Dive Deep Into Lagoon Nebula

Photograph byESO/VPHAS+ team

Each week our photo editors hand-pick breathtaking photos of space. Of the 350 space photos published in 2014, we bring you our picks for the 12 best of the year.

In the above photo, the Lagoon Nebula, an immense tapestry of young stars born amid a fiery cloud of gas and stellar cinders, stuns viewers in this view taken from the Paranal Observatory high in the Chilean desert.

By Dan Vergano and staff writers, photo gallery by news photo editors

Published December 13, 2014

Photograph by NASA Earth Observatory

The bright lights of Hollywood (right) blaze on the Pacific coast in this October scene shot from the International Space Station.

The nighttime panorama displays San Francisco (center) and Los Angeles backed by the Sierra Nevada. In the distance, Salt Lake City, in Utah, shines beneath a curved horizon tinted green with the glimmer of the northern lights.

Published December 13, 2014

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Best Space Pictures of 2014: A Year's Delights Courtesy of Starry Nights