Out-of-this-world images from space

The cork heat shield of the European Space Agency's Qarman CubeSat burns away in simulated atmospheric re-entry conditions, during ground testing on February 12. Qarman (QubeSat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements on Ablation) will gather data on atmospheric re-entry using temperature and pressure sensors and a spectrometer. Photo courtesy of ESA

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain on the European continent from Morocco on the African continent. The ISS was orbiting 265 miles above the Atlantic off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal, when this photograph was taken on February 11. Photo courtesy of NASA

The Pine Island Glacier recently spawned an iceberg over 115 square miles that very quickly shattered into pieces. This almost cloud-free image, captured on February 11 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, shows the freshly broken bergs in detail. Photo courtesy of ESA

The ISS was orbiting 266 miles above the Pacific Ocean when this picture was taken just off the western coast of North America on February 9. At top is California's San Francisco Bay. Washington state's Columbia River appears at the bottom of the frame. Photo courtesy of NASA

NASA astronaut and Expedition 62 flight engineer Jessica Meir observes a floating sphere of water formed by microgravity inside the ISS's Kibo laboratory module on February 9. Photo courtesy of NASA

The Mississippi River runs past Lake Pontchartrain, through the city of New Orleans, La., and into the Gulf of Mexico beaming from the sun's glint on February 7. Photo courtesy of NASA

The ISS flies in front of the moon on February as seen from Madrid. The photographer attached a camera to a telescope and while recording at 25 frames per second captured the 690-millisecond transit on video and composed this image of 17 stacked frames. Photo courtesy of Javier Manteca/ESA