Window on Infinity: Winter Pictures from Icy Space

A storm of stars is brewing in the Trifid nebula, in this view from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, released on Jan. 29, 2014. The stellar nursery, where baby stars are bursting into being, is the yellow-and-orange object dominating the picture.

The Orion Nebula, an immense stellar nursery located some 1,500 light-year from Earth, is captured in this image released on Jan. 16. 2014. The picture measures about 40-light-years across and was taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

More than 100 asteroids were captured in this view from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, released on Jan. 23, 2014, during its primary all-sky survey. The asteroid at center left is called (2415) Ganesa. Clusters of stars can also be seen.

This composite image taken by the ground-based telescope at the Palomar Observatory and released on Jan. 27, 2014 contains three distinct features: the bright star-filled central region of galaxy NGC 6946 in optical light (blue), the dense hydrogen tracing out the galaxy’s sweeping spiral arms and galactic halo (orange), and the extremely diffuse and extended field of hydrogen engulfing NGC 6946 and its companions (red).

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the moon crossing in front of ithe sun on Jan. 30, 2014, at 10:30 a.m. EST.

This image of Saturn's rings was taken by a camera on the Cassini spacecraft fitted with a filter that will admit only light polarized in one direction, and was released on Jan. 21, 2014. According to NASA, scientists can use these images to learn more about the nature of the particles that make up Saturn's rings.

Bazman volcano is located in a remote region of southern Iran. While the volcano has the classic cone shape of a stratovolcano, it is also heavily dissected by channels that extend downwards from summit. This radial drainage pattern—similar to the spokes of a bicycle wheel—is readily observed from the International Space Station on Jan. 5, 2014.

This NASA Earth Observatory satellite image obtained Jan. 3, 2014 shows one of fourteen mountain peaks on Earth that stand taller than 26,247 ft. (8,000 m). The tallest of these eight-thousanders is Mount Everest.

Numerous dark shapes and bright spots on a sand dune in the Northern polar regions of Mars are visible in this image released on Jan. 22, 2014. The bright spots are carbon dioxide frost.

An east-facing slope in Mars's Tithonium Chasma, obtained Jan. 10, 2014, showing sediment layers of near-uniform thickness. The layers are the dark and light stripes that run diagonally across the center of the picture.

A fissure near Mars's Cerberus Fossae is captured in this image released on Jan. 15, 2014. The picture was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This NASA photograph of cloud bands over southern Mauritania was obtained Jan. 28, 2014, and taken by the crew of the International Space Station. Prevailing winds in this part of the Sahara Desert blow from the northeast. The sand that makes the wavy dunes is blown in from a zone immediately upwind, where dry river beds and dry lakes provide plenty of raw material.

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity took this self-portrait, a mosaic of images, about three weeks before completing a decade of work on Mars in January 2014. The rover's panoramic camera took the images during the interval January 3, 2014, to January 6, 2014, a few days after winds removed some of the dust that had been accumulating on its solar panels.

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen on launch Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Jan. 6, 2014, in advance of its launch.

A 5-percent scale model of NASA's planned heavy-lift rocket, which will be used for launching astronauts, is ignited for five seconds to measure the effects noise and pressure have on the vehicle at liftoff, on Jan. 28, 2014. The green flame is a result of the ignition fluid that is burned along with the propellant during this short-duration test.

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Jan. 9, 2014. Antares carried the Cygnus spacecraft in Orbital Sciences' first space station resupply mission for NASA.

Phytoplankton bloom in the Great Australian Bight in this image captured by the Aqua satellite. The bight is a large open bay off Australia's central and western coastline.

The sun shines through a radiator and a solar array panel on the International Space Station (ISS) in this photograph taken by a crew member on Jan. 2, 2014.

This long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image of massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 is the deepest ever made of any cluster of galaxies. It shows some of the faintest and youngest galaxies ever detected in space.

The barred spiral galaxy M83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel, is seen in a NASA Hubble Space Telescope mosaic released Jan. 9, 2014. The Hubble photograph captures thousands of star clusters, hundreds of thousands of individual stars, and "ghosts" of dead stars called supernova remnants.

This new Hubble image shows the Tarantula Nebula in infrared light. This region is full of star clusters, glowing gas, and thick dust. The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) is scanning and imaging many of the many millions of stars within the nebula, mapping out the locations and properties of the its inhabitants. These observations will help astronomers to piece together an understanding of the nebula's skeleton by viewing its starry structure—a bit like discerning the branches of a Christmas tree by looking at the placement of the lights.