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2012: The year in space (36 images)

From Solar storms to the retiring of the Shuttles "Atlantis" and "Discovery", this constantly updated collection features the top space news photos of 2012.



Activity lead Bobak Ferdowsi, who cuts his hair differently for each mission, works inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California on August 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration, and was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. UPI/Brian van der Brug/pool
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One of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's front Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The camera is the left eye of a stereo pair positioned at the middle of the rover's front side. The rover's shadow is visible in the foreground. UPI/NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Huge sunspot AR1515 has releases another M-class solar flare early July 2, 2012. The active region released an M6.1 class flare which peaked five minutes later. This image, taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), is shown in the 304 Angstrom wavelength, which is typically colorized in red and focuses on Helium in the chromosphere and transition region of the sun. UPI/NASA/SDO
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