Tim Peake and space station crew mates return to Earth

Technical problems discovered during ground testing of U.S.-built detectors for the European Space Agency’s Euclid astronomy mission will delay the completion of the telescope’s scientific payload, jeopardising the observatory’s 2020 launch target, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division said last week.

Straight lines do not often crop up in space. Whenever they do, they seem somehow incongruous and draw our attention. The Red Rectangle, a so-called planetary nebula surrounding the double star HD 44179 some 2300 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros, is one such mystery object.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured some stunning views of a Soyuz capsule returning to Earth bringing home a space station crew.