The best science and technology pictures of the week

The most impressive pictures from the worlds of science and technology this week, from an awesome airshow stunt to a spectacular rocket accident.

Funfair moon and orbital panoramas

(Nasa/ESA/Alexander Gerst)

Fuelling fighter jets and European lights

(US Air Force/Reuters)

Underwater spies and cheerleader robots

An underwater view of “Sharc”, a wave-powered, autonomous ocean vehicle for surveillance and communications. (Liquid Robotics/Reuters)

Fire-bombing airliners and awesome black holes

A specially converted airliner swoops in low to drop fire retardant chemicals on a blaze in 8,600 acres of forest near Fresh Pond in California. (Reuters)

An eerie aurora and a night-time launch

(Nasa/ESA/Reuters)

Smoking aerobatics and lurid lightning

(AFP/Getty Images)

Wading rhinos and wasp nests

(AFP/Getty Images)

Hoverbike prototypes and hitching robots

(Malloy Aeronautics)

Speeding warbirds and a luminous Super Moon

(The Colorado Springs Gazette/AP)

Streaking space launches and menacing volcanoes

(Florida Today/AP)

A tiny frog and a hitching robot

(Sealife London Aquarium/PA)

A world’s-first hologram and outer space veg

(Getty Images)

Stork silhouette and a four-winged dinosaur

(Reuters)

Incredible lightning and a stranded whale

(Daniel Brenner, Gillette News Record/AP)

Futuristic dancers and swirling stars 

(Sebastian Guillermaz/APOTY)

Sci-fi balloons and hungry whales

(AP)

Robot giraffe and double tornado

(Getty Images)

Supersonic selfie and eerie rivers

(David Cenciotti)

A brooding storm and a Super Earth

(Center for Astrophysics/Reuters)

Roaring rockets and an Earth selfie

Japan's H-IIA rocket lifts off from a space centre on the island of Tanegashima to deploy a new mapping satellite for surveying natural disaster damage. (AFP/Getty Images)