This image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.ESO/H. Drass et al.
2016 was a year full of new discoveries and beautiful imagery coming from our universe. We saw new images of Saturn’s rings and even of the surface of our own moon. We got a deeper look into the structure of one of the brightest galaxies, and witnessed stunning views taken from multiple astronauts from the NASA, ESA, JAXA agencies as they circled our planet aboard the International Space Station.
TIME’s photo editors select the best and most stunning space images of this year.
London at midnight, Jan. 30, 2016.Tim Peake—ESA/NASAThis image combines an image taken with Hubble Space Telescope in the optical (taken in spring 2014) and observations of its auroras in the ultraviolet, taken in 2016.NASA/ESAThis image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows Trumpler 14, a glittering star cluster that contains a collection of some of the brightest stars seen in our Milky Way galaxy, Jan. 21, 2016.J. Maíz Apellániz—Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain/ESA/NASAThe full moon rises just before sunset, over western China, June 21, 2016.Jeff Williams—NASAThis NASA photo obtained Dec. 14, 2016 shows an image taken by Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-6) as it approached the International Space Station on Dec. 12, 2016.NASA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows clouds in Saturn's northern hemisphere, July 20, 2016.Kevin M. Gill—NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science InstituteThe Milky Way is observed behind a lookout tower near the Hungarian border village of Tachty, or Tajti in Hungarian, Slovakia, Aug. 28, 2016. Peter Komka—EPAA maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, Sept. 5, 2016.ESA/Hubble Space Telescope/NASAElection Day 2016 aboard the space station. Thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislators that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts, they have the ability to vote from space through specially designed absentee ballots.
NASAA Wolf–Rayet star, known as WR 31a, located about 30 000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina (The Keel), Feb. 22, 2016.ESA/Hubble Space Telescope/NASARunning Man Nebula, Jan. 8, 2016.
Adam Block—Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of ArizonaAn image of the Milky Way, released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy. The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimetre wavelengths.ESO/APEX/ATLASGAL consortium/NASA/GLIMPSE consortium/ESA/PlanckAn all-sky view of stars in our Galaxy – the Milky Way – and neighboring galaxies, based on the first year of observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite, from July 2014 to Sept. 2015. Released Sept. 14, 2016.ESA/Gaia/DPACMoonrise on the International Space Station, taken by NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.Kate Rubins—NASAThe moon covers the sun, leaving a ring of fire effect around the moon, during an annular solar eclipse, seen in Saint-Louis, on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on Sept. 1, 2016.
Richard Bouhet—AFP/Getty ImagesThe 2,980-mile-wide Cassini Division in Saturn's rings on the sunlit side of the rings from about 4 degrees above the ring plane, Jan. 28, 2016.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science InstituteThe Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, released all of the data from its Kayuga spacecraft in Oct. 2016 showing images of the Earth captured from the moons surface. JAXA/NHKBright, frosty polar caps, and clouds above a vivid, rust-colored landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic seasonal planet, May 12, 2016.NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/J. Bell (ASU)/M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)This image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. ESO/H. Drass et al.Bystanders watch a solar total eclipse through cloudy conditions in Palembang on March 9, 2016. Abdul Qodir—AFP/Getty ImagesThe Richat Structure or “Bulls Eye” in Mauritania, June 30, 2016.Jeff Williams—NASAThis photo released on Nov. 17, 2016 shows shows the Ariane 5 rocket with a payload of four Galileo satellites lifting off from ESA's European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. S. Martin—AFP/ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACEThe central region of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, containing the R136 star cluster which contains hundreds of young blue stars, among them the most massive star detected in the universe so far, March 17, 2016.P Crowther—University of Sheffield/NASA/ESAA nearly full moon rises above the Valley of the Gods near Mexican Hat, Utah, on Nov. 13, 2016. Jim Lo Scalzo—EPAPink light from the Veggie experiment illuminates the Columbus module aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 1, 2016. NASAMilky Way rising over the horizon, June 6, 2016.Tim Peake—ESA/NASAA newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds in this image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Dust particles in the vast clouds that surround the star HD 97300 diffuse its light, like a car headlight in enveloping fog, and create the reflection nebula IC 2631. Feb. 10, 2016.ESOThis picture, taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows NGC 4696, the largest galaxy in the Centaurus Cluster, released Dec. 1, 2016. NASA, ESA/Hubble, A. FabianGreen lights from night fishing boats in Thailand, March 17, 2016.Tim Peake—ESA/NASAThe Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8000 light-years away, image released on April 21, 2016.NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage TeamAn aurora over northern Canada, Jan. 20, 2016.Tim Peake—ESA/NASAThe Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is seen on launch Pad-0A as the moon sets, predawn, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on Oct. 15, 2016.Bill Ingalls—NASA
