The six Expedition 50 crew members celebrate Thanksgiving in space, Nov. 24, 2016, with rehydrated turkey, stuffing, potatoes and vegetables. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cydlkybweaewesk.jpg_orig.jpeg

Saturn's icy moon Mimas is dwarfed by the planet's enormous rings. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20509-1041.jpg

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed a sunset that looks like a vast sheet of flame. With Earth’s surface already in darkness, the setting sun, the cloud masses, and the sideways viewing angle make a powerful image of the kind that astronauts use to commemorate their flights. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss049e049442_lrg.jpg

On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on Nov. 18. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cxaovzcwqaa0nll.jpg

The moon Hyperion tumbles as it orbits Saturn. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20512-1041x398.jpg

Middle school students programmed a camera aboard the International Space Station -- the Sally Ride EarthKAM -- to photograph this portion of the Sahara desert in western Libya on October 3, 2016. The Expedition 50 crew set up the EarthKAM gear in the Harmony module’s Earth-facing hatch window, to allow students to photograph targets on Earth. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ccfid_113386_2016277154705_image.jpg

On November 1, 2016, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Indonesia, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves from the Lombok Strait. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/image11052016_250m.jpg

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) used a long lens to document what crews have termed one of the most spectacular features of the planet: the dunes of the Namib Sand Sea. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss047e023405_lrg.jpg

Many Martian landscapes contain features that are familiar to ones we find on Earth, like river valleys, cliffs, glaciers and volcanos. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21216.jpg

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA shared this photograph of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-6) as it approached the International Space Station. Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet successfully captured the spacecraft using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/czj8bxlw8aapi4b.jpg

The foreground of this scene from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows purple-hued rocks near the rover's late-2016 location on lower Mount Sharp. The scene's middle distance includes higher layers that are future destinations for the mission. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21256_sol1516mrseq07719-nolabels.jpg

Hurricane forecasters will soon have a new tool to better understand and forecast storm intensity. A constellation of eight microsatellites, called NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission, or CYGNSS, got a boost into Earth orbit aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket, deployed from an L-1011 aircraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/g0043192.jpg

Spiral galaxy IC 5201 sits 40 million light-years from us in the Crane constellation. As with most spirals we see, it has a bar of stars slicing through its center. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1650a.jpg

Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, a region called NGC 6357 where radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the cloud that surrounds them. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ngc6357.jpg

This composite image, made from ten frames, shows the International Space Station, with a crew of six onboard, in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, from Newbury Park, California. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/30903636564_0127bfba48_o.jpg

This week in 1968, Apollo 8, the first crewed Apollo mission, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 21, 1968. Here, the S-IC stage is being erected for final assembly of the Saturn V launch vehicle in Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/6761894-orig.jpg

This week in 1968, Apollo 8, the first crewed Saturn V launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 21, 1968. Here, the S-IC stage is being erected for final assembly of the Saturn V launch vehicle in Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/6761894-orig.jpg

This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft is one of the highest-resolution views ever taken of Saturn's moon Pandora. Pandora (84 kilometers, or 52 miles across) orbits Saturn just outside the narrow F ring. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21055-1041.jpg

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA sent holiday greetings and festive imagery from the cupola on Dec. 18. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss050e017211.jpg

Just hours after the winter solstice, a mass of energetic particles from the Sun smashed into the magnetic field around Earth. The strong solar wind stream stirred up a display of northern lights over northern Canada. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/aurora_vir_2016357_lrg.jpg