NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S BEST SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK CXVIII

Gaze at Supernova Remains and Saturn's Six-Sided Storm
By Michael Greshko, National Geographic News, 29 July 2016.

This week, astronauts train on the ocean floor, red ribbons of gas reveal a long-ago supernova, and Saturn's rings star in an optical illusion.

1. Crimson Carnage

The wisps of glowing gas that make up DEM L316A are the remnants of a supernova that rocked the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbours, more than 160,000 years ago.

2. Age of Aquarius

Six astronauts-in-training pose outside Aquarius, an undersea habitat and laboratory in the Florida Keys. The team will live and work more than 60 feet (19 meters) underwater for 16 days.

3. Strangely Six-Sided

NASA's Cassini spacecraft spots the hexagonal jet stream that flows around Saturn's north pole. The pattern is about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres) across, with winds racing up to 200 miles (322 kilometres) an hour.

4. Bizarre Beacon

Hubble gazes at the stars around AR Scorpii, a nearby double star system. Here, a rapidly spinning white dwarf periodically fires electron beams at its red dwarf partner, which we see as pulses of light every 1.97 minutes.

5. Winds of Change

In this Cassini image, Saturn's A and F rings appear to bend near the planet's disk. As light reflects off the planet's rings, Saturn's upper atmosphere refracts it, making the rings look bent.

6. Viva Italia

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of Rome and the surrounding countryside. The glittering city's metropolitan area is home to 4.3 million people.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited. Links added.]