Pictures of the year 2021: Space

The first high-resolution color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is seen after its landing on Mars, February 18, 2021.

A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Fregat upper stage and 38 satellites from 18 countries blasts off from a launchpad during rainfall at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, March 22, 2021.

Baby stars created the shockwaves seen in this new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Known as Herbig-Haro 45, this region of space is a small part of a larger gas cloud object called the Running Man nebula. The shock waves are produced as the new stars spew hot gas, which collides with the material surrounding it at hundreds of miles per second to create bright waves. The blue color in this image shows where the gas has collided with oxygen, and the purple color is where the baby gas has struck magnesium.

Firefly Aerospace's first Alpha rocket suffers a catastrophic anomaly during its first launch leading to the loss of the vehicle 2 minutes, 30 seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, September 2, 2021.

A composite image of five separate photographs taken with a single fixed camera shows a sunspot and the International Space Station in silhouette as it passes across the Sun, seen from near Tbilisi, Georgia June 19, 2021.

A solar eclipse is seen from 'Glaciar Union' scientific polar station in Antarctic, on Chilean territory, December 4, 2021.

Perseverance's first cored-rock sample of Mars rock is seen inside its titanium container tube in this image taken by the rover's Sampling and Caching System Camera (known as CacheCam), September 8, 2021.

This captivating picture focuses on a newly formed protostar violently ejecting long streams of matter at incredible speeds, a rare phenomenon known as a Herbig-Haro object. As the matter hits surrounding gas, the collisions erupt in bright, colorful bursts. The star itself isn't visible amidst this flurry captured by Hubble, but its presence is felt in the gap between the diagonal bursts.

The SpaceX Starship SN9 explodes into a fireball after its high altitude test flight from test facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, February 2, 2021.

The surface of Mars directly below NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is seen using the Rover Down-Look Camera, February 22, 2021.

Photographers follow a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a time exposure as it lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021.

Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos wears goggles owned by Amelia Earhart which he carried into space at a post-launch press conference after he flew on Blue Origin's inaugural flight to the edge of space, in the nearby town of Van Horn, Texas, July 20, 2021.

International Space Station (ISS) crew member Russian actor Yulia Peresild gestures in a bus as she departs for boarding the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft for the launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, October 5, 2021.

The full moon, known as the "Super Pink Moon" rises behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, April 27, 2021.

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket launches carrying passengers William Shatner, Chris Boshuizen, Audrey Powers and Glen de Vries from its spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.

Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Progress MS-16 cargo spacecraft blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, February 15, 2021.

Wheel tread marks are left in the soil of Jezero Crater on Mars, as NASA's Mars rover Perseverance drives on Martian surface for the first time, March 4, 2021.