Gallery: The Most Mind-Blowing Space Photos of 2013
01Oct. 19: Saturn From Above
Another year has gone by and left us with a stack of incredible, mind-blowing pictures of space. We've gathered the best of 2013's images of stars, galaxies, planets, and nebulas into our second [WIRED Space Photo of the Day](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/) collection. We're celebrating with a gallery of our favorites from among the 365 we hand-picked every day this year. Highlights include young stars being born in the Large Magellanic Cloud, new views of both the Andromeda Galaxy and Horsehead Nebula, and the achingly beautiful picture of Saturn above. Here's to another amazing year of space photos and the never-ending wonder of the universe. Oct. 19: Saturn From Above -------------------------- Amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic stitched together 12 awesome photos from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and produced one of the best pictures of the ringed planet we've ever seen. *Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic \[[high-resolution](http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/saturn20131017.jpg), seriously click this\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/saturn20131017.html#.UmFKZ5R4YzU)*
02Apr. 19: Horsehead Nebula's New Look
Apr. 19: Horsehead Nebula's New Look ------------------------------------ It's not everyday you get to see a familiar face in a new light. The Horsehead Nebula, one of the most famous celestial objects, is known for its black color. But here we get to see it in infrared wavelengths, making visible many typically invisible features. As NASA wrote: > Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers. It is shadowy in optical light. It appears transparent and ethereal when seen at infrared wavelengths. *Image: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team \[[high-resolution](http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/742882main_hubble_horsehead_full_full.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2493.html)*
03May 1: Enormous Solar Eruption
May 1: Enormous Solar Eruption ------------------------------ An explosion from the sun's surface creates a rolling wave of fiery plasma. The event shoots tons of energetic particles out into space, which in this case were safely directed away from Earth. *Image: NASA/Goddard/SDO \[[high-resolution](http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8699399218/sizes/o/)\]* *Original caption: [NASA Goddard](http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8699399218)*
04Nov. 5: Martian Thunderbird
Nov. 5: Martian Thunderbird --------------------------- It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a low angle impact of an asteroid or comet on Mars! The spectacular trail left when this crater formed is a thing of beauty all on its own. But the fact that it looks like some sort of mystical creature (Oh! Or maybe a batarang!) just adds to the value. *Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona \[[high-resolution](http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/images/wallpaper/2880/ESP_033297_1745.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [HiRISE Science Team](http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_033297_1745)*
05Dec. 21: Flickering RS Puppis
Dec. 21: Flickering RS Puppis ----------------------------- An incredible shot from the Hubble space telescope shows off a flickering star known as RS Puppis. The star is swaddled in gas and dust. The folks running Hubble offered more information: > RS Puppis rhythmically brightens and dims over a six-week cycle. It is one of the most luminous in the class of so-called Cepheid variable stars. Its average intrinsic brightness is 15,000 times greater than our Sun's luminosity. The nebula flickers in brightness as pulses of light from the Cepheid propagate outwards. Hubble took a series of photos of light flashes rippling across the nebula in a phenomenon known as a "light echo." Even though light travels through space fast enough to span the gap between Earth and the Moon in a little over a second, the nebula is so large that reflected light can actually be photographed traversing the nebula. *Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-Hubble/Europe Collaboration Acknowledgment: H. Bond (STScI and Pennsylvania State University) \[[high-resolution](http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2013-51-a-print.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [Hubble Heritage Team](http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/51/image/a/)*
06Feb. 6: Pretty Veils in Orion
Feb. 6: Pretty Veils in Orion ----------------------------- Looking like something you painted once in a fever dream, the gas and dust of LL Orionis can be seen here interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Young stars are still forming here, which creates one of the highlights of this picture: a bow shock as material is swept around the electromagnetic wind of a baby star. As NASA wrote of the image: > The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori's cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. *Image: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team \[[high-resolution](http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/724329main_hubble_feature_full_full.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2442.html)*
07July 29: Chelyabinsk Meteor from Space
July 29: Chelyabinsk Meteor From Space -------------------------------------- What are those strange, long clouds hovering over the limb of the Earth? They are streaks in the upper atmosphere left behind by a meteorite that flared over Chelyabinsk in Russia on Feb. 15. The spectacular bolide that [exploded over the Russian populace](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/asteroid-watching-mitigation/) made international headlines when it was recorded by dozens of bystanders and dashcams. The event shook everyone in their morning routine and drew attention to the fact that meteors regularly impact the Earth. Because of the photographic ubiquity of the modern world, scientists have been able to estimate the meteor’s trajectory, speed, and initial size with fairly good confidence. Writing in the journal *[Geophysical Research Letters](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50660/abstract)*, aerospace engineer and geophysicist [Simon R. Proud](https://twitter.com/simon_rp84) from the University of Copenhagen proposes using geostationary satellites to help monitor future impacts and other small objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The method could come in handy when ground observations or other evidence is sparse. Proud hunted down the Chelyabinsk meteor’s trail in images from three Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, which take photos of the Earth every 15 minutes. By knowing the wind speeds in the upper atmosphere at the time of the event and using visual parallax, Proud was able to calculate the meteor’s orbital characteristics. The results are in good agreement with other methods and suggest that the technique could be used again in the future. *Image: Simon Proud/University of Copenhagen, original image is copyright [EUMETSAT](http://www.eumetsat.int) 2013* *Original caption: Wired Science*
08Nov. 24: Cubesat Release
Nov. 24: Cubesat Release ------------------------ Framed by the Earth and enormous mechanism of the International Space Station, three tiny cubesats (measuring 10 x 10 x 10 cm) are tossed like dice into space. The Japanese robotic arm Kibo deployed the small satellites. With shrinking electronics, such devices could be increasingly more common in the future. *Image: NASA \[[high-resolution](http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/iss038e003872.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/content/cubesats-released-from-space-station-0/#.Uo-HK2R4YzU)*
