The week in pictures: 17 September 2010

A team led by researchers at Brown University in the US used a laser altimeter on board Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to identify and map a total of 5,185 asteroid craters on the Moon's surface. On the left side of the Moon seen in this view is part of the familiar part of the Moon observed from Earth. In the middle left-most part of the globe is Mare Tranquillitatis (light blue) the site of the Apollo 11 landing, and above this an oval-appearing region (Mare Serenitatis; dark blue) the site of the Apollo 17 landing. Most of the dark blue areas are lunar maria, low lying regions composed of volcanic lava flows that formed after the heavily cratered lunar highlands (and are thus much less cratered). The large near-circular basins show the effects of the early impacts on early planetary crusts in the inner solar system, including the Earth.
Picture: NASA

 

Today's lead image comes from a reader. Keisha Williams writes: "This is a picture i took of the Northern Lights appearing over AB Mountain in Skagway, Alaska. This was taken at approximately 11.30pm last night. The display was amazing. The foreground of the picture is the tiny Skagway Airstrip (only accessible by small aircraft), the background is the majestic AB Mountain and the valley looking out onto the White Pass which connects Alaska to Canada. I am originally from Nottingham, England, although I now live in Skagway, Alaska" Thank you, Keisha, for your amazing picture. You can send photos to us by emailing them to mypic@telegraph.co.uk or by including @TelegraphPics in a tweet
Picture: KEISHA WILLIAMS

 

Fish carcasses from a massive fish kill in the Bayou Chaland area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, are pictured...
Picture: REUTERS

 

An Indian girl performs a tight rope walk by the side of a road in Chennai, India
Picture: EPA

 

This is the moment when a stunt glider slammed into a runway in front of 15,000 horrified fans at an airshow. Amazingly pilot Mike Newman, 35, crawled out of the wreckage of the high performance Swift S-1 gilder after the cockpit broke up on impact. The former racing driver suffered three broken vertebrae in the accident, but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Mr Newman crashed while performing for the Swift Aerobatic Display Team at the Royal Air Forces Association airshow at Shoreham, West Sussex

 

Kenwyne Jones of Stoke City celebrates scoring his team's first goal during their Barclays Premier League match against Aston Villa at The Britannia Stadium in Stoke on Trent
Picture: GETTY