Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft launches aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 4:44:56 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission will deliver experiments, equipment and supplies to the orbiting laboratory and its six-person crew. via NASA http://ift.tt/1IyvA1g

In this highest-resolution image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, great blocks of Pluto’s water-ice crust appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi mountains. via NASA http://ift.tt/1lCvXgz

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Orbital ATK’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft aboard stands at the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Dec. 3, 2015. via NASA http://ift.tt/1O5HzzT

The International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, is visible over Earth in this Nov. 27, 2015 photograph. On Dec. 6, Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren will operate the Canadarm2 from inside the station’s cupola, using it for the rendezvous and grapple of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus commercial cargo craft. via NASA http://ift.tt/1NHLZCC

After 20 years in space, ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, is still going strong. Originally launched in 1995 to study the sun and its influence out to the very edges of the solar system, SOHO revolutionized this field of science, known as heliophysics, providing the basis for nearly 5,000 scientific papers. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Xvle9g

Although Enceladus and Saturn’s rings are largely made up of water ice, they show very different characteristics. via NASA http://ift.tt/1IvHEuX

In July 2015, researchers announced the discovery of a black hole that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy. The discovery calls into question previous assumptions on development of galaxies. The black hole was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope, and detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, by ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra. via NASA http://ift.tt/1jnIyTy

This curious galaxy — only known by the seemingly random jumble of letters and numbers 2MASX J16270254+4328340 — has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope dancing the crazed dance of a galactic merger. The galaxy has merged with another galaxy leaving a fine mist, made of millions of stars, spewing from it in long trails. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P8Z0p1

NASA’s three WB-57s fly over foggy downtown Houston, Texas during their historic formation flight over the area on Nov. 19, 2015. This photo flight was the first time that all three WB-57s have been aloft simultaneously since the early 1970s, when the U.S. Air Force had an operational squadron of WB-57s. via NASA http://ift.tt/1ji4Q97

The springtime phytoplankton communities shown in this image were spotted between the Falkland Islands to the west and South Georgia Island to the east by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite on November 16, 2015. via NASA http://ift.tt/1QEaqkM