These spellbinding photos reveal聽what is lying in wait when we cast our gaze upwards to the vast expanse of space. The images are some of the winning and shortlisted entries for this year鈥檚 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, organised by the Royal Observatory in London.
Zihui Hu took the top prize in the Skyscapes category with this shot of the snow-capped Namcha Barwa mountain in Tibet (above), titled Stabbing Into the Stars聽鈥� a nod to the mountain鈥檚 name, which means 鈥渟pear thrusting into聽the sky鈥� in Tibetan. The stars appear as trails in the sky thanks to long-exposure photography.
Advertisement
Filip Hrebenda won the Aurorae category with In the Embrace of a聽Green Lady (above), showing the emerald hues of the northern lights, or aurora borealis, reflected on a frozen lake in聽Iceland. Green is the most common colour seen in the northern lights. It is caused when oxygen atoms in the atmosphere between 120 and 180聽kilometres above Earth鈥檚 surface decay to their normal energy state, after being excited by聽solar wind.
The remaining images are from the Skyscapes category. Death Valley in California features in runner-up Abhijit Patil鈥檚 image, Badwater Milky Way (above), revealing the characteristic hexagonal mud patterns in the valley鈥檚 Badwater basin.
Another of Hrebenda鈥檚 images, The Night Highway (above), captures the rare sight of both the Milky Way and an aurora over the Vestrahorn mountain in Iceland and was highly commended.
The winning photos are on display at an at the National Maritime Museum in London, UK, from 17 September until 13 August 2023.
