Curiosity shed further light on the history of water at its Martian landing site.
This evenly layered rock, photographed by the rover on 7th August, shows a pattern typical of sedimentary deposits from a lake floor.
This image shows evening clouds as they appeared to observers on the International Space Station.
The photo was taken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who spent nearly six months on the orbiting outpost from March until September.
SpaceX carried out three cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station in 2014.
Its Dragon capsule, shown here, currently carries consumables for the astronauts, but may eventually ferry people to the orbiting outpost.
Like SpaceX, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences has a contract to ferry cargo to the space station and has carried out three successful flights to the orbiting outpost.
But on 28th October, its fourth launch went awry when the Antaresrocket exploded in a spectacular fireball.
This picture taken by Rosetta’s Navcam shows the imposing terrain of Comet 67P.
On 12th November, the Philae lander touched down, bouncing several times before settling in a high-walled trap.
It returned science data from the surface until its batteries ran out.
Simple but beautiful, this picture of a sunrise from the ISS was taken by US astronaut Reid Wiseman.
In October, he tweeted it with the message: “Not every day is easy, yesterday was a tough one.”
He was referring to the explosion of the Antares rocket a day earlier.
In April and May 2014, the Curiosity Mars rover used the camera at the end of its arm to take dozens of images which were combined in this selfie.
Curiosity is currently exploring the foothills of Mount Sharp – the huge mountain at the rover’s landing site of Gale Crater.
Selfies aren’t just for the Earth-bound. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst took this picture of himself during a spacewalk on 7th October.
The German spent nearly six months on the space station from May to November.
This wavelike feature looks like a crease in a tablecloth, but is actually a sandy feature on the ‘Red Planet’ that is created by the wind.
Known as an aeolian bedform, it was captured by the HiRise camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on 6th January.
In December, NASA celebrated a textbook test launch of its Orion capsule, under development for a decade.
The vehicle will act as a replacement for the space shuttle and is intended to carry astronauts on missions to explore the Moon, asteroids and, one day, Mars.
This image from the Alma radio telescope in Chile gives a glimpse of what our Solar System may have looked like more than four billion years ago.
The dark patches may indicate the positions of planets forming out of the dusty disc surrounding a young star called HL Tauri.
Richard Hughes: “An entirely different and fascinating world emerges each night after dark at Rewa village, deep in the Guyanese rainforest.
I spent three months volunteering in Guyana this summer, and the difference between night and day never ceased to amaze me.”
[I can’t make out what this is; it could be a Dendropsophus grandisonae frog which is on the red list of endangered species.]
Adam McKay: “This shot is of a friend of mine and his Royal Enfield motorcycle. It was taken with a Fuji x100s in his grandmother’s garage.
Two lights were used, an Alien Bee Studio strobe and a small speedlight outside the window. A smoke machine was also used for some atmosphere.”
Ian Haden created a montage which he called I’m Gonna Need More Spray.
Michael Ayling: “A winged marauder at a picnic table in Helsinki.
No summer picnic is complete without the uninvited guests taking what they want with speed and fury.”
Stephen Arrandale: “Using a light box for backlighting of throwaway plastic items (in this case plastic knives) can create some revealing imagery.”
Bob Myhill: “The Chocolate River. This is the Waldnaab River in Bavaria, taken in early autumn this year.
I love how the long exposure captured the movement of the water and the stillness of the surrounding valley.”
Jane Barrett shot this photograph of Monument Valley in Utah in black and white.