Photo of Aurora Australis or the Southern Lights, taken from the International Space Station, flying an altitude of approximately 240 miles. The ISS's Canadarm2 robot arm is in the foreground. (Photo: NASA)

Photo of Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights, taken from the International Space Station flying at an altitude of approximately 240 miles. The ISS’s Canadarm2 robot arm is in the foreground. (Photo: NASA)

Chemists from New York University (NYU) and St. Petersburg State University in Russia have discovered a wholly new phenomenon for crystal growth--a crystal that continually changes its shape as it grows. (Photo: John Freudenthal and Alexander Shtukenberg, New York University)

Chemists from New York University and St. Petersburg State University in Russia, have discovered a wholly new phenomenon for crystal growth – a crystal that continually changes its shape as it grows. (Photo: John Freudenthal and Alexander Shtukenberg, New York University)

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered an extraordinary outburst by a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, located about 15 million light years from Earth. (Photo: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al.)

A jeweled beetle Chrysina gloriosa. The enlarged image in the background shows the insect's light-reflecting structures. (Photo: Georgia Tech; photo by Gary Meek)

A jeweled beetle Chrysina gloriosa. The enlarged image in the background shows the insect’s light-reflecting structures. (Photo: Georgia Tech; photo by Gary Meek)

A cloud forms as this F/A-18 Hornet aircraft speeds up to supersonic speed. Aircraft flying this fast push air up to the very limits of its speed, forming what's called a bow shock in front of them. (Photo: Ensign John Gay, USS Constellation, U.S. Navy)

A cloud forms as this F/A-18 Hornet aircraft speeds up to supersonic speed. Aircraft flying this fast push air up to the very limits of its speed, forming what’s called a bow shock in front of them. (Photo: Ensign John Gay, USS Constellation, U.S. Navy)

NOAA divers cut a Hawaiian green sea turtle free from a derelict fishing net during a recent mission to collect marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. (Photo: NOAA)

NOAA divers cut a Hawaiian green sea turtle free from a fishing net during a recent mission to collect marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. (Photo: NOAA)

This image combines two sets of observations of the sun on from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SD) on July 12, 2012 to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare (Photo: NASA)

This image combines two sets of observations of the sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on July 12, 2012 to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare (Photo: NASA)

A 3-D nanostructure grown by controlled nucleation of silicon carbide nanowires on Gallium catalyst particles as seen by a scanning electron microscope. . (Photo: Ghim Wei Ho and Prof. Mark Welland, Nanostructure Center, University of Cambridge)

A 3-D nanostructure (between molecular and microscopic in size) as seen through a scanning electron microscope. (Photo: Ghim Wei Ho and Prof. Mark Welland, Nanostructure Center, University of Cambridge)

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 12, 2012. This spacecraft, launched July 15 took astronauts to the International Space Station (Photo:NASA/Carla Cioffi)

The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft is rolled out by train on its way to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 12, 2012. This spacecraft, launched July 15, took astronauts to the International Space Station (Photo: NASA/Carla Cioffi)

This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals an exquisitely detailed view of part of the disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 4565, nicknamed the Needle Galaxy, because, when seen in full, it appears as a very narrow streak of light on the sky. (Photo: ESA/NASA)

This image, snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, reveals a detailed view of part of the disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 4565, nicknamed the Needle Galaxy, because, when seen in full, it looks like a very narrow streak of light on the sky. (Photo: ESA/NASA)