A galactic worm devours stars. A plasma whale glides across the surface of the sun. And a fearsome dragon dances with an aurora. It’s not the plot of a fantasy novel, it’s our incredible universe captured in stunning detail.
The Royal Observatory Greenwich has announced the shortlisted images for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024. The finalists were chosen from more than 3,500 images submitted by professional and amateur photographers from 58 countries. The winner will be announced on 12 September and an exhibition of the best images will be on display in London at the National Maritime Museum from 14 September.
Gwenaël Blanck traveled to Australia in April 2023 to see the 62-second total solar eclipse. In this collage he shows the pink crown and chromosphere, Baily’s scutes and beads, slivers of sunlight shining through the Moon’s rugged landscape. The image consists of seven overlapping pictures, one overexposed for the background and another six for the chromosphere and highlights. Image: © Gwenaël Blanck (France)
This picture of the Geminid meteor shower was taken in perfect conditions in La Palma. During the peak of the night, Sahner could easily spot two or three or more meteors per minute within the field of view. The panorama shows the entire winter Milky Way as seen from La Palma in natural RGB color with additional detail in H-alpha. Image: © Jakob Sahner (Germany)
M81, also known as the Bode Galaxy, is located about 11.75 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky. In the background of the image, several Integrated Flux Nebulae (IFN) can be seen. IFN is dust outside the galactic plane of the Milky Way illuminated only by stars in the Milky Way. Image: © Holden Aimar (USA), 14 years old
A view of Mount Eystrahorn (Iceland) on the night of a KP7 storm (a severe geomagnetic storm that can cause auroras and disrupt power systems). The intensity of the storm resulted in an impressive range of colors in the sky. Thewizard: © Jose Miguel Picon Chimelis (Spain) JOSE CHIMELIS
The photographer was able to capture the aurora in motion as it transformed into something resembling a dragon’s head on a clear night. Telser chose to use black and white to emphasize the contrast of the aurora against the dark sky. Image: © Moritz Telser (Italy) MORITZ TELSER
This image shows the details of the Sun’s surface. The photographer sees the filament shape to the left of the disk as a large plasma whale traversing the solar surface. Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau captured this photo by recording two videos (one for the disc and one for the highlights), each consisting of 850 frames. Image: © Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau (Argentina)
This image shows an abandoned house in the middle of the Namib desert with the Milky Way rising above it. The sky was captured with a star tracker to lower the ISO. The veil of clouds and halos around the stars create a dreamlike effect. Image: © Stefan Liebermann (Germany)
This impressive aurora, which appears to take the shape of a dragon, was the result of a geomagnetic storm (level G2) created by a coronal mass ejection. The photo was taken at the Arctic Henge, which was one of the only places in Iceland with clear skies that night. Image: © Carina Letelier Baeza (Chile) Tsar Letelier
This image captures the International Space Station (ISS) in transit across October’s Full Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, approximately 12 hours after a partial lunar eclipse. The awe-inspiring beauty of the Full Moon is on display, with its mix of rugged highlands, bright crater rays and darker seas. Themagician: © Tom Glenn (USA)
Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture is the collective name for the five peaks that are often called the ‘Five Mountains of Aso’. One of the peaks, Nakadake, has a volcanic crater that is still active. Abe wanted this image to show how the Milky Way has observed activity on Earth since prehistoric times. This is a composite shot with the foreground and sky shot separately, but without moving the tripod. Image: © Yoshiki Abe (Japan)
In this image, the photographer was able to capture a dwarf planet, Ceres, more than a billion times smaller than its galactic counterpart, passing beyond the galaxy’s spiral arms. Ceres outshines the galaxy and moves quickly across the night sky. For this image, multiple long exposures were captured over an eight-hour period to showcase the beauty of the Blower Galaxy and the relatively fast speed of the dwarf planet Ceres. Image: © Damon Mitchell Scotting (UK)
CG4 (Cometary Globule 4) is a complex of nebula and dust with a very special shape, located in the southern constellation of Puppis. The ‘head’ of the galactic worm is about 1.5 light years across. This image is the result of the work of a team of astrophotographers: they joined forces to rent the powerful 500mm Newtonian telescope from the Chilescope service, processed the raw files, and then voted on the best images. Image: © ShaRa
This image was taken at Snettisham Beach, famous for its large tidal flats that attract migratory birds in staggering numbers. The subject in the foreground is a dilapidated wharf, which was built in World War II to allow gravel mined from nearby pits to be moved by boat. The curved channel in the mud reflects the stars at the bottom. Image: © Paul Haworth (UK)
This photograph captures a sculpture in northwestern Namibia. Made of stone, this is one of a group of sculptures known as ‘The Lonely Men of Kaokoland’ [as the region was formerly known]. No one knows who put them there. First a long exposure of the stone runner was taken, then the tripod was moved for a clear view of the horizon. Image: © Vikas Chander (India)
During the Spring Festival, the sun clouds and altostratus worked together to create this great corona, rising above the Himalayas. The result is a huge range of colors on snowy peaks. Image: © Geshuang Chen (China)
The downward tilt of Saturn’s rings means that the moon Titan is closer to Saturn from our perspective than it has been in more than a decade. In the center of the image, Tethys is about to disappear behind Saturn, while Rhea, Enceladus and Mimas are to the left, and Dione is to the lower right. The shadow of the planet in the rings is prominent, as are the Cassini and Encke divisions. Image: © Andy Casely (Australia)
The intense glow of M104’s core often obscures the details that lie within the surrounding ring of dust. In this image, the dust appears to spiral into that core, floating in a thin, goo-like layer as it falls toward the massive central black hole. The brightest, most colorful stars in the image are actually in the foreground – part of our own Milky Way galaxy. Image: © Kevin Morefield (USA)
The supernova Cygnus afterglow is a popular astrophotographic object, but the idea here was to take advantage of the high sky quality and long exposure time to bring out rarely seen details, such as the outer envelope of the supernova remnant. . The image’s name is a nod to The Scream, Edvard Munch’s famous painting, which symbolizes the scream that continues to echo through space after the star’s death. Image: © Yann Sainty (France)