Best Space Photos of the Year 2012
All year long (well, since February), we have been collecting the most spectacular images of planets, moons, galaxies, and nebulas for our Wired Science Space Photo of the Day. The gallery, which now has more than 240 pictures, has proven more popular than we ever imagined and even resulted in the creation of the most epic soundtrack in the universe.
This year has seen some amazing space photos, including gloriously shining dust in the Orion nebula, Saturn wreathed in rings and accompanied by its moon Titan, spectacular shots of Earth’s Arctic region, and an artful dust devil on Mars. Here we present our favorite shots taken in 2012 that show off the wonder and unbounded beauty of the cosmos.
Above:
May 2: Dust in Orion
This image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The submillimeter-wavelength observations, made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope and shown here in orange, use the heat glow of interstellar dust grains to show astronomers where new stars are being formed. They are overlaid on a view of the region in visible light.