Space Pictures This Week: Space Rose, Ghostly Horses

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Photograph courtesy NASA

An unpiloted resupply vehicle snapped this picture as it approached the International Space Station this week.

The vehicle provided the 34 crew members on board with essential supplies, including oxygen, water, spare parts, even logistics equipment—2.9 tons of supplies in all. (See pictures of early U.S. spaceflight.)

Published February 22, 2013

Everglades of Europe

Image courtesy Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, EO-1/NASA/USGS

The Danube cuts a jade path across part of the Danube Biosphere Reserve, located in Romania and the Ukraine, on its way to the Black Sea in an image captured February 5 by NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite.

Europe's largest river, the Danube spans 309,447 square miles (801,463 square kilometers) and winds its way through 19 countries.

Called the "Everglades of Europe," the Danube delta is home to more than 300 species of birds and 45 species of fish, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. (See more river pictures.)

Published February 22, 2013

Bird's-Eye View

Image by Maurizio Cabibbo, My Shot

Photographer Maurizio Cabibbo submitted this picture of the chaotic center of the Cygnus, or Swan, constellation on February 11 to the National Geographic photo community My Shot.

Resembling a swan flying across the night sky, Cygnus is easily seen in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA.

Published February 22, 2013

Happy Trails

Photograph by Steven Beckett, Your Shot

Star trails swirl around the North Star in a long-exposure picture submitted February 16 to the National Geographic photo community My Shot.

Photographer Steven Beckett captured this picture while camping in the mountains near Dharamsala, India. (See more star pictures.)

Published February 22, 2013

Spirit Horses

Photograph by Andre Erlich, Your Shot

An aurora casts a ghostly glow over horses in northern Iceland in a picture submitted to National Geographic's My Shot photography community on February 18.

Named after Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, the vivid beams of light from aurora borealis result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere. (See more aurora pictures: "Solar Flare Sparks 'Snakes,' 'Spears.'")

Published February 22, 2013

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Image courtesy SDO/NASA

Published February 22, 2013