Arlene Schlazer shows off her artistic side in this image of hundreds of meteoric iron spheroids in a magnetically induced pattern and a letter 'A' made from an iron meteorite.

When a giant iron meteor slammed into the desert floor in northern Arizona thousands of years ago, the impact - at a site known today as Meteor Crater - vaporized a large portion of the space rock in the process.

A hot cloud of iron vapour was created, scattering countless numbers of these tiny spheroids onto the surrounding landscape.

3. Desert Lights

Partly cloudy skies blur the many city lights along the coastlines of southwestern Saudi Arabia in this July 26 shot taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The brightest light pollution originates from the cities of Khamis Mushait and Abha on the right of the frame, and Jeddah and Mecca on the far left.

4. Overflowing Milky Way

Photograph by Oshin D. Zakarian, TWAN

The Milky Way appears to pour down onto the steep cliffs near Lake Sevan in Armenia in this long-exposure portrait taken on August 9.

Summertime in the Northern Hemisphere is the best season to see our home galaxy, which looks like a band of hazy light stretching across the overhead sky.

5. Orion's Star Factory

This near-infrared image of a small portion of the famed Orion nebula was snapped by the Gemini South Observatory in Chile in January. It showcases the spectacular aftermath of an explosion associated with the birth of massive stars.

Astronomers analyze the blobs of hydrogen gas, which are being expelled like cosmic bullets in all directions, to help determine the intensity of the stellar blast that created them.

Located some 1,500 light-years from Earth, the Orion nebula is one of the largest and closest star factories. It is filled with dozens of new-born stars still embedded in the giant cloud of gas and dust.

6. Galaxy Smash-Up

The Chandra x-ray space observatory spies the remnants of a dwarf galaxy ramming into a much larger spiral galaxy 60 million light-years from Earth.

The cosmic pileup created a multimillion-degree cloud of gas within the pinwheel-shaped galaxy - seen here in purple - which is estimated to weigh up to three million times more than the mass of our own sun.

7. Xombie Test Flight

A private suborbital rocket blasts off its pad for a test flight on August 12 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Dubbed the Xombie, this experimental rocket from Masten Space Systems demonstrates vertical take-offs and landings using new control software that will help future planetary spacecraft attain pinpoint landing accuracy.

8. Blooming Celestial Flower

Photograph by Fred Herrmann, National Geographic Your Shot

Like a flower in full bloom, this colourful portrait of the Rosette nebula was taken through a backyard telescope in Alabama on August 13.

Located some 5,000 light-years from Earth, this stellar nursery measures 130 light-years across and is a hotbed of star formation.

Massive new-born stars emit intense radiation that has hollowed out the central core of the nebula, blowing the gas and dust into an expanding shell that glows like a neon sign.

9. Milky Way Shores

Photograph by G. Norman, National Geographic Your Shot

In this breathtaking picture taken on August 11, the heart of the Milky Way galaxy appears to lap the seaside landscape at Tulka, South Australia.

"While out looking for the Perseid meteor shower, I was shooting close to the waves in the darkness, only I couldn't see the size of the waves coming and got very wet feet during this shot," commented photographer Greg Norman.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited.]