Best Space Pictures: Martian Potholes, Space Diplomats, and an Erupting Star
A Mars rover looks back a decade and the moon intertwines with Venus, in the week's best space pictures.
International space cooperation continued this week, even amid earthly diplomatic upheaval over Crimea, with a Russian rocket carrying astronauts and cosmonauts into orbit.
Gantry arms closed around the Soyuz spacecraft that headed to the International Space Station prior to its launch, seen in this March 23 picture from NASA.
The arms secure the rockets before each launch. This latest one carried NASA astronaut Steven Swanson with Russia's Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev aloft to start a six-month mission on the space station.
Potholes are a plague even on other planets, as seen in this image, released on March 26, of a pitted ancient crater on Mars.
Taken from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the crater resides in the Arabia
