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Photos:: Awesome images from space

Dawn is leaving the giant asteroid Vesta, shown in an artist's rendering, and heading toward another object, a dwarf planet named Ceres. More: NASA sets its sights on a new asteroid and wants to bring a piece home

Dawn is leaving the giant asteroid Vesta, shown in an artist’s rendering, and heading toward another object, a dwarf planet named Ceres.
More: NASA sets its sights on a new asteroid and wants to bring a piece home  (NASA / Associated Press)

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The huge, high-tech Dark Energy Camera is photographing galaxies 8 billion light-years away. NASA’s spacecraft Dawn is heading toward a dwarf planet. And the legendary twin Voyager crafts are pushing the boundaries of the solar system. Space, it seems, is a lively place. Here are photos from the far reaches of space, plus Mickey Mouse on Mercury.

Volcano on Jupiter moon

An image taken by Voyager 1 shows a volcanic plume on the Jupiter moon Io. Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 were nearing the edge of our solar system in 2012, poised to cross into interstellar space.
More: Voyager 1 set to burst the plasma bubble  (NASA / Associated Press)

Mickey on Mercury

Craters resembling the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head are seen on the surface of Mercury.
More: Messenger sends back myriad images; we like the one of Mickey  (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

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