The other big space exploration story this year is the ongoing Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, including the reawakening of the Philae probe on the comet surface after 211 days of hibernation.  Above are recent images of the comet at its closest approach to the sun, showing water vapor and dust streaming out into space.  The Rosetta spacecraft was actually moved away from the comet during this part of the mission in order to minimize the risk of damage from ejected material.

I haven’t blogged much about the Rosetta mission, but there is a lot of cool stuff going on that you can read about at the European Space Agency’s web site.