Space Pictures

Before the Fall

Photograph courtesy NASA

Backlighted by sunshine streaming over Earth's horizon, the European Space Agency's Johannes Kepler automated transfer vehicle separates from the International Space Station on June 20. Stuffed with garbage—including astronaut urine—the unmanned craft tumbled back to Earth the next day, becoming a fireball over a remote section of the Pacific Ocean.

Strange Skies

Photograph courtesy David Hughes, NASA

Noctilucent, or "night shining," clouds glow over Edmonton, Canada, on July 2.
The electric blue clouds are showing up at ever more southerly latitudes, and astronomers aren't sure why, according to NASA. Their beauty, however, is no mystery, and Northern Hemisphere sky-watchers are advised to scan the heavens for night-shiners between mid-May and late August, when the phenomenon is most common.