FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE WEEK - 14

THE PRAWN

Astrophotographer Dieter Willasch created this great shot of the Prawn Nebula, in the tail of Scorpius. It's about 6,000 light-years away. Read more here.

Dieter Willasch

NOT FROM OUTER SPACE

This image may look like it's capturing a faraway star or some other celestial body, but it's not--it's actually the first-ever snapshot of an individual atom's shadow. Read more here.

Kielpinski Group, Griffith University

FOURTH/MOON

Another great fireworks shot, this was taken in Kansas City, Kansas, where the fireworks and the moon both lit up the sky. For more great photojournalism like this, check out American Photo.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

SIFTING STARLIGHT

New tech offers a better view of exoplanets by using advanced optics to remove the starlight from a photograph. Here's a look at HD 157728, a nearby star 1.5 times larger than the sun. Be sure to check out the whole story here.

Project 1640/NASA-JPL

DARK GALAXIES

For the first time, astronomers have been able to get a better look at starless "dark galaxies," theorized to exist but never directly seen. Even now, it takes some annotation in this image. The quasar lighting them up is circled in red; the dark galaxies are circled in blue. Read the whole story here.

Royal Astronomical Society

MARS PANORAMA

It took 817 images to create a composite panoramic view from NASA's Mars rover, but the results are worth the effort, offering a rare glimpse of the red planet. For more on the image, check out PopPhoto.

NASA

STUNNED FISH

Scientists are using an electric current, shown here, to stun fish in Mississippi and Illinois rivers so they can be studied. It's thought the local fish populations might be hurt by the arrival of Asian Carp, and researchers are scooping up the stunned fish for a closer look.

AP Photo/Robert Ray