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These are the best science images of the week

Rebecca Harrington

2015-11-14T13:09:00Z

commercial fishing differs based on what you are fishing when crabbing fishermen drop cages called crab pots in areas that are known to be filled with crabs — Photographer Corey Arnold documented fishing in the Bering Sea. Corey Arnold/Fish-Work: Bering Sea

This week in science news, construction began on what could become the world's largest optical telescope, SeaWorld announced it would stop killer whale shows in its San Diego amusement park, and a heap of space junk exploded in Earth’s atmosphere.

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Scientists also discovered the closest rocky Earth-sized exoplanet ever, and the smog in China reached levels 50 times more than the World Health Organization deems safe.

Many of these stories also had remarkable images.

Here are 26 of our favorites:

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NASA released close-up photos of last year's massive Antares rocket explosion, which destroyed the rocket, the Cygnus spacecraft, and the 5,000 pounds of cargo inside.

Antares rocket explosion

Source: See a rocket bound for space explode in these never-before-seen photos

To better understand what's going on on the dwarf planet, NASA created a false color image of Pluto this week using data that the New Horizons spacecraft collected when it flew past the dwarf planet in July. The different colors represent the many types of surface textures and terrain that are present on the planet.

psychedelic pluto

Source: Scientists don't understand Pluto so they painted it with psychedelic colors

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These 12 foods are actually fruits, not vegetables.

Foods you didn't know were fruits

Source: 12 foods you had no idea were fruits

Tech Insider reporter Kevin Loria looked into difficult-to-believe germ warfare experiments that the government conducted on American citizens from 1949 to 1969. The plane below is a C-119 Flying Boxcar — one type of plane used to release chemicals over the Midwest to test how a biological or chemical weapon would spread throughout the country.

C 119 aircraft — A C-119 Flying Boxcar, one type of plane used to release chemicals. Official USAF photo

Source: Over and over again, the military has conducted dangerous biowarfare experiments on Americans

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This past weekend alone, smog levels in China crept up to about 50 times more than the World Health Organization deems safe. Many citizens, like these children on their way to school, took to wearing masks whenever they went outside.

China air pollution — Young students and their parents wearing masks walk along a street on a hazy day in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China, November 3, 2015. Some kindergartens and schools were closed as severe air pollution hit northeastern Chinese city of Harbin on Tuesday, local media reported. China Stringer Network/Reuters

Source: China's smog crisis looks like something out of a nightmare

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National Geographic released gorgeous images from its annual photo contest. They're still accepting entries through Nov. 16, 2015. In this image, a baby elephant disguised in sand pokes through a line of elephants that had just crossed the Chobe River in Botswana, Africa on a hot day. The animals relax and cool down by flicking cool sand onto their backs.

Source: The 12 most stunning entries from the National Geographic photo contest

Enter the contest here >

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The tiny Martian moon Phobos is slowly being shredded into pieces because it's so close to Mars that the planet's gravity is pulling unusually hard on it.

stickney crater phobos

Source: Something awful is happening to the largest moon of Mars

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After 26 years of slumber, a black hole woke up and unleashed a giant blast of plasma into space at nearly the speed of light. NASA put together this animation of what the explosion might have looked like around the black hole.

Source: Astronomers saw a black hole wake up after 26 years and do something extremely violent

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Construction began in Chile Wednesday, Nov. 11, on what could become the world's largest optical telescope — the 22-story Giant Magellan Telescope. Below is an illustration of what the completed telescope will look like.

GMT

Source: We just started building the largest and most powerful optical telescope ever

Researchers scanned the Great Pyramid of Giza and found striking "thermal anomalies" on the eastern side, which could be a tomb, secret passage, or maybe just a crack in the rock.

Giza Pyramids

Source: Scientists heat-scanned Egypt's pyramids and found something strange

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The once-plentiful cod fishery in the Gulf of Maine is headed for collapse because of climate change, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Cod and sea temperature in the Gulf of Maine — Slow adaptation in the face of rapid warming leads to the collapse of Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine. Pershing et al. / Lenfest Ocean Program

Source: Something alarming is happening in the Gulf of Maine

A computer made up hilarious stories about 5,000 images based on romance novels and Taylor Swift lyrics. For example, this screengrab from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade the computer's interpreted as: "My man in a manner was wearing his hat, and I didn't know what to say. In fact, he seemed to be looking at me as if he were the only woman in the world, and I had no intention of letting her go."

indiana jones last crusade

Source: A computer made up stories about these 13 photos and the results are hilarious

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GJ 1132b is the closest rocky Earth-sized exoplanet ever discovered, a team of scientists reported in the journal Nature this week.

hires — An artist's rendering of the newly discovered exoplanet. Dana Berry

Source: This could be the most important planet humanity has ever discovered

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Lenticular clouds descended on Cape Town, South Africa this week, making it look like there were spaceships in the sky. We explained the science behind this wacky phenomenon.

