During an engineering flight test of the Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft shows smoke plumes, from roughly 65,000 feet, produced by the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California, around 1 p.m. PST on Dec. 5th, 2017. via NASA http://ift.tt/2j3XCf5

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft at sunrise, prior to its departure from the International Space Station at 8:11 a.m., Dec. 6, 2017. Expedition 53 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA gave the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm the command to release Cygnus. via NASA http://ift.tt/2k27en9

Frigid air blowing from Eastern Russia created dramatic cloud formations over the Sea of Okhotsk in late November, 2017. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the stunning scene on November 25. via NASA http://ift.tt/2At1dK0

The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon at roughly five miles per second, Dec. 2, 2017, in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Onboard are NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. via NASA http://ift.tt/2kkVEaq

The Hubble Space Telescope peers into the distant universe to reveal a galaxy cluster called Abell 2537. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BtpnkK

The International Space Station is seen in this twenty-second exposure as it flies over the Washington National Cathedral, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Onboard are: NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. via NASA http://ift.tt/2Ai5EYb

Dellingr is a shoebox-sized spacecraft built to show that CubeSat platforms could be cost-effective, reliable and capable of gathering highly robust science. via NASA http://ift.tt/2zNsgko

These two images illustrate just how far Cassini traveled to get to Saturn. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BgsfBr

This artist’s rendering shows the tidal disruption event named ASASSN-14li, where a star wandering too close to a 3-million-solar-mass black hole was torn apart. The debris gathered into an accretion disk around the black hole. via NASA http://ift.tt/2hS1Q5y

Ice can be stunningly beautiful and also quite varied in its appearance. via NASA http://ift.tt/2zssDk2