It's been an amazing year for space. Yes, in a sense they all are, celestial cosmology being the extraordinarily ace thing that it is. But still. Amazing.
We've been to a comet. We launched the 'Mars ship' to space for the first time. China went to the Moon and India went to Mars. All the time humans circled Earth in the International Space Station and the stars blazed above our heads.
And of course, NASA, ESA, the European Southern Observatory and thousands of others were there to capture it all.
Here are the space images that defined the last 12 months.
Space Pictures Of The Year 2014
(01 of20)
This image shows a region of the Milky Way that lies within the constellation of Scorpius, close to the central plane of the galaxy. (credit:ESO)
Manhattan From Space(02 of20)
This image provided by NASA taken by one of the Expedition 40 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station shows a large part of New York City on Aug. 25, 2014. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Curiosity(03 of20)
The Curiosity rover has now been on Mars for more than 18 months - and it's starting to show its age, as is made clear in this picture.
Colour Cosmos(04 of20)
This handout composite image provided by NASA shows the visible and near infrared light spectrum collected from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope over a nine-year period. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured our cosmos at its most colourful. A new NASA panorama looking deep and far into the universe for the first time includes ultraviolet light, which is normally not visible to the human eye. It shows up in the photo as bright baby blue with spinning galaxies, which are about 5 to 10 billion years old, not too old or young in cosmic terms. The photo was taken over 841 orbits of the telescope and shows about 10,000 multi-colored galaxies. (AP Photo/NASA) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
67P(05 of20)
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is pictured from a distance of 285 kms. Scientists at the European Space Agency on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014, announced the spot where they were to attempt the first landing on a comet- and landing which was difficult, but successful. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
ESA Attempts To Land Probe On Comet(06 of20)
The Philae lander is pictured on its way to the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet after a successful separation from the Rosetta probe. ESA later successfully landed Philae, making it the first man-made craft to ever land on a comet. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
The Surface Of A Comet(07 of20)
The landing site is imaged with a resolution of about 3m per pixel. ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System) is a descent and close-up camera on the Philae Lander. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
Dust Storm(08 of20)
German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this image of a sandstorm over the Sahara desert in whilst aboard the International Space Station (ISS). (credit:ESA via Getty Images)
(09 of20)
This picture of the northern lights was taken by Astronaut Terry Virts aboard the International Space Station
(10 of20)
This gorgeous photograph, taken in the Atacama Desert in Chile, shows star trails circling the South Celestial Pole, over a cacti-dominated still landscape. (credit:ESO)
The Galaxy(11 of20)
ESA image of background radiation across the Milky Way.
The Agony(12 of20)
This image taken from video provided by NASA TV shows Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Astares rocket blowing up over the launch complex at Wallops Island, Va., just six seconds after liftoff. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
... And The Ecstasy(13 of20)
The NASA Orion capsule on top of a Delta IV rocket lifts off on its first unmanned orbital test flight from Complex 37 B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Italy From Space(14 of20)
Taken by Alexander Gerst aboard the International Space Station (credit:NASA)
Jupiter's Eye(15 of20)
By NASA, for Halloween
Titan(16 of20)
An infrared picture of Saturn's moon Titan. (credit:NASA)
NASA Compares The World's Of Our Solar System(17 of20)
And we've landed on all of them.
(18 of20)
This photo supplied by NASA and the European Space Agency shows the Hubble Space Telescope's latest image of the star V838 Monocerotis, located about 20,000 light-years away on the outer edge of the Milky Way. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Comet Siding Spring Seen Next to Mars(19 of20)
This composite NASA Hubble Space Telescope Image captures the positions of comet Siding Spring and Mars in a never-before-seen close passage of a comet by the Red Planet, which happened at 2:28 p.m. EDT October 19, 2014. (credit:NASA Goddard Photo and Video/Flickr)
(20 of20)
Flowers are silhouetted against the full moon in Ghent, western Belgium, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014. The supermoon, known to scientists as a perigee moon, occurs when Earth's neighbor appears at its largest and brightest compared to other full moons when it orbits closer to our planet. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)