Around The Galaxy

PICTURE OF THE YEAR

A selection of Reuters best space-related images from over the last 12 months.

Here is a natural-color image of Saturn from space, the first in which Saturn,

its moons and rings,and Earth, Venus and Mars, all are visible, is seen in this

NASA handout taken from the Cassini spacecraft on July 19 and released on November 12.

The image captures 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across Saturn and its inner

ring system,including all of Saturn's rings out to the E ring, which is Saturn's

second outermost ring. Cassini's imaging team processed 141 wide-angle images to

create the panorama.

Super massive black hole

An artist's illustration showing a supermassive black hole with millions to 

billions times the mass of our sun at the center, surrounded by matter flowing

onto the black hole in what is termed an accretion disk. Supermassive black

holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. 

This disk forms as the dust and gas in the galaxy falls onto the hole, 

attracted by its gravity. The image was released on February 27.

LL Orionis

A NASA illustration shows the aesthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds featuring LL Orionis, 
interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years,
 variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. 
This picture is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of
 fluid shapes associated with star formation. The Illustration was released on February 4

Lake Baikal from space

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia, is pictured in a photo taken by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
aboard the International Space Station on February 26

V838 Mon

The star V838 Mon in an artist's concept released by NASA on March 18.
Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it 
became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. 
Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never 
been seen before - supernovas and novas expel matter out into space.
 Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, 
what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is 
actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash.

Mount Sharp selfie

A self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, on the road toward Mount Sharp, released on May 30.

Storm clouds over the Atlantic

A large mass of storm clouds over the Atlantic Ocean near Brazil and the Equator 
in a photo taken by an Expedition 36 crew member aboard the International 
Space Station on July 4. A Russian spacecraft, docked to the orbiting outpost,
partially covers a small patch of sunlight on the ocean waters in a break in the clouds.

We have lift off

A US Air Force Wideband Global SATCOM mission lifts off on a Delta IV rocket
 from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 7.

Noctis Labyrinthus

A view of the Noctis Labyrinthus region of Mars, perched high on the Tharsis rise 
in the upper reaches of the Valles Marineris canyon system taken by NASA's Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter on August 31. Targeting the bright rimmed bedrock knobs, 
the image also captures the interaction of two distinct types of windblown sediments. 
Surrounding the bedrock knobs is a network of pale reddish ridges with a complex interlinked morphology.

Corona

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which constantly observes 
the sun in a variety of wavelengths, captured this image showing 
magnetic filament of solar material eruption as a 200,000-mile-long
filament ripped through the sun's atmosphere, the corona, 
leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire during its
eruption September 29 - 30, shown in this image released on October 25.
The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the
filament aloft before the explosion. In reality, the sun is not made of fire,
but of something called plasma: particles so hot that their electrons have 
boiled off, creating a charged gas that is interwoven with magnetic fields.

Comet ISON

Comet ISON moves towards the sun in this image from ESA/NASA's
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured at 10:51 a.m. EST on November 28,
courtesy of NASA. This image is a composite, with the sun imaged by NASA's
Solar Dynamics Observatory in the center, and SOHO showing the solar atmosphere, the corona.