![Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on Mars](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mars-hirise-space-photos-05.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By TIME Staff
![Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on Mars](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mars-hirise-space-photos-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mars Bright Spot Mars Bright Spot](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mars-bright-spot-space-photos-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Curiosity Mars Rover Beside Sandstone Target 'Windjana' A self-portait taken by Curiosity Rover's Navigation Camera (Navcam) shows a sandstone slab on which the rover team has selected a target, ''Windjana,'' for close-up examination and possible drilling on April 23, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mars-curiosity-rover-self-portrait-space-photos-18.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![NASA's Curiosity Mars rover completed a shallow "mini drill" activity on April 29, 2014](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/mars-hirise-space-photos-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![ESA's Optical Ground Station in Tenerife A long exposure of ESA's Optical Ground Station (OGS) housing the Lunar Lasercom Optical Ground System (LLOGS) at the La Teide Observatory on Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, released on April 27, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/esa-optical-ground-station-observatory-space-photos-20.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Globular star cluster Messier 5 Globular star cluster Messier 5](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/messier-5-globular-star-cluster-nasa-space-photos-21.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![From open prairie land on the 1625-acre Johnson Space Center site, a JSC photographer took this multi-frame composite image of the so-called "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse in the early hours of April 15, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-space-photos-13.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Europe Space Launch The Sentinel-1A satellite lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on April 3, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/sentinel-1a-satellite-rocket-launch-space-photos-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![NASA handout of the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 18, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spacex-falcon-9-elon-musk-space-photos-24.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Space Station Spacewalk The SpaceX Dragon capsule is berthed at the International Space Station on April 20, 2014 as photographed by the Expedition 39 crew members onboard the orbital outpost.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spacex-dragon-elon-musk-space-photos-25.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Space Station Astronaut Steve Swanson during a spacewalk to replace a failed backup computer relay box on the International Space Station on April 22, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/space-walk-space-photos-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![NASA Astronaut Shares Selfie NASA astronaut Rich Mastracchio aboard the International Space Station takes a selfie during a spacewalk on April 23, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/astronaut-rich-mastracchio-selfie-space-walk-space-photos-19.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Galaxies spiralling around Leo This image released on April 14, 2014 shows spiral galaxy NGC 3455, which lies some 65 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Leo (The Lion).](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spiral-galaxy-ngc-3455-space-photos-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Bright Galaxy Centaurus A (NASA, Chandra, 04/23/14)Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky -- making it an ideal target for amateur astronomers -- and is famous for the dust lane across its middle and a giant jet blasting away from the supermassive black hole at its center. Cen A is an active galaxy about 12 million light years from Earth. This image is part of a "quartet of galaxies" collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers that combines optical data from amateur telescopes with data from the archives of NASA missions. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations. Original caption/more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/proam/more.html Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Rolf Olsen; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/centaurus-galaxy-chandra-nasa-space-photos-141.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![This composite image of X-rays from Chandra and optical data from Hubble of the galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915, located about 7 billion light years from Earth, released on April 4, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/el-gordo-galaxy-cluster-chandra-nasa-space-photos-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Ballooning in the constant sun of the South Pole summer Ballooning in the constant sun of the South Pole summer](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/nasa-barrel-balloon-antarcticaspiral-galaxy-m51-space-photos-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Eureka Sound on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic is seen in a NASA Operation IceBridge survey picture Eureka Sound on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic as captured by NASA during an Operation IceBridge survey March 25, 2014 and released on April 8, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/nasa-ice-bridge-glacier-space-photos-23.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Me and My Shadow. Saturn's rings cast shadows on the planet in this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 2, 2013 and released on April 29, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/saturn-space-photos-17.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![NASA handout picture of X-class flare exploding off the right side of the sun An X-class flare explodes off the right side of the sun in this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on April 24, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/sun-sdo-space-photos-22.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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