UFO's over Cape Town 👽 #lenticularclouds #Capetown #ishootwithorms #tablemountain

A photo posted by Kyle Mijlof (@mijlof) on Nov 8, 2015 at 12:28pm PSTNov 8, 2015 at 12:28pm PST

Source: Here's the science behind those weird UFO-shaped clouds over Cape Town

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A piece of space junk called WT1190F entered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated on Friday morning.

a piece of space junk called wt1190f erupts in a fireball with a trail of dust behind it in the sky

Source: A heap of space junk just exploded in Earth’s atmosphere

The latest data released this week from the New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto in July, suggest the dwarf planet hosts ice volcanoes more than 100 miles wide. In this image, the brown patches show the peaks, blue patches show depressions, and the green shows intermediate height. You can see the bluish color at the center of both mountain peaks, suggesting a volcanic mouth.

volcanoes pluto

Source: Scientists are very suspicious about these 'mountains' on Pluto

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Synthetic, lab-grown diamonds got their celebrity endorsement this week as startup Diamond Foundry publicly launched Wednesday, attracting investors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Facebook cofounder Andrew McCollum. The Diamond Foundry says their diamonds can be grown in a lab in just two weeks.

diamond foundry

Source: Silicon Valley is going crazy for a startup that claims it can grow hundreds of real diamonds in 2 weeks

SeaWorld will phase out the killer whale shows in its San Diego amusement park next year, likely due to the bad publicity following the documentary "Blackfish." They will be replaced with more educational and "natural" shows, the company says.

sea world killer whale

Source: SeaWorld is finally putting an end to its killer whale shows in San Diego

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A computer ranked what made the best selfies. Here are the top 100.

Selfies good to bad

Source: Science reveals how not to take a selfie

Five scientists, one mathematician, and a group of seven physicists walked off a stage with $21 million at the Breakthrough Prize awards on Sunday night. University Colledge, London Neuroscientist John Hardy (middle) won the prize in Life Sciences. He's posing here with 23andMe founder and biologist Anne Wojcicki and Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the awards.

breakthrough awards anne wojcicki sergey brin GettyImages 496361780 — Co-Founder, Google, Sergey Brin, Professor, Neuroscience, University College Institute of Neurology, London, John Hardy posing with the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and biologist Anne Wojcicki at the 2016 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on November 8, 2015 in Mountain View, California. Kimberly White/Getty Images

Source: 13 researchers just won an award that blows the Nobel Prize away

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Construction workers discovered two chambers of human bones on Nov. 3 and 4 along the eastern edge of New York City's Washington Square Park. Tech Insider reporter Julia Calderone visited the site.

Source: We visited the site of the century-old burial vaults recently discovered in New York

Photographer Corey Arnold left behind a poor economy in San Francisco and headed up to Alaska to try his luck at his longtime passion of fishing. He shared some of his photos with us.

commercial fishing differs based on what you are fishing when crabbing fishermen drop cages called crab pots in areas that are known to be filled with crabs — Photographer Corey Arnold documented fishing in the Bering Sea. Corey Arnold/Fish-Work: Bering Sea

Source: The dangerous and unbelievable lives of fisherman on Alaska's Bering Sea

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Australian company Carnegie Wave Energy recently revealed that it's working with the government-owned energy company Western Power to create the world’s first wave energy island microgrid that's connected to an electricity network. The image below shows the units — which are basically fully submerged buoys, called buoyant actuators — tethered to a pump on the seafloor.

ceto 5

Source: This is the world's first energy grid that harnesses the power of undersea waves

Take a tour of The Explorers Club, which funds, promotes, and assists scientific expeditions around the world, often bringing together business bigwigs like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with enterprising explorers hell-bent on doing things that no one else has done.

explorers (30 of 84)

Source: Take a tour inside the super-elite club that counts Elon Musk, James Cameron, and Buzz Aldrin as members

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Check out the microbes that are very likely living on or inside of you at this very moment, and whether or not each can cause illness.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Source: 13 creepy pictures of the microbes that are living inside of you

To complete your weekend plans, a data scientist mapped out the best American brewery road trip.

brewery road trip final3 2

Source: This is the ultimate beer road trip according to a data scientist

NASA Science China

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