NASA, ESA. Acknowledgement: Josh Lake09Jan. 23: Gas and Dust in LMC
Jan. 23: Gas and Dust in LMC ---------------------------- The Large Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy orbiting our own. Having this cosmic laboratory so nearby gives scientists the chance to study amazing processes that affect all galaxies. As NASA wrote of this image: > Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors, visible in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. *Image: ESA/NASA/Hubble \[[high-resolution](http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/721196main_721020main_heic1301a_full.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2434.html)*
10Mar. 17: 15,000-Pixel-Wide Panorama of Mt. Sharp
Mar. 17: 15,000-Pixel-Wide Panorama of Mt. Sharp ------------------------------------------------ NASA's Curiosity rover has been hunting for evidence of Mars' habitable past. Along the way, it's sent back some genuinely thrilling photos of the Red Planet's surface, a collection of which were stitched together to produce this amazing 15,000-pixel-wide mosaic of Mount Sharp. *Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS \[[Click here](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16769.jpg) for mind-blowing 15,000-pixel-wide full panorama\]* *Original caption: [NASA/JPL](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16769)*
11Jan. 29: Two New Views of Andromeda
Jan. 29: Two New Views of Andromeda ----------------------------------- The Andromeda Galaxy is our closest large neighbor. Though usually photographed in visible wavelengths, the galaxy takes on whole new characteristics in the infrared eyes of ESA's Herschel space telescope. As NASA put it: > The new image reveals some of the very coldest dust in the galaxy -- only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero -- colored red in this image. By comparison, warmer regions such as the densely populated central bulge, home to older stars, take on a blue appearance. Intricate structure is present throughout the 200,000-light-year-wide galaxy with star-formation zones organized in spiral arms and at least five concentric rings, interspersed with dark gaps where star formation is absent. Andromeda is host to several hundred billion stars. This new image of it clearly shows that many more stars will soon to spark into existence. *Image: 1) ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz. 2) ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC \[[high-resolution](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16681.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-035)*
12Apr. 28: Icy Face of Enceladus
Apr. 28: Icy Face of Enceladus ------------------------------ Look, we love all the moons in the solar system. But we [love some moons more than others](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/bad-ass-moons/). Routinely topping that list is Enceladus, the geyser-shooting icy world orbiting Saturn. This breathtaking pic of Enceladus released this year from Cassini is one of the best we've ever seen. *Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/G. Ugarković \[[high-resolution](href=)\]* *Original caption: [ESA](http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images/2013/04/Facing_Enceladus)*
13June 25: Near the Habitable Planets
June 25: Near the Habitable Planets ----------------------------------- Astronomers think they've discovered planets around the star multiple system Gliese 667, whose surrounding environment is seen here. And not just a few, but seven exoplanets in a system much like our own, including some in the habitable zone where life could exist. As ESO wrote: > A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone. *Image: ESO \[[high-resolution](http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/eso1328c.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [ESO](http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1328c/)*
14May 23: Ligeia Mare
May 23: Ligeia Mare ------------------- Is there anywhere in the solar system that we know you could go for a nice dip? Saturn's hazy moon Titan is one. The frozen world is too far from the sun to have liquid water on its surface. But temperatures are just right for hydrocarbons like methane and ethane to flow, creating enormous seas like this one, Ligeia Mare. *Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell \[[high-resolution](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA17031.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [Cassini Solstice Team](http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17031)*
15July 3: Earth Full of Clouds
July 3: Earth Full of Clouds ---------------------------- Nothing could be better than floating high above our world in a spaceship. This image, tweeted by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, shows off the beauty of our planet, with sky meeting sea in a perfect bubble of space. Parmitano wrote of the picture: > “The sky is simply perfect.” Of course, for people living down below, the weather would have been described as “patchy, with sunlight coming through at times”. *Image: ESA \[[high-resolution](http://spaceinimages.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/06/perfect_sky/12911835-1-eng-GB/Perfect_sky.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [ESA](http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images/2013/06/Perfect_sky)*
16Oct. 12: Hebes Chasma
Oct. 12: Hebes Chasma --------------------- Mars is a world of extremes. Even a medium-sized canyon named Hebes Chasma on the Red Planet would rank among the biggest on Earth. Imagine the vistas from its edge. *Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) \[[high-resolution](http://spaceinimages.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/10/hebes_chasma/13062676-1-eng-GB/Hebes_Chasma.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [ESA](http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images/2013/10/Hebes_Chasma)*
ESO17Aug. 10: Red and Blue Nebulas
Aug. 10: Red and Blue Nebulas ----------------------------- Two very different looking nebulas are captured in a star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Go to the blue nebula, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. But go to the red nebula, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. *Image: ESO \[[high-resolution](http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/eso1335a.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [ESO](http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1335a/)*
18Oct. 31: Witch's Head Nebula
Oct. 31: Witch's Head Nebula ---------------------------- We don't typically go in for "spooky" space pictures released to coincide with Halloween. But this infrared image of the Witch's Head Nebula from NASA's WISE telescope was just too good to pass up. Not only is a beauty in its own right, but the pareidolia that makes it look like a screaming witch is truly uncanny. More information from NASA: > Astronomers say the billowy clouds of the nebula, where baby stars are brewing, are being lit up by massive stars. Dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE's detectors. *Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech \[[high-resolution](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wise/20131030/pia17553-full.jpg)\]* *Original caption: [NASA/JPL](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-317&rn=news.xml&rst=3939)*
