These Shortlisted Images From Astronomy Photographer of the Year Are Pure Fire – Gizmodo

Every year, Greenwichs Royal Observatory considers photos of the cosmos for its Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The 16th rendition of the contest does not disappoint. From distant spinning galaxies to brilliant auroras on our very own planet, the entrants in this years competition show off everything the heavens have to offer.

If youre in the London area, you can see the shortlisted photos in person at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. But if youre not, you can check out the shortlisted finalists below.

The starbursts of color are the Geminid meteor shower as seen from La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. The Milky Way also appears in the background.

The galaxy NGC 6744 sits 30 million light-years from Earth, and resembles how our own galaxy would look from such a distance.

A beautiful combination of pinks, yellows, and greens illuminate the sky over Icelands Eystrahorn Mountain during a geomagnetic storm in December 2024.

This strikingly detailed image reveals the Suns surface. Towards the top left quarter of the Sun, a plasma filament that looks a bit like a whale swims across the stars surface.

An abandoned home in Namibias Namib Desert, with the Milky Way hanging above it, presents a stunning contrast. The shot reminds me a bit of the landscapes in Courage the Cowardly Doganyone else?

These rock formations are located in a caldera in the Canary Islands Teide National Park. Behind the formations is the arc of the Milky Way.

Per the title, the aurora above Icelands Arctic Henge resembles a bright green dragon.

The deep reds of the Aurora Australis beneath the arc of the Milky Way, as seen from New Zealands Castle Hill.

This trippy shot captures the reflection of light from various sources across the night sky, reflected in some of the 12,000 mirrors at a power station in China.

A volcanic crater in Japan, the Milky Way above it.

This filamentous blue structure is a part of the Vela supernova, which exploded roughly 11,000 years ago.

Octobers full moon is also called a Hunters Moon. In the foreground of the natural satellite is the International Space Station (bottom right).

A galaxy 11.75 million light-years away, sitting in the constellation Ursa Major.

The dwarf planet Ceres is seen here as four bright spots, transiting in front of the Blowdryer Galaxy (formally M100).

This eerie shot of a supernova afterglow gets its name from Edvard Munchs The Scream; indeed, the stellar remnants resemble a howling person.

The Pelican Nebulas dust and gas structures, seen through a telescope in Hungary.

The Martian landscape as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image abstracts the landscape to the point that the terrain looks like a chunk of some menacing creature.

A spellbinding shot of the Isaac Newton Telescope in the Canary Islands, with the Cygnus region of the Milky Way visible at top right.

This captivating photo from Namibia features a stone sculpture of a person in mid-stride.The Carina Nebulawhich the Webb Space Telescope imaged as one of its first science targetsis visible top right.

Behold Saturn, the ringed planet, accompanied by six of its moons. To the left, you can spot Rhea, Enceladus, and Mimas as tiny specks. Dione is visible at the bottom right, Titan at the top right, and Tethys is just about to disappear behind Saturn itself.

These are the remains of a jetty on Norfolks Snettisham Beach, under a long exposure of the stars in the night sky.

A sunspot is shown here erupting on the surface of the Sun. Sunspots are darker regions on the Suns surface associated with the stars magnetic field.

The luminous blue lights of the Pleiades, as seen from Nerpio, Spain.

Jupiter with its moons Io and Ganymede. Io is a compelling research target for scientists, given its desolate and volcano-covered landscape.

Heres another aurora reminiscent of a mythical flying serpent. This photo is in black and white, an interesting approach to one of the most famously vibrant natural phenomena on Earth.

This ominous shot portends doom for a galaxy (top left), threatened by CG4, a giant cloud of gas and dust in space.

This image, captured using a telescope at Chiles El Sauce Observatory, shows the incredibly flat M104, or Sombrero Galaxy, including the dust that permeates the object.

A composite image showing the transit of the ISS across the face of the Moon.

An iridescent rainbow of the Suns corona as it appears in altostratus clouds above the Himalayan mountains.

An arguably obligatory image of a total solar eclipse. This one was captured in Australia in April 2023; the image is made of seven superimposed photos that capture different states of the eclipse.

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These Shortlisted Images From Astronomy Photographer of the Year Are Pure Fire - Gizmodo