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The Big Picture: A massive typhoon as seen from orbit
No, a black hole didn't suddenly open up on the Earth's surface. That's Vongfong, a gigantic storm (then a super typhoon) that has been causing chaos in the Asia-Pacific region for much of October. NASA astronaut Reid Weisman posted this dramatic photo as the International Space Station orbited overhead on the morning of October 9th, when Vongfong was getting close to Okinawa. It had been downgraded to "just" a category 4 super typhoon by then, but that still made it both enormous and dangerous -- the eye alone was about 30 miles across, and it had sustained winds of nearly 150MPH. As beautiful as this orbital view may be, it's comforting to know that Vongfong has since weakened to a tropical storm and isn't posing nearly as much of a threat.
Life on the ISS as seen through social media
Being hip to PR is certainly part of the job description for NASA astronauts, but some are especially social media-savvy. Take fresh ISS resident Gregory "Reid" Wiseman: the man knows he's in a privileged position to take photos and videos, and holy crap has he shared. Via Twitter, Reid has provided nearly 500 stunning images of Earth, the ISS, his fellow astronauts and even a prosaic toilet repair -- sorry, space toilet repair. Wiseman was also the first astronaut to post a Vine in space, and has so far posted subjects like a massive lightning storm over Texas and the sun going around in a circle and never setting. Wiseman isn't quite as chatty as Canadian colleague Chris Hadfield yet, but he's only been aboard for 45 days. Anyway, if we had his view (as shown in the gallery and Vines below), we'd be speechless too.
