The Best Space Photographs in February 2014

A Japanese rocket with the American-Japanese Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard launches from the Tanegashima Space Center, on Feb. 28, 2014, in Tanegashima, Japan.Bill Ingalls—NASA

The Kappa Cassiopeiae star, or the HD 2905, taken from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), released on Feb. 22, 2014. Kappa Cassiopeiae is a massive, hot supergiant moving at around 2.5 million mph relative to its neighbors (1,100 km per second). The surrounding red streaks of material in its path are called bow shocks, and they can often be seen in front of the fastest, most massive stars in the galaxy. NASA--JPL-Caltech--EPA

A starry night sky is seen over the river Havel in Guelpe, northeastern Germany, on Feb. 23, 2014. The village of Guelpe is considered to be the darkest place in Germany and to have the least light pollution.Patrick Pleul—AFP/Getty Images

A Hubble Space Telescope composite image of a supernova explosion designated SN 2014J in the galaxy M82, at a distance of approximately 11.5 million light-years from Earth, released on Feb. 26, 2014. NASA/ESA A. Goobar (Stockholm University)/Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURA

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a galaxy known as MCG-03-04-014, released on Feb. 25, 2014. The galaxy belongs to a class of galaxies called luminous infrared galaxies, which are incredibly bright in the infrared part of the spectrum. The luminosity is due to a recent burst of star formation or a fiercely powerful 'monster' black hole lurking at their core, or a mix of the two.ESA/Hubble/NASA/Judy Schmidt/EPA

A fresh impact crater, captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Nov. 19, 2013 and released on Feb. 5, 2014. The crater spans approximately 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter and is surrounded by a large, rayed blast zone. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/AFP/Getty Images

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on board NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite collected a natural-color image of an ash plume from Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano on Feb. 6, 2014. Frequent collapses from the unstable lava dome near Sinabungs summit create pyroclastic flows that have swept at least 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) down the slopes so far. The flow deposits are visible southeast of Sinabungs summit and appear light grayish. NASA—AFP/Getty Images

A satellite image of the skiing and snowboarding sites for the Winter Olympic Games, near Sochi, released on Feb. 8, 2014. The image was taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft.NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JARO/EPA

A Kompsat-two satellite image released for the first time on Feb. 25, 2014 shows Kumbunbur Creek in Northern Territory, Australia, on Sept. 20, 2011. The green branches of what looks like a tree are the waterways of runoff that flow into the Timor Sea. The false-color makes vegetation appear bright red.ESA/KARI/EPA

An image from orbit of the Russell Crater dunes on Mars, released on Feb. 5, 2014. Pictures like this help astronomers measure the accumulation of frost year after year in the fall, and its disappearance in the spring. The frost is carbon dioxide ice that often sublimates (going directly from a solid to a gas) during the Martian spring.NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Curiosity rover looks back at a dune that it drove across with its Mast Camera during the 538th Martian day, or sol, of its work on Mars (Feb. 9, 2014). For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 9 feet (2.7 meters). The dune is about 3 feet (1 meter) tall in the middle.NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captures its own shadow in this image taken just after it completed a drive of 329 feet (100.3 meters) on the 547th Martian day, or sol, of its work on Mars (Feb. 18, 2014).NASA/JPL-Caltech

This view of the twilight sky and the Martian horizon taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes Earth as the brightest visible point of light, a little left of center in the image. The moon is just below it. The picture was released on Feb. 6, 2014. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU

A set of NanoRacks CubeSats float in space after the deployment by the International Space Station on Feb. 13, 2014.NASA

Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter and the largest moon in the solar system, is seen in a global geologic map released Feb. 12, 2014. A team of scientists led by Wes Patterson of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Geoffrey Collins of Wheaton College used images from NASA's Voyager and Galileo missions to create the map. It is the first complete global geologic map of an icy outer-planet moon.

Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter and the largest moon in the solar system, is seen in a global geologic map - the first of an icy outer-planet moon - released Feb. 12, 2014. A team of scientists led by Wes Patterson of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory used images from NASA's Voyager and Galileo missions to create the map.USGS—Reuters

A NASA image released on February 24, 2014 shows a photo taken by the Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on January 30, 2014, of the night view of the Korean Peninsula. The dark stretch in the middle is North Korea, with only the capital, Pyongyang, lit. Neighboring South Korea (bottom right) and China (top left) blaze with light. NASA—Reuters

Saturn taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 23, 2013 and released for the first time on Feb. 3, 2014. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 43 degrees above the ringplane.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Reuters

A crescent moon rises over the cusp of the Earth's atmosphere in this picture by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata onboard the International Space Station on Feb. 1, 2014. Distinct colors are visible because the dominant gases and particles in each layer of the atmosphere act as prisms.NASA—Reuters

Window on Infinity: From Saturn to Mars to Deep Space to Home

More Must-Reads From TIME