NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S BEST SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK LXXII

Week's Best Space Pictures: Side-On View of Saturn's Ring
By Jane J. Lee, National Geographic News, 7 August 2015.

Feed your need for "heavenly" views of the universe every Friday with our picks of the most awe-inspiring space pictures. This week, astronauts peer down on tiny islands and Jupiter's Great Red Spot continues to mystify.

1. Tiny Moons

Two of Saturn's moons, Mimas (right) and Dione (left), straddle the planet's rings in an image from Cassini. At over 75,000 miles across, Saturn dwarfs its companions: Mimas is about 250 miles across while Dione is 700 miles in diameter.

2. Blue Haven

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took a picture of Adele Island off northern Australia. The island (dark centre area) is an important breeding ground for lesser frigatebirds and is surrounded by concentric circles of sand.

3. Space Veggies

This is what gardens in space look like. Astronauts are growing lettuce in part to test VEGGIE, a set of special lights along with packets or "pillows" of nutrients that nourish plants and vegetables in space.

4. Great Dot

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (right) has been charging through the gas giant's atmosphere for at least the past 150 years. Winds peak at 400 miles per hour, but scientists still don't know much about the violent storm.

5. Oddballs

A group of strange space rocks called the Euphrosyne asteroids (pronounced you-FROH-seh-nee) circles high above the gap between Mars and Jupiter. The Euphrosynes produce objects that can hurtle uncomfortably close to Earth.

6. ISS Exposed

The International Space Station (white line) streaks across the night sky over Elkton, Virginia, in this ten-second exposure.

Photo gallery by Emily Jan.

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