This is supernova remnant W49B. It is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, and as we see it it is approximately 1,000 years old. Compared to other supernova remnants of similar type and age, it is distorted in an usual way. Astronomers believe that it is distorted because it is in the infant stages of of forming a black hole -- the very first time this has been observed.

"The ISS is the largest man made object in space. Here's how it compares to other notable objects, both real and fictional, all drawn to scale."

The ISS isn't just the largest space craft ever built, it's also the world's most expensive object. According the Government Accountability Office, it cost upwards of 100 billion dollars to complete.

This fantastic photograph of a hurricane on Saturn was recently snapped by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It measures an astonishing 2,000 kilometers across the eye - that's big enough to cover the UK twelve times. Wind speeds reach as fast as 150 meters per second.

Mercury's surface looks similar to our Moon's. Each is heavily cratered and made of rock. Mercury's diameter is about 4800 km, while the Moon's is slightly less at about 3500 km (compared with about 12,700 km for the Earth). But Mercury is unique in many ways. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, orbiting at about 1/3 the radius of the Earth's orbit. As Mercury slowly rotates, its surface temperature varies from an unbearably cold -180 degrees Celsius to an unbearably hot 400 degrees Celsius. The place nearest the Sun in Mercury's orbit changes slightly each orbit - a fact used by Albert Einstein to help verify the correctness of his then newly discovered theory of gravity: General Relativity. The above picture was taken by the only sp ...

This picture of a green and red aurora was taken on September 26, 2013, from the International Space Station. The colours of the aurora borealis depend on which atoms the solar storm excites. Green auroras appear when charged particles from the solar wind crash with oxygen atoms in Earth’s atmosphere and produce green photons; red auroras occur when the particles collide with nitrogen atoms or when there are lower-energy oxygen collisions, producing red photons.

The vortex is a spherical field of force, or a magnetic disturbance. The vortex is 165 feet in diameter and sits half way above ground and half below. The disturbance, or vortex causes unexplainable changes in perception, causing naturally occurring visual and perceptual phenomena that has been caught on film many times. Within the spherical distortion, people stand at an angle. The disturbance alters your relative gravity, causing you to stand at an angle of varying degrees. It is not possible for someone to stand vertical inside the vortex. It will also make someone who is walking away, seem taller, or shorter depending on where you stand. Balls roll uphill, brooms stand straight up and down on their own, and chairs appear to be held up b ...