Despite being one of the brightest objects in the night sky and one of the largest, most complex construction projects in the history of humanity, these pictures of the International Space Station crossing in front of the moon give a remarkable perspective. The photos, taken by a NASA photographer at the Johnson Spaceflight Center, are a sobering reminder that while we’ve come a long way with space travel, we’re still tiny specks compared to the big ol’ universe. See more pictures, after the break.

NASA’s Hubble captured this shot of the star-forming region, Sharpless 2-106, which happens to look pretty similar to a snow angel. NASA explains that twin lobes of super-hot gas stretch outward from the central star, creating what looks like snow angel wings. Even space is telling you to have a happy holiday season, so do it. You don’t want to let space down, do you?

NASA’s Kepler has found the first earth-sized planets orbiting a star outside of our solar system. Unfortunately for extraterrestrial life enthusiasts, the planets are too close to the star, so they are not in the star’s habitable zone. Dubbed Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, the planets are in located a distance from the star that liquid water could not exist on their respective surfaces, however, the planets set a record for being the smallest exoplanets found orbiting a star similar to our sun.

This spectacular view of Saturn’s moon Titan, and its little sister Dione, was captured this week by NASA’s Cassini probe. Assembled by photographer Jason Major, the image shows off the ethereal glow of Titan’s super-thick atmosphere. Space is so cool, guys.

A few months back, two fans of popular horse micturition beer Natural Light (aka Natty Light) realized that to date, no beer had been sent into space. After pitching their idea to the Natty Light brewery, the pair put together a weather balloon spacecraft that would carry a can of their favorite brew to new heights. Unfortunately, it worked and now Natty Light is the first beer in space. With thousands of years of brewing history, this is what we decide to send into space? People, this is like putting Andrew W.K. on the Voyager record. We can do better, I believe in us.

Astronomers have discovered a strange new “species,” so to speak, of galaxy. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA astronomers discovered four of these ultra-red galaxies. Though they are able to describe the members of this type of galaxy, they are unable to explain what makes them so red in color.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, called Curiosity, blasted off today from Cape Canaveral, FL atop an Atlas V rocket on its way to Mars. The ambitious mission will place the most advanced space rover yet conceived on the red planet, in hopes of discerning whether Mars has ever been home to microbial life. Following today’s successful 10 AM launch, the rover will cruise to Mars arriving in August 2012.

See video of this morning’s launch, after the break.

In a bid to go beyond the impossible, NASA has created a material that is blacker than black. Sort of. The material, comprised of something like a shag carpet of carbon nanotubes, boasts a ridiculously high light absorption rate of 99.5% in the visible and ultraviolet ranges. It’s not as good with far-infrared bands, dropping to a still respectable 98% or so. Plenty of other people have been working on similar materials, but NASA blows competitors out of the water.

Researchers have found something surprising amongst the 1,873 gamma ray sources spotted by NASA’s Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. While about 1,200-odd sources are pretty standard, scientists have no clue as to what is producing some 600 sources of gamma rays.

Given the high-energy nature of gamma rays, nearly all of the possible answers to this puzzle are dramatic on a massive scale. Pulsars, massive collapsed stars that shine gamma rays from opposite sides as they spin, are well known sources of gamma rays, as are black holes which produce the energy as a product of consuming huge amounts of mass. The collision of galaxies creates huge shock waves that could also be responsible for producing at least some of the gamma ray bursts, but there’s another more tantalizing possibility: Dark matter.

Flying into space is, for the most part, far more gritty and uncomfortable than Desrumaux Celine’s slick animated short film “Countdown.” However, this animation does capture the incredible effort and tension in the days and moments before a space launch. No matter how impressive future space vehicles may be, I doubt they’ll ever look this good.