Photo of the Year: Space

The best space photos of the year according to the REUTERS agency.

14 PHOTOS

1. 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 through the sun, near Tbilisi.

2. Long exposure shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule as it launches with three NASA astronauts and one ESA astronaut on a mission to the International Space Station at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

3. Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng (center), Liu Boming (right), and Tang Hongbo wave in front of their reentry capsule after returning to Earth after the Shenzhou 12 mission to assemble the China space station.

4. The surface of Mars directly below NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is visible with the Rover Down-Look Camera.

5. Crew member of the International Space Station (ISS) Russian actor Yulia Peresild gestures in the bus, going to board the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft.

6. A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket takes off with 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner on billionaire Jeff Bezos's second suborbital tourist voyage with a crew of four near Van Horn.

7. The full moon, known as the "Super Pink Moon", rises behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

8. SpaceX CEO and Founder Elon Musk and Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurchik during a visit with Crew 2, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesce from France, NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide from Japan.

9. The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Progress MS-16 cargo vehicle is sent to the International Space Station (ISS) from the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

10. The civilian crew of Inspiration 4 aboard the Crew Dragon capsule and the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, viewed from nearby Vero Beach.

11. Wheel tracks were left in the soil of the Jezero crater on Mars when NASA's Perseverance rover first passes the surface of Mars.

12. The Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Fregat upper stage and 38 satellites from 18 countries launches from the launch pad during the rain at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

13. Star Trek actor William Shatner poses with Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of missions and operations, and a former air traffic controller and NASA engineer.

14. The solar eclipse is visible from the Glaciar Union scientific polar station in Antarctica, Chile.