In March, the Planck Satellite team announced major findings from over a year of observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (the radioactive sludge that lingers in our universe from the beginning of time, right after the Big Bang), and released the map pictured above, which depicts the oldest light in the Universe with unprecedented precision.

It may not have turned out to be the "Comet of the Century," but Comet ISON still managed to put on one hell of a show in the final days of its inexorable dive toward the Sun. This photo, captured by astrophotographer Mike Hankey, shows ISON on the morning of November 14th, when it brightened by an order of magnitude and first became visible to the naked eye.