And even after making those decisions, this list is still twice as long as the usual ones! Still, I think you'll agree that every single one of these two dozen images is simply breathtaking, either through sheer beauty or because of the fantastic story they tell. This year, the images are dominated by Hubble for some reason - I mean sure, Hubble pix are amazing, but there's just a lot this time around. Also making multiple appearances is WISE, an infrared survey observatory that shut its eye in March of 2011. Again, those images are just, well, wow. You'll see.

So go ahead and click away. To browse, just click the arrows or the next image in the filmstrip. Clicking the image will take you to my original blog post about it, with more information.

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