NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S BEST SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK XXXIV

Week's Best Space Pictures: A Star Dies, Mars Cracks, and Neutrinos Are Born
By Jane J. Lee, National Geographic News, 14 November 2014.

Astronomers capture the brilliant glow of a dying star, ice on Mars begins to crack, and a supermassive black hole belts out exotic particles in this week's best space pictures.

1. Ready to Launch

NASA's Orion spacecraft - capable of taking astronauts to space and back - nestles into its latest home at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on November 12.

The move is in preparation for a test flight on December 4 to work out any kinks in the safety equipment. The flight will take four hours and orbit the Earth twice.

2. Martian City Cracks

Inca City, an area on the Martian south pole, is developing cracks in a seasonal layer of ice. Dust is visible as dark streaks fanning out from the fissures. The cracks occur when gas builds up under the ice and cannot escape through a weak spot.

3. Old Age

An image of the Helix nebula glows in ultraviolet light as seen with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer telescope. The planetary nebula gives researchers a glimpse of the eventual fate of our own star, the sun, when it nears the end of its life. As the sun runs out of fuel, it will throw off its outer layer of gas, forming a nebula much like Helix. Our sun will turn into a white dwarf, retaining its small, dense core.

4. Quilted Permafrost

Polygons of water form little lakes across the permafrost on Alaska's North Slope in an image released November 13. Permafrost is permanently frozen soil, but with a warming climate, that soil has begun to melt. As the soil melts, it shrinks, leaving cracks that fill with water. (See how drunken trees are a sign of climate change.)

5. Neutrino Factory

Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, may be pumping out an exotic particle called a high-energy neutrino. These particles weigh almost nothing and don't carry an electric charge. This means they can slip across the universe unaffected by forces that could absorb or deflect them.

Our sun constantly pumps out neutrinos. However, the higher-energy versions are born only in the most powerful events taking place in the universe: galaxy collisions, when material falls into a supermassive black hole, and maelstroms surrounding pulsars.

6. Martian Messenger

NASA's Mars orbiter MAVEN is used primarily to study the red planet's upper atmosphere. But the spacecraft is also acting as a relay station, transmitting data and images from rovers on the Martian surface back to Earth.

The Curiosity rover sent this image of Pahrump Hills at the base of Mount Sharp as part of the initial test to see if MAVEN's relay capabilities would work. As we can see, the orbiter did just fine.

Photo gallery by Nicole Werbeck.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited. Some links added.]