Hot Shots: We Pick NASA's Best Photos
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Infrared cameras on the Spitzer Space Telescope reveal stars near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The reddish stars are hotter and younger, while the bluer stars are older and cooler. (NASA)
Twice in the past 116 years, in 1892 and 2007, comet Holmes inexplicably erupted when it sped past Jupiter towards the asteroid belt. The Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image of the comet five months after the most recent occasion, when the comet became a million times brighter than normal. (NASA)
In this galaxy cluster known as Hickson Compact Group 90, the two larger elliptical galaxies are expanding in such a way that they will eventually consume the smaller spiral galaxy. (NASA)
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of Sarychev volcano during an eruption. Located in Russia's Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean north of Japan, this volcano on Matua Island is one of the most active in the chain, with three major eruptions in the past 25 years. (NASA)
This photograph of Earth peeking out behind the moon was taken during the lunar orbit of Apollo 17 in 1972, the last time astronauts landed on the moon. (NASA)
Lightning delays the launch of the space shuttle Discovery in August 2009. (NASA)
A monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of newly forming and young stars lies at the center of this coiled galaxy. The black hole has the mass of over 100 million suns. Compare that to the mass of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which has the mass of a few million suns. (NASA)
The Chandra X-Ray Laboratory and the Hubble Space Telescope combined to produce this image of the Cat's Eye Nebula. The intensity of the x-ray emissions was unprecedented. (NASA)
The space shuttle Discovery soars through the sky after launching just before midnight on August 28, 2009. It was the 128th space shuttle flight and the 30th flight to assemble the International Space Station. (NASA)
Scientists believe this is the remnant of a supernova, or exploding star, observed by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD. (NASA)