IT MIGHT not feel like it in space, but a lot can happen in a year.
More importantly, lots of really cool photos get taken. We have compiled the best spacey snaps from 2013, along with the moments that shaped space exploration over the last 12 months.
Take a look. We think you'll find the images suitably breathtaking.
This NASA panoramic photo, released on August 20, was taken by astronauts on the International Space Station. The rising sun causes a red, teardrop-shaped reflection, and long, blue-white ripples appear in the atmosphere.
Pictured here is the newly discovered Herbig-Haro object HH 46/47. In English, that's a newborn star with a large energetic jet moving away from our solar system. The image was created by combining radio observations with light observations.
In this image, an unmanned Minotaur rocket launches towards the moon from Virginia's eastern shore. It carries NASA's newest robotic explorer, the LADEE spacecraft, which will study the lunar atmosphere and dust.
This NASA image shows the "potentially hazardous near-Earth object" 1998 KN3 zipping past a cloud of dense gas and dust near the Orion nebula. It was snapped by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Blue objects in the image are hotter than red objects.
This is an image of the Silver Coin Galaxy, which is 11400000 light years away. Yes, that is very, very far.
From Earth's perspective, The Ring Nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a "shaggy" boundary. Or as some like to call it, a distorted doughnut. Delicious.
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg released this photo on Monday, August 26. It shows a view of wildfires in California from the International Space Station. The smoke plumes are clearly visible from space.
This is a selfie. Yes, a SELFIE! The NASA rover Curiosity took a photo of itself in Gale Crater while it was casually chilling on Mars.
Humanoid robot Kirobo (he's holding a miniature Japanese flag in the bottom right corner there) uttered the first robotic words in space. He's pictured on the International Space Station.
This image was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is in orbit around Saturn. Note the bright spot in the bottom right corner of the picture. That little speck is Earth.
This is the remarkable first picture taken by the new $1.3 billion radio telescope sitting high in the Chilean Andes. It's an image of the Antennae Galaxies.