In Pictures: Exploring Mars with Curiosity
In Pictures: Meteors
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Dancing with the Stars
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Black Holes
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Asteroids
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Visions of the future
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Massive Storms
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Gas giants
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Heavenly Rings
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Female Astronauts
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: The Moon
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: A Blue Planet
Because of the absence of gravity, fuels burning in space behave very differently than they do on Earth. In this image, a 3-millimeter diameter droplet of heptane fuel burns in microgravity, producing soot. This colorized grayscale image is a composite of the individual video frames of the backlit fuel droplet. The bright yellow structure in the middle is the path of the droplet, which becomes smaller as it burns. Initial soot structures (in green) tend to form near the liquid fuel. These come together into larger and larger particles which ultimately spiral out of the flame zone in long, twisting streamers.
This photograph shows a candle flame burning over time in microgravity, it shows pieces of wax or soot moving through the flame about 25 seconds after ignition.
The liquid inside a water balloon holds its shape after the balloon is punctured in microgravity.
This combination image shows a comparison between a flame on Earth and a flame in a microgravity environment.
A drop of water is seen in a microgravity environment.
Astronaut Clayton Anderson watches as a water bubble floats in the middeck of space shuttle Discovery during the STS-131 mission. Note that his image in the bubble is upside down because the bubble refracted the light.
Researchers have found that as melted metals and alloys (combinations of metals) solidify, they can form with different arrangements of atoms, called microstructures. For experimental purposes, researchers conduct experiments that examine and control conditions at the interface in microgravity. Microgravity also helps in the study of alloys composed of two metals that do not mix. On Earth, the liquid mixtures of these alloys settle into different layers due to gravity. In microgravity, the liquid metals do not settle, and a solid more uniform mixture of both metals can be formed.
The first United States Microgravity Laboratory was one of NASA's science and technology programs that provided scientists an opportunity to research various scientific investigations in a weightlessness environment inside the Spacelab module. This is a close-up view of the Drop Physics Module in the USML science laboratory. The DPM was dedicated to the detailed study of the dynamics of fluid drops in microgravity: their equilibrium shapes, the dynamics of their flows, and their stable and chaotic behaviors.
These tomatoes grown in microgravity were found to have increased levels of a particular hormone concentration. Scientists have been able to manipulate this phenomenon to produce larger, seedless fruits in the absence of pollination.
These are harvester ants with powerful jaws. In a strange coincidence, a harvester ant colony has a comparable number of neurons as a human brain. There are about 1.6 million ants for every person on earth. The ants you see crawling around are all female. This gel farm was developed by NASA to survive Space Shuttle launches (sand would shift and crush the ants under many G’s). They wanted to study tunnel formation in microgravity. The gel does not collapse during launch, and it contains all the food and water the ants need. It also has some antibiotics and anti-fungal agents.
As a demonstration of how fluids act in a weightless environment, astronaut Donald Pettit spreads food coloring in a thin water film.
This combination photo compares the familiar image of boiling water on Earth (l.) with water boiling in a microgravity environment.
The Forced Flow Flame-Spreading Test was designed to study flame spreading over solid fuels, as some materials are more flammable in microgravity than earth.
Launched on June 20, 1996, the STS-78 mission's primary payload was the Life and Microgravity Spacelab, which was managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. During the 17-day space flight, the crew conducted a diverse slate of experiments divided into a mix of life science and microgravity investigations. This photo represents the development of Medaka Fish Embryos, one of the many studies of the LMS mission.
The image shows a test cell of Crystal Growth experiment inside the Vapor Crystal Growth System furnace aboard the STS-42, International Microgravity Laboratory-1, mission. The goal of IML-1, a pressurized marned Spacelab module, was to explore in depth the complex effects of weightlessness of living organisms and materials processing.
A flame is ignited in microgravity in this photo from the Japan Microgravity Center.
In Pictures: Sinkholes around the world
In Pictures: What happened to the green revolution in Iran?
In Pictures: Facing the devastation of the Oklahoma tornadoes
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/20
In Pictures: Weather extremes 2013
In Pictures: The Israeli separation barrier: A West Bank wall
In Pictures: Derby Day devotees, Kenyan style
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 05/16
In Pictures: Dazzle like Beckham
Burmese are celebrating an end to their long international isolation with the first state visit to the US by a Myanmar president in almost 50 years.
Myanmar President Thein Sein's historic Monday meeting with US President Obama has been well-received at home, with Burmese seemingly happy that the country is gaining some positive recognition on the world stage after decades of isolation.
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