The year's most wondrous space photography

From glittering Martian sand dunes to stunning star trails, 2016 was a good-looking year for the universe

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A composite image of the cosmic region NGC 6357.
(Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Defrosting sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars.
(Image credit: (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona))

A composite image of NGC 6357, a region of the galaxy that contains at least three clusters of young stars.
(Image credit: (X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al; Optical: UKIRT; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech))

Saturn's main rings and its moons.
(Image credit: (NASA/Cassini Imaging team))

The Nili Fossae region of Mars.
(Image credit: (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona))

A new batch of stars are born within the constellation Vulpecula (Latin for "little fox").
(Image credit: (ESA/Herschel/PACS, SPIRE/Hi-GAL Project))

The sunlit part of Jupiter and its swirling atmosphere.
(Image credit: (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Mai))

The spiral galaxy NGC 6814.
(Image credit: (ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt))

The fluted surface and elongated hills of the Medusae Fossae on Mars.
(Image credit: (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona))

The Milky Way's nuclear star cluster, the most massive and densest star cluster in our galaxy.
(Image credit: (NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA, Acknowledgment: T. Do, A.Ghez (UCLA), V. Bajaj (STScI)))

An aerial view of the Sahara desert in western Libya.
(Image credit: (Sally Ride EarthKAM))

Star trails captured by astronauts on the International Space Station.
(Image credit: (NASA))

A maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
(Image credit: (ESA/Hubble & NASA))

Lauren Hansen
Lauren Hansen

Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.