The gantry arms close around the Soyuz rocket after it was raised into vertical position on the launch pad, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Because they lack stellar nurseries and contain mostly old stars, elliptical galaxies — Like Messier 110 — are often considered “dead” when compared to their spiral relatives. But scientists have spotted signs of a population of young, blue stars at Messier 110’s center, hinting that this neighbor of our Milky Way may not be so “dead” after all.

This image shows sedimentary rock and sand within Danielson Crater, an impact crater about 42 miles or 67 kilometers in diameter, located in the southwest Arabia Terra region of Mars.

Actor Brad Pitt speaks with NASA astronaut Nick Hague who is onboard the International Space Station, Monday, Sept. 16, 2019.

In this mage from June 2002, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a spacewalk to perform work on the International Space Station.

Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, participated in crew egress training for Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-47 mission during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.

This 2019 photo of Manhattan, taken by astronaut Nick Hague from aboard the International Space Station, shows a city totally recovered from the attack on September 11, 2001.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke works through a check list inside a mockup of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner during a simulation at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Aug. 21, 2019.

Scientists with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission and the European-Russian ExoMars mission traveled to the Australian Outback to hone their research techniques.

On Sept. 4, 2019, a loose chain of tropical cyclones lined up across the Western Hemisphere.