Best Astronomy Photos of the Year Named

Deep Space Winner: Celestial Impasto

Photograph courtesy Adam Block, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

Like a painting filled with delicate brushstrokes, the giant star-forming nebula Sh2-239 lights up the celestial canvas in this Deep Space category award-winning image.

Sitting only 453 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, Sh2-239 is one of the nearest stellar factories to Earth.

Published September 22, 2013

Our People and Space Winner: Moon Silhouettes

Photograph courtesy Mark Gee, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

The silhouettes of onlookers stand framed in front of the yellow glow of the rising full moon on March 28, 2013, as seen from Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand.

A rising or setting full moon regularly appears to change its familiar silvery color to a more yellow-orange hue due to its light refracting off countless  dust particles in Earth's atmosphere.

Published September 22, 2013

Solar System Winner: Australian Totality

Photograph courtesy Man-To Hui, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

The scorching hot outer atmosphere of the sun—known as the corona—pops into view solely during the fleeting moments of a solar eclipse, as seen here in this award-winning composite photo taken in Australia during the totality on November 14, 2012.

The above image is a combination of 81 individual exposures. They have been digitally stacked together and enhanced to bring out the solar corona's filaments and waves, which resemble ghostly tentacles reaching out into the overhead sky.

Published September 22, 2013

Earth and Space Runner-Up: Green Energy

Photograph courtesy Fredrik Broms, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

A glowing green vortex-shaped aurora lights up the snowy mountains near Grøtfjord in Norway on March 20, 2013.

As clouds of charged particles fling themselves off the sun and hit Earth's protective magnetic field, geomagnetic storms can form near the poles of our planet, generating glowing sheets and aurora curtains in the upper atmosphere.

Published September 22, 2013

Robotic Scope Winner: Orion in Bloom

Photograph courtesy László Francsics, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

The great stellar nursery known as the Orion nebula is captured in all its glory in this February 4, 2013, composite shot combining two telescope views.

By combining results from two different telescopes, a robotic one in Australia and another in Hungary, László Francsics managed to catch sight of tiny dark blobs of gas and dust surrounding newly formed stars in the nebula.

Known as protoplanetary disks, astronomers believe that these plates of material coalesce over time to form planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.

Published September 22, 2013

Solar System Runner-Up: Magnetic Maelstrom

Photograph courtesy Alan Friedman, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

Islands of sunspots—each one bigger in size than Earth—appear to float in a sea of hot plasma on the sun's surface, in this dramatically detailed image captured on July 11, 2012.

Published September 22, 2013

Earth and Space Special Mention: Perseid Burst

Photograph courtesy David Kingham, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

A magnificent cosmic burst of meteors is captured in this composite image from south-central Wyoming's Medicine Bow National Forest in August 2012, during the peak of the Perseid shower.

Astrophotographer David Kingham managed to capture nature's best fireworks show by collecting 23 individual 30-second-long exposures, all of them taken over the seven hours of a single night session.

Published September 22, 2013

Young Astronomy Photographer Winner: Milky Way

Photograph courtesy Jacob Marchio, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

Dusky brown dust lanes cross the star-studded core of our Milky Way galaxy in this mesmerizing portrait taken on July 15, 2012, by 14-year-old Jacob Marchio from the USA.

In this breathtaking cosmic vista, the central bulge of the Milky Way—obscured by the dark rifts of dust seen here—is located some 26,000 light-years from Earth. Dominating the foreground of the picture is a rich star-field home to countless nebulae and star clusters scattered through the plane of our galaxy.

Published September 22, 2013

Solar System Spaceal Mention: Ring of Fire

Photograph courtesy Jia Hao, Royal Observatory Greenwich APOY  

This spectacular composite photo of the May 9 annular solar eclipse above Western Australia brilliantly shows the progress of the moon's shadow as it crosses the disk of the sun. The passage produces the famous "ring of fire" effect seen in such events, where the width of the moon as seen from Earth doesn't completely cover the sun during an otherwise total eclipse.

Published September 22, 2013