Pictures: Best Astronomy Photos of 2011 Named

Overall Winner: "Jupiter With Moons"
Photograph courtesy Damian Peach
An amazingly clear portrait of the king of our solar system, Jupiter, earned top honors in the 2011 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest.
U.K. resident Damien Peach snapped the frame from the Caribbean island of Barbados, capturing not only the planet's intricate cloud bands but also the disks of two of its largest moons, Ganymede (upper right) and Io. The shot won first place in the "Our Solar System" category, as well as the title of overall winner.
"There were so many beautiful images this year, but this one really stood out for me," competition judge and astronomer Marek Kukula said in a press statement.
"It looks like a Hubble picture. The detail in Jupiter's clouds and storms is incredible, and the photographer has also managed to capture detail on two of the planet's moons, which is remarkable for an image taken from the ground."
Held for the third year in a row, the competition is run by the U.K.'s Greenwich Observatory and Sky at Night Magazine. This year amateur astronomers from all over the world submitted more than 700 entries, vying for the top prize of U.K. £1,500.
(See the winners from last year's astrophotography contest.)
—Andrew Fazekas
Published September 9, 2011
Deep Space Winner: "Vela Supernova Remnant"
Photograph courtesy Marco Lorenzi
Hanging off one of the wings of the constellation Cygnus, the swan, is the nebulous Vela supernova remnant—all that remains of a star that exploded 12,000 years ago.
The cobweb-like structure, which lies more than 800 light-years from Earth, is seen expanding across a field of stars in this picture by Marco Lorenzi in Italy, winner of the "Deep Space" category.
"I've always been inspired by supernova remnants, in particular by their reach and their different compositions. After all, several of the building bricks of life are created during these apocalyptic events," Lorenzi said in a press statement. (Related: "How Planets Can Survive a Supernova.")
Published September 9, 2011
Earth and Space Runner-up: "Divine Presence"
Photograph courtesy Ole Christian Salomonsen
The night sky is awash with wispy green auroras above the barren landscape near Hillesøy, Norway, as seen in the runner-up in the "Earth and Space" category.
Photographer Ole C. Salomonsen snapped the cosmic fireworks display on March 11, just as Earth's magnetic field was buffeted by charged particles coming off the surface of the sun. (Related: "Solar Flare Sparks Biggest Eruption Ever Seen on Sun.")
As solar particles get funneled into our planet's atmosphere, they collide with oxygen and nitrogen molecules, causing them to glow like curtains of dancing light.
Published September 9, 2011
Earth and Space Winner: "Galactic Paradise"
Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel
The summertime Milky Way arches high above the hilltops along the coast of Mangaia, the Cook Islands, in the "Earth and Space" winning picture.
Photographer Tunç Tezel digitally stitched together a mosaic of nine 30-second snapshots across the sky. In doing so, he captured the combined light from hundreds of millions of stars that make up the "arms" of the Milky Way.
Contest judge Will Gater of Sky at Night Magazine said of the picture: "This beautiful image has a truly magical feel to it. I love how the rich star fields of the Milky Way appear to follow the line of the horizon. Look closely and you'll see many pink nebulae nestled within our galaxy's spiral arms."
(Also see "Best Night-Sky Pictures of 2011 Named.")
Published September 9, 2011
Deep Space Honorable Mention: "Fighting Dragons of Ara"
Photograph courtesy Michael Sidonio
Known as the fighting dragons of Ara, two colorful gas clouds appear to be posing in attack position in a picture that received honorable mention in the "Deep Sky" category.
Australian astroimager Michael Sidonio captured subtle hues of purple, orange, and green from the giant cloud of gas and dust, which sits 4,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Ara.
The 300-light-year-wide molecular cloud is being shaped by radiation from massive young stars formed inside during the past few million years.
Published September 9, 2011
Young Astronomy Runner-Up: "Starry Night Sky"
Photograph courtesy Nicole Sullivan
The Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year runner-up is 15-year-old Nicole Sullivan of the U.S., who captured hundreds of circular star trails above the Sierra Mountains.
In a long exposure picture, the stars seem to spin around a point roughly over Earth's North Pole, highlighting the planet's rotation on its axis.
Published September 9, 2011
People and Space Runner-Up: "Hunting Moon"
Photograph courtesy Jean-Baptiste Feldmann
A crescent moon on April 6 offered Jean-Baptiste Feldmann of France the perfect opportunity to create a playful silhouette-and the resulting photo earned him second place in the "People and Space" category.
During a crescent moon, sunlight hitting part of the moon creates a curved shape, while the darker portion of the disk is still visible thanks to reflected light from Earth, known as earthshine.
Published September 9, 2011
Young Astronomy Winner: "Lunar Eclipse and Occultation"
Photograph courtesy Jathin Premjith
The disk of the full moon turns blood red above India on June 15, as seen in this winning picture by 15-year-old Jathin Premjith, the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year.
A full lunar eclipse occurs approximately twice a year, when the moon goes into the Earth's cone-shaped shadow. The reddish hues projected onto the surface of the moon are created by sunlight refracting through Earth's atmosphere, which is filled with dust and pollution.
(See more pictures of the June lunar eclipse.)
Published September 9, 2011
People and Space Winner: "Stargazing"
Photograph courtesy Jeffrey Sullivan
Photographer Jeffrey Sullivan earned the winning shot in the "People and Space" category for his self-portrait, taken from a remote hilltop in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The band of the Milky Way stretching over Sullivan's head is only one of the two main spiral arms that make up our home galaxy, which contains more than a hundred billion stars.
The picture "puts humankind in perspective, reminding us how small a part of the universe we are, and how much of it is inhospitable to humankind," remarked contest judge Graham Southorn, editor of Sky at Night Magazine.
Published September 9, 2011
Deep Space Runner-Up: "Leo Triplet"
Photograph courtesy Edward Henry
This "family portrait" of three galaxies—known as the Leo Triplet—in the springtime constellation Leo earned Edward Henry of the U.S. second place in the "Deep Space" category.
Located a whopping 35 million light-years from Earth, each of these spiral galaxies is tilted at a different angle from our line of sight. This offers various views of the galaxies' spiral structures, including the knots and dark dust lanes where new generations of stars are currently forming.
Published September 9, 2011