Rocket Frog
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A hapless frog is caught in the launch blast of NASA's moon rocket during liftoff from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on September 6.
NASA confirmed that the photo is real and that it was snapped by a remote camera triggered by the sound of the blast.
Launched atop a redesigned Cold War intercontinental ballistic missile, the car-sized, scientific orbiter called the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will arrive at the moon in 30 days.
Once in lunar orbit it will examine the structure and composition of the moon's tenuous atmosphere and determine what role dust plays in the lunar environment.
While some have questioned whether the four-legged shadow seen leaping in the photo is just a coincidental lineup of debris, amphibian experts are sure it is real.
"Not being an inanimate object like the other particles flying around, it's body is contorted," said herpetologist Raymond Saumure of WildFauna in Las Vegas, Nevada, vouching for the unfortunate frog.
"That is why portions are in different planes of focus, and the two front limbs do not appear to line up."
—Andrew Fazekas
Space Pictures this Week: Rocket Frog, Cosmic Flock, Galactic Swarm
A would-be frog astronaut, a distant vision of the Milky Way, and a hive of galaxies are among the heroes of the week's space images.
