The 100 Best Space Photos of 2016

Auroras Seen from International Space Station

NASA

A stunning aurora danced over south Australian on June 24. This image, captured by NASA Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams, was taken from the International Space Station orbiting Earth.

Europe by Night

NASA

Expedition 49 crewmembers on the International Space Station captured this nighttime view of Western Europe on Sept. 24. A docked Soyuz and Progress Spacecraft are visible in the foreground. The thick, dark strip behind the Soyuz spacecraft is the Alps.

Aurora Dazzles Above Iceland

Copyright Elizabeth M. Ryan

This dramatic panorama hosts a collision of legends: Icelandic villages, beaches and basaltic rocks, and Greek gods, as well as the beauty of the aurora borealis.

Aurora Corona and the Moon Over Sweden

Mia Stålnacke

Astrophotographer Mia Stålnacke sent in a photo of an auroral display alongside the moon on Jan. 23, 2016, taken in Sweden

Aurora Seen in Tromsø, Norway

Marion Duignan

Marion Duignan recently went on vacation in Norway. She obtained this photo of herself beneath an auroral display seen in Tromsø during the Tromsø Safari/Northern Light Safari tour.

Layers of Splendor Revealed Auroras Image

Daniele Boffelli

The auroras are best seen during the winter, when nights are long. Hours of patience by photographer Daniele Boffelli resulted in this image that captures both clouds and auroras in the night sky.

Alaskan View of the March 2016 Solar Eclipse

Matt Skinner/Lights Out Photography

Matt Skinner shot the Alaskan view of the March 2016 eclipse in Anchorage with a Canon 5D Mark III mounted onto a Celestron Omni XLT 150 telescope using a solar filter.

March 2016 Solar Eclipse from Malaysia

Doug Furtek

Doug Furtek captured this view of the solar eclipse at 8:38 a.m. local time in the Malaysian town of Tawau, which is on the island of Borneo.

Total Solar Eclipse of March 2016 Composite Image

Justin Ng

Justin Ng led a group of eight first-time eclipse photographers when he captured the images for this eclipse collage early on March 9 in Palu, Indonesia. He took the photos with a Canon 7D at 400mm with a DIY solar filter.

Shades of the moon

Akash Anandh

This image taken by Akash Anandh in Singapore shows the varying shadows cast over the moon during the penumbral lunar eclipse on Sep. 16.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.