2009 Pictures of the Year: Space

• This false-color composite image provided by NASA April 2, shows the Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope and Planetary Camera-2, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Approximately 100 million years ago, a smaller galaxy plunged through the heart of Cartwheel galaxy, creating ripples of brief star formation. In this image, the first ripple appears as an ultraviolet-bright blue outer ring. The blue outer ring is so powerful in the GALEX observations that it indicates the Cartwheel is one of the most powerful UV-emitting galaxies in the nearby universe. Although astronomers have not identified exactly which galaxy collided with the Cartwheel, two of three candidate galaxies can be seen in this image to the bottom left of the ring, one as a neon blob and the other as a green spiral.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• This image provided by NASA Sept. 22 shows the equinox on Saturn, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator, captured by the Cassini orbiter. The view from the obiter is superior to the view from earth of the event and provides more detail. The novel illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ring plane, significantly darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to look anomalously bright and to cast shadows across the rings. These scenes are possible only during the few months before and after Saturn's equinox which occurs only once in about 15 Earth years.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• The sun greets the International Space Station as seen from the Russian section of the orbital outpost, Nov. 22, photographed by one of the STS-129 crew members.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• A gibbous moon is visible above Earth's atmosphere, photographed by an STS-128 crew member on the Space Shuttle Discovery Aug. 30. A gibbous moon is one of the phases of the Moon, when the size of the illuminated portion is greater than half but not a full Moon.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• The International Space Station is backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere as seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation March 25. Discovery and its crew of seven were due back Saturday afternoon, ending a nearly two-week mission that left the international space station fully powered with a new set of solar wings.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• Astronaut John Grunsfeld, STS-125 mission specialist, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis' remote manipulator system, participates in the mission's fifth and final session of extravehicular activity to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope on May 18. The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers. That equipment, along with other improvements made over the last five days, should allow the telescope to provide views of the universe for another five to 10 years.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• This photo provided by NASA made by the Hubble Space Telescope Feb. 24, shows four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet. In this view, the giant orange moon Titan casts a large shadow onto Saturn's north polar hood. Below Titan, near the ring plane and to the left is the moon Mimas, casting a much smaller shadow onto Saturn's equatorial cloud tops. Farther to the left, and off Saturn's disk, are the bright moon Dione and the fainter moon Enceladus. The banded structure in Saturn's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's. The dark band running across the face of the planet slightly above the rings is the shadow of the rings cast on the planet.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• This image provided by NASA, released Sept. 9, taken by the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope, shows stars bursting to life in the chaotic Carina Nebula.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• This picture was issued to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1990, by NASA April 21. It shows a peculiar system of galaxies known as Arp 194. This interacting group contains several galaxies, along with a "cosmic fountain" of stars, gas, and dust that stretches over 100,000 light-years. The most striking feature of this galaxy troupe is the impressive blue stream of material extending from the northern component. This "fountain" contains complexes of super star clusters, each one of which may contain dozens of individual young star clusters. The blue color is produced by the hot, massive stars which dominate the light in each cluster. Overall, the "fountain" contains many millions of stars. During the past 19 years Hubble has made more than 880,000 observations and snapped over 570,000 images of 29,000 celestial objects. The Space Shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit on April 25, 1990.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP

• This image provided by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Dec. 15, shows hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood. The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.
  
  
  

  NASA / AP