2013: The Year in Space (52 images)

In this Hubble Space Telescope composite image taken in April 2013, the sun-approaching Comet ISON floats against a seemingly infinite backdrop of numerous galaxies and a handful of foreground stars. The icy visitor, with its long gossamer tail, appears to be swimming like a tadpole through a deep pond of celestial wonders. In this composite image, background stars and galaxies were separately photographed in red and yellow-green light. Because the comet moved between exposures relative to the background objects, its appearance was blurred. The blurred comet photo was replaced with a single, black-and-white exposure. The images were taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on April 30, 2013. UPI/NASA

The beautiful, petal-like shells of galaxy PGC 6240 are captured here in intricate detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, set against a sky full of distant background galaxies, in this image released October 10, 2013. PGC 6240 is an elliptical galaxy approximately 350 000 000 light years away in the southern constellation of Hydrus (The Water Snake). It is orbited by a number of globular clusters that contain both young and old stars thought to be a result of a galactic merger in the recent past. UPI/NASA

Photos released on October 16, 2013 by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) show how a black hole consumes hugh amounts of matter in studies released on galaxy PKS 1830-211 and NGC 1433. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the distant active galaxy PKG 1830-211. It shows up as an unremarkable looking star-like object, hard to spot among the many much closer real stars in this picture. Recent ALMA observations show both components of this distant gravitational lens and are marked in red on this composite picture. ALMA is in Chile. SEE ALSO WAX201310101 and 102). UPI

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft undergoes final preparations at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on September 27, 2013. MAVEN will be launched by a Atlas 5 rocket currently scheduled for a November 18, 2013 lift off. The Lockheed Martin spacecraft will orbit the planet Mars for one year after completing a ten month journey through space. The mission is to explore how the sun has effected Mars upper atmosphere and ionosphere. UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell