APOD 2.3

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091115.html
This picture is of the ring nebula. It shows a much more detailed view of the nebula then you can see with a normal telescope from earth. It shows the colors of the gases that are in the nebula, blue in the middle with red on the outside. This nebula was probably created at the end of a star's life, probably one very similar to our own. The nebula is about 500 times the size of our solar system in diameter and is 4,000 light years away.

APOD 2.2

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091108.html
This picture is of M7, an open star cluster in the constellation Scorpius. M7 contains about 100 stars that are mostly blue and is about 200 million years old. The cluster spans across 25 light years. What really interested me in this picture were the incredible amount of stars that you could see in the background of the picture. These millions of stars are part of a dark dust cloud toward the center if our galaxy.

APOD 2.1

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091102.html
This picture shows the Ares rocket test launch that happened just a few days ago at NASA. Ares is the first non-shuttle rocket to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center since the Saturn launched humans into Earth's orbit and the Moon in the 60s and 70s. The rocket can go from 0 km/hour to 100 km/hour in 8 seconds or less. The picture also shows a cloud that has formed on the outside of the rocket due to a sudden drop in air pressure.