September 2, 2008--A composite image of Messier 83 reveals the shining stars and red hydrogen gasses of the "Thousand-Ruby Galaxy."

The image was captured by the ESO/MPG 2.2-meter (7.2 feet) telescope in Chile's mountainous Atacama Desert on August 25.

UV radiation, created by newly formed stars in the galactic center, ionizes Messier 83's hydrogen and causes its reddish glow.

The dramatic pinwheel galaxy is some 15 million light-years from Earth, but appears in many ways much like a smaller version of our own Milky Way.



August 20, 2008--A fire at the Ras Lanuf oil refinery complex casts a plume of black smoke into the clear skies near Libya's Mediterranean coast.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the blaze, which burned for several days.

Libya's National Oil Corporation reported that the fire was an industrial accident in which no one was injured. The nation's proven oil reserves are the world's ninth largest.



August 27, 2008--The history of past Martian climates may lie buried at the planet's poles.

This HiRISE image, taken July 20, shows angular unconformities found in layered deposits near Mars's north pole.

The features can be seen where visible layers appear to be cut off, as observed right of center and at bottom center.

Angular unconformities evidence missing pieces of the red planet's complex geological record, where layers have eroded in places later covered by new material.



August 29, 2008--A composite portrays the Crab Nebula optically, with an image from the Hubble Space Telescope, and with X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory.

The nebula was produced by a cataclysmic supernova seen by Chinese astronomers in A.D. 1054.

The original star's remains form a pulsar in the center of the nebula which emits radiation in a moving, lighthouse-like beam.

The high-energy radiation's direction of polarization, shown by artwork, is aligned with the pulsar's rotation axis.