The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is brimming with wondrous snapshots of the universe. Royal Observatory Greenwich held the contest, and this year's winners and contestants delighted us with these beautiful astrophotographs.
The results of the competition were reported first by CBC News. Let's take a deep dive into a few Astronomy Photographer of the Year award winners from this year with the following pictures.
Comet Leonard in Raging Blue
Gerald Rhemann is the overall award winner for the comet Leonard photograph shown above, which G.J. Leonard found on January 3, 2021. The comet traveled close to the Earth in December of last year.
Comets are icy and dusty objects that travel around the sun. Comets, sometimes known as "dirty snowballs," can lengthen and brighten their tails as they get closer to the sun.
Moons of Jupiter
According to CBC News, Damian Peach is an expert astrophotographer who primarily shoots photographs of Jupiter and Saturn. He was a runner-up in the category for planets, comets, and asteroids.
In August 2021, he photographed Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, as well as its three largest moons, Ganymede, Io, and Europa.
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter, a storm that has been raging over the planet for at least 400 years, is also visible in the photo.
Green-Lit River
The aurora category's runner-up was Canadian Fred Bailey. On September 1, 2021, he photographed the beauty of the northern lights over Cameron River, close to Yellowknife.
He merely used a camera with an 18-mm lens and a 15-second exposure to take this magnificent photo.
Cosmic Rose
Comet 4P/Faye was photographed by Lionel Majzik in front of the Lower Nebula, also known as Sh2-261, located in the constellation Orion. This image received high praise in the category of planets, comets, and asteroids.
He captured this rose-shaped nebula with the comet appearing to be the stem using a remote telescope from Mayhill, New Mexico.
Aurora's Wings
This picture by Alexander Stepanenko was also highly praised in the Aurora category. On Jan. 15, he captured an almost angelic-like aurora against a cloudless sky near Murmansk, Russia. Fun fact: this exposure only lasted for 1.6 seconds!
The Enchanting Sombrero Galaxy
Many astrophotographers have a favorite object: the Sombrero Galaxy. Michael Petrasko, Muir Evenden, and Utkarsh Mishra worked together to create this stunning picture. The photos were taken on May 5, 2021, from Pie Town, New Mexico.
With faint dusty star streams that were produced when a smaller galaxy collided with our Milky Way Galaxy, Sombrero appears to be suspended in a jewel box of stars. Rightfully so, this photograph was the Galaxies category winner.
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
