FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE WEEK - 10

Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech), Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)

Europa's Water

Here's what Earth (right) and Jupiter's moon Europa (left) would look like if all the water was removed and shaped into a lovely blue sphere. Europa's ocean is two to three times larger than our own. Read more here.

Libero Rutilo

The Green Wheel

This hydroponic wheel was actually, according to FastCoDesign, thought up by NASA back in the 1980s as a way to grow plants in space. It was never actually made, for some reason, but designer Libero Rutilo brought it back in this mockup. Seems like it's work well in apartments as well!

RayFish Footwear

Stingray Leather

We're pretty sure this isn't possible for a few reasons--like, we haven't sequenced the stingray's genome, and it seems unlikely that we'd have this level of control anyway--but a company called RayFish is attempting to offer a customized shoe made of genetically modified stingray leather. You pick what you want the stingray to look like, RayFish creates said stingray, then kills it, skins it, and makes shoes out of it. Just for you! It's weird. Read more here.

EPFL/Grégoire Courtine via Reuters

Run Rat Run

This rat may be running a little oddly, but remember what happened to it--this rat was previously paralyzed, and a combination of drugs actually enabled it to walk again. Read more about it here, and don't forget to check out American Photo Mag for more amazing photojournalism like this.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR & UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI

Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy, located in Ursa Major, is about 21 million light-years from Earth--but we can still enjoy its cheerfulness. Read more here.

Jennifer R.S. Gordon and Joaquin C. Brieva

Half Aged

This guy is a truck driver, 69 years old, who's been exposed to 25 years of direct sunlight thanks to his job--but only on the left side of his face. So we get a first-hand view at how much more aged human skin looks when bombarded with sunlight over the years. Crazy. [via Gizmodo]