Space!(32 images)

Venus begins transit across the Sun, the last time the event will occur until 2117 as this solar event happens in pairs eight years apart and separated from each other by either 105 or 121 years as pictured in NASA/SDO handout photograph on June 5, 2012. UPI/NASA/SDO, HMI, AIA | License Photo

This NASA image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope released on June 25, 2012 shows galaxy DDO 82. This dwarf galaxies contains between a few million and a few billion stars. DDO 82 can be found in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear) approximately 13 million light-years away. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This undated NASA image taken by Fifteen orbits of the recently launched Suomi NPP satellite shows a synthesized view of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe, and Asia, June 26, 2012. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This February 29, 2012 NASA infrared image captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows a new view of the Orion Nebula, March 12, 2012. UPI/NASA | License Photo

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 | License Photo

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 | License Photo

Telecom engineer Peter Ilott hugs a colleague, celebrating a successful landing 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 | License Photo

This NASA image taken on January 23, 2012 shows a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. UPI/NASA | License Photo

The planet Venus is seen through a special solar filter as a black dot while it transits across the sun in Gaza, on June 6, 2012. The planet Venus made a slow transit across the face of the sun on Tuesday, the last such passing that will be visible from Earth for 105 years. UPI/Ismael Mohamad | License Photo

The silhouetted moon covers the sun during an annular eclipse over the skies of Monument Valley National Park, Arizona on May 20, 2012. The eclipse was seen by millions of viewers from China and Japan to the Western USA as the earth's rotation positioned the Far East and USA under the moon's shadow. The two hour long even reached maximum coverage, or annularity, for approximately four minutes as the sun was blocked by the moon at 6:34 PM local time. .UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell | License Photo

The sun erupted with one of the largest solar flares of this solar cycle on March 6, 2012. This flare was categorized as an X5.4, making it the second largest flare -- after an X6.9 on August 9, 2011. The current increase in the number of X-class flares is part of the sunÕs normal 11-year solar cycle, during which activity on the sun ramps up to solar maximum, which is expected to peak in late 2013. The solar storm is now hitting Earth and may cause disruptions to satellites, communications and power grids. UPI/NASA/SDO/AIA.. | License Photo

This undated NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxy NGC 1483. UPI/NASA | License Photo

A Martian dust twister is shown tearing across the planet in this photo by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on February 16, 2012, just released. The twister rises up more than a half mile high in the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. The dust devil is 100 feet wide. Dust devils occur on both Earth and Mars. UPI/NASA | License Photo

With darkness, Earth's horizon and thin line of atmosphere forming a backdrop, the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft is grappled by the Canadarm2 robotic arm at the International Space Station on May 25, 2012. Dragon became the first commercially developed space vehicle to be launched to the station to join Russian, European and Japanese resupply craft that service the complex while restoring a U.S. capability to deliver cargo to the orbital laboratory. Dragon returned to Earth on May 31 for retrieval. UPI/NASA | License Photo

A model of the Telstar 1 satellite is seen at a symposium honoring the 50th anniversary of the communications satellite and the birth of global telecommunications, at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on July 12, 2012. Telstar 1 launched on July 10, 1962 was the first communications satellite. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

This undated NASA image shows star trails during a time lapse created by a composite of a series of images photographed from a mounted camera on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, from approximately 240 miles above Earth, May 18, 2012. A total of 18 images photographed by the astronaut-monitored stationary camera were combined to create this composite. UPI/NASA | License Photo

Space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), is seen as it flies near the Empire State Building, April 27, 2012, in New York. Enterprise was the first shuttle orbiter built for NASA performing test flights in the atmosphere and was incapable of spaceflight. Originally housed at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Enterprise will be demated from the SCA and placed on a barge that will eventually be moved by tugboat up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in June. UPI/NASA/Robert Markowitz | License Photo

The Space Shuttle Enterprise floats on a barge on the Hudson River passing the Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center and The Manhattan Skyline in New York City on June 6, 2012. The Enterprise will eventually come to rest permanently on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum. UPI/John Angelillo | License Photo

The Soyuz TMA-04M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 15, 2012 carrying Expedition 31 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin to the International Space Station. UPI//Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

NASA's orbiters "Atlantis" (l) and "Discovery" pass within feet of each other on the tow way between the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Orbiter Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on March 9, 2012. Discovery, complete with the rear cone to enhance its aerodynamic performance for flight, is moving to the VAB where NASA will complete preparations to fly Discovery to the Smithsonian Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia near Washington DC. Atlantis is returning to the Processing Facility to continue modification for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell | License Photo

The payload bay of NASA's space shuttle "Endeavour" remains open as the agency continues its post flight modification at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on March 7, 2012. Once preparations are completed, NASA anticipates moving the shuttle to the California Science Center in Los Angeles to be placed on permanent public display. UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell | License Photo

This undated NASA image taken by the Cassini spacecraft shows two of Saturn's moons, Rhea in foreground and Titan. UPI/NASA | License Photo

An Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station took this nighttime photograph of much of the Atlantic coast of the United States on February 6, 2012. Large metropolitan areas and other easily recognizable sites from the Virginia/Maryland/Washington, D.C. area are visible in the image that spans almost to Rhode Island. Boston is just out of frame at right. Long Island and the New York City area are visible in the lower right quadrant. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are near the center. Parts of two Russian vehicles parked at the orbital outpost are seen in left foreground. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This NASA artist rendering released on January 1, 2012 shows NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft entering orbit around the moon. The second GRAIL spacecraft is expected to enter the moon's orbit tomorrow and the two will begin to map the lunar surface. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This NASA image taken on January 23, 2012 shows a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun. UPI/NASA | License Photo

The full Moon and the U.S. Capitol in Washington are seen early in the evening on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 from Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. UPI/Bill Engalls/NASA | License Photo

NASA scientists working in Antarctica discovered a massive 19-mile crack across the Pine Island Glacier, a major ice stream that drains the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in October, 2011, it was announced recently. Extending for 19 miles (30 kilometers), the crack was 260 feet (80 meters) wide and 195 feet (60 meters) deep. Eventually, the crack will extend all the way across the glacier, and calve a giant iceberg that will cover about 350 square miles (900 square kilometers). This image is from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NAS's Terra spacecraft was acquired November 13, 2011, and covers an area of 27 by 32 miles (44 by 52 kilometers), and is located near 74.9 degrees south latitude, 101.1 degrees west longitude. UPI/ NASA | License Photo

This undated NASA composite image shows the central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 4151. X-rays (blue) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are combined with optical data (yellow) showing positively charged hydrogen (H II) from observations with the 1-meter Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, December 31, 2011. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This undated NASA image taken by the WISE, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, shows Barnard 3, or IRAS Ring G159.6-18.5, that is awash in bright green and red dust clouds. Interstellar clouds like these are stellar nurseries, where baby stars are being born, December 31, 2011. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This undated NASA the south polar region of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and shows a depression within the moon's orange and blue haze layers near the south pole, captured by the NASA's Cassini spacecraft, December 31, 2011. UPI/NASA | License Photo

This November 29, 2011 NASA image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows a color-enhanced image showing sand dunes trapped in an impact crater in Noachis Terra on Mars. UPI/ NASA/JPL-Caltech | License Photo