2016: The Year in Space (30 images)

Jupiter's north polar region is coming into view as NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches the giant planet on August 27, 2016, when Juno was 437,000 miles away. The Juno mission successfully executed its first of several dozen orbital flybys of Jupiter and will have lots more images to come, including deep dives into the gas giant's atmosphere. NASA/UPI

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover began close-up investigation of a target called "Marimba," on lower Mount Sharp, during the week preceding the fourth anniversary of the mission's dramatic sky-crane landing.The Navigation Camera (Navcam) on Curiosity's mast took this image on August 2, 2016. In this scene, the rover has extended its arm over a patch of bedrock selected as the target for rover's next drilling operation. The drilling collects rock powder for onboard laboratory analysis. The arm is positioned with the rover's wire-bristle Dust Removal Tool above the target. NASA/UPI

This image of the sunlit part of Jupiter and its swirling atmosphere was created by a citizen scientist (Alex Mai) using data from Juno's JunoCam instrument. NASA/UPI

Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known and its powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image. Photo by ESA/NASA/UPI