Window on Infinity: Pictures from Space
A comet closes in for a Holiday rendezvous with Earth, while new stars are born in the Elephant Trunk Nebula, and the coldest place in the universe shows its face. In other words, just another month in space.
E Allouis / Astrium / NASA
This prototype space car, known as the Bridget rover, was used in a five-day field trial in the Atacama Desert in Chile to test systems for future Mars rovers. The Bridget was fed instructions from a remote control center in the United Kingdom. The U.K.-Chile distance is not quite the Earth-Mars distance, but it's as good a simulation as you can get without going into space.