On Friday September 6, 2013 NASA launched its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. (NASA/Carla Cioffi)

NASA launches its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Sept. 6, 2013. (NASA)

Evening view of the gantry at Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The gantry surrounded the Minotaur V rocket that took NASA’s LADEE lunar probe into space (NASA Wallops/Patrick Black)

Evening view of the gantry at Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The gantry surrounded the Minotaur V rocket that took NASA’s LADEE lunar probe into space (NASA)

A fire salamander - scientists have isolated a new species of fungus that eats amphibians' skin. The fungus has ravaged the fire salamander population in the Netherlands, bringing it close to regional extinction. (Kenny De Boeck)

A fire salamander – scientists have isolated a new species of fungus that eats amphibians’ skin. The fungus has ravaged the fire salamander population in the Netherlands, bringing it close to regional extinction. (Kenny De Boeck)

Sensitive photomultiplier tubes line a detector used by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment in China. The tubes are designed to amplify and record the faint flashes that signify an antineutrino interaction. (Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Sensitive photomultiplier tubes line a detector used by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment in China. The tubes are designed to amplify and record the faint flashes that signify an antineutrino interaction. (Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a massive cloud of multimillion-degree gas in a galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. Scientists say that the hot gas cloud was likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much larger galaxy called NGC 1232. (NASA)

A massive cloud of multi-million-degree gas in a galaxy about 60 million light-years from Earth as revealed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Scientists say the hot gas cloud was likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much larger galaxy called NGC 1232. (NASA)

Fossils of prehistoric snails known as turritellid gastropods. Preserved in silicicalastic sand the snails are about 13 million years old and represent another class of marine organisms affected by the Earth's periodic mass extinction events. (Shanan Peters, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Fossils of prehistoric snails, known as turritellid gastropods, preserved in silicicalastic sand. The snails are about 13 million years old and represent another class of marine organisms affected by the Earth’s periodic mass extinction events. (Shanan Peters, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Part of a particle accelerator at Fermilab that is again producing a neutrino beam that will soon to be one of the most intense neutrino beams in the world. The beam was switched off for about a year so that the equipment that produces it could be revamped (Reidar Hahn, US DOE Fermilab)

Part of a particle accelerator at Fermilab that is again producing a neutrino beam that will soon to be one of the most intense neutrino beams in the world. The beam was switched off for about a year so that the equipment that produces it could be revamped. (Reidar Hahn, US DOE Fermilab)

Hubble captured this image of a caterpillar-shaped interstellar cloud that surrounds a star in the making IRAS 20324+4057. Scientists say that energetic winds are blowing and energetic light is eroding away much of the gas and dust that might have been used to form the star. (NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), IPHAS)

Hubble captured this image of a caterpillar-shaped interstellar cloud surrounding a star in the making known as IRAS 20324+4057. Scientists say winds and energetic light are eroding much of the gas and dust that might have been used to form the star. (NASA)

A school of a small minnow-like fish called Blackside dace. Scientists believe that hydraulic fracturing fluids are believed to be the cause of the widespread death or distress of this aquatic species that is only found in parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and western Virginia. (J. R. Shute , Conservation Fisheries, Inc.)

A school of a small minnow-like fish called Blackside dace that scientists believe are endangered by hydraulic fracturing fluids, which  are believed to be the cause of the widespread death or distress of this aquatic species that is only found in parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and western Virginia. (J. R. Shute , Conservation Fisheries, Inc.)

This image of the NGC 1398 galaxy was taken with the Dark Energy Camera built by the US Department of Energy’s Fermilab. This galaxy, about 65 million light years from Earth is in the Fornax cluster. It is 135,000 light years in diameter, just slightly larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, and contains more than a hundred million stars. (Dark Energy Survey)

This image of the NGC 1398 galaxy was taken with the Dark Energy Camera built by the US Department of Energy’s Fermilab. This galaxy, about 65 million light-years from Earth, is in the Fornax cluster. It is 135,000 light-years in diameter, just slightly larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, and contains more than 100 million stars. (Dark Energy Survey)