National Geographic: Best Astronomy Pictures of 2012
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Whirlpool Galaxy
Photograph courtesy Martin Pugh, APOY/Royal Observatory
This penetrating look at the Whirlpool Galaxy won Australia's Martin Pugh top prize in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
The contest, run by the U.K.'s Royal Observatory Greenwich, drew nearly 850 entries this year from around the world.
Here, a spiral arm of the Whirlpool Galaxy grazes the light of a smaller companion galaxy that's slowly being torn apart by its neighbor's gravity.
The galaxies—some 20 million light-years away—are too faint and distant for the human eye to register their hues. But this long photographic exposure allows us to appreciate their colorful nature, said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge. Young stars appear blue, he explained, and hydrogen gas in the spiral arms varies from pink to reddish.
Pugh's picture impressed judges with its depth, clarity, and color.
"It's not just the detail in the spiral arms that's remarkable," said judge Will Gater. "Look closely and you'll see many, very distant galaxies in the background too."
The winning pictures in the competition's four categories are on view at the Royal Observatory through February 2013.
—Luna Shyr
Aurora Over Norway
Photograph courtesy Arild Heitmann, APOY/Royal Observatory
In Norway's Nordland Fylke, the aurora borealis lights up a midwinter sky.
The colorful phenomenon, also known as the northern lights, occurs when gusts of solar wind hit the Earth's magnetic field.
Fast-moving electrons collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's upper atmosphere, unleashing light whose color depends on the type of gas. Oxygen emits red or greenish-yellow light—nitrogen usually appears blue.
Photographer Arild Heitmann, a runner-up in the Earth and Space picture category, said, "This shot captures for me the intense feeling of standing deep in the mountains, far away from light pollution, and watching the finest light show on the planet."
Star Fields
Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory
One August evening, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.
He came away with this image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light.
"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer.
"The galaxy's central region contains a vast bulge of ancient stars, so when we look in this direction, the Milky Way band appears to swell and thicken."
Witch's Broom
Photograph courtesy Robert Franke, APOY/Royal Observatory
This image of a supernova remnant called the Witch's Broom received high commendation in the Deep Space category.
Taken by American Robert Franke, it shows scattering debris from a Milky Way star that exploded several thousand years ago. These cosmic filaments are part of the Veil Nebula, one of the largest supernova remnants in the sky. It lies some 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
Franke noted that narrowband filters greatly increased the detail in his image while giving a reasonable representation of the nebula's color.
Milky Way Reflections
Photograph courtesy Luc Perrot, APOY/Royal Observatory
It took two years of waiting before conditions were right for Luc Perrot to create this image of Piton de l'Eau, a volcanic crater lake on Réunion Island (map), a part of France.
He needed clear, cloudless skies; stable atmospheric conditions; and an absence of wind to keep the surface of the lake mirror-smooth.
The Milky Way arches over the lake, making the site seem even more otherworldly.
At center in the distance stands Piton des Neiges, Réunion's highest peak at more than 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
This picture was highly commended in the Earth and Space category.
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Venus Transit
Photograph courtesy Paul Haese, APOY/Royal Observatory
One of the biggest astronomical events of 2012 occurred in June, when Venus passed directly between the Earth and sun, inspiring photographers around the world. The transit phenomenon won't happen again until 2117.
Here, Venus appears like a dark speck against the blotched face of the sun.
"I remember this particular morning quite well," said Paul Haese, an Australian whose photograph was highly commended in the Our Solar System category.
"I went out to observe the sun and saw this massive prominence. I just had to image it."
A solar prominence is a large projection from the sun's surface. Each one can loop hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Haese's photo captures the barefaced sun, streaked and spotted with filaments, sunspots, and prominences.
Spaghetti Nebula
Photograph courtesy Rogelio Bernal Andreo, APOY/Royal Observatory
Between the constellations of Auriga and Taurus lies Simeis 147, a vast supernova remnant nicknamed the Spaghetti Nebula.
It consists of debris from a star that exploded around 40,000 years ago. As the wreckage spreads apart, it collides with dust and gas between stars, creating the spaghetti strands we see here.
Kukula called this a "true color" image in which "the photographer is trying to be faithful to the wavelengths of light being emitted." Hydrogen gas gives out red light, which can be brought out through a long telescope exposure, then digitally processed and enhanced.
Said photographer Rogelio Bernal Andreo, a runner-up in the Deep Space category: "Most images I've seen of [Simeis 147] deprive us from viewing the many other things happening around it. My goal was producing an image that documents not only the main object but also what's around it."
Eyes to the Heavens
Photograph courtesy Laurent Laveder, APOY/Royal Observatory
This nightscape featuring the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter took top prize in the People and Space category.
Though millions of miles apart, the two planets make photogenic partners above a beach in northwestern France. Venus appears brighter because of its proximity to Earth and the sun. And although Jupiter is much bigger, it appears smaller than Venus because it was roughly ten times farther away that evening.
"Both planets are very bright because they're covered in clouds, which reflect sunlight," Kukula noted. "They're not exactly like clouds on Earth, but similar."
French photographer Laurent Laveder appears in the bottom corner of the picture.
"I took my place in the corner of the frame to complete the diagonal formed by me, the two planets, and the Pleiades and Taurus in the upper left," he said. The surreal glow on the beach? A red flashlight on his head created it.
Desert Sky
Photograph courtesy Thomas Sullivan, APOY/Royal Observatory
Thirteen-year-old Thomas Sullivan produced this vision of ancient land and sky in California—and was highly commended in the category of Young Astronomy Photographer.
Accompanied by his father, Sullivan captured a gnarled bristlecone pine—more than 4,000 years old—tilting in alignment with the central bulge of the Milky Way galaxy.
"My dad, sister, and I drove a thousand miles [1,600 kilometers] to take cool astronomy photos," said Sullivan, who titled this one "Origins of Life on Earth."
Contest judge Marek Kukula noted that astrophotographers sometimes shine a light toward the end of a long exposure. That lets them bring out the foreground without affecting how the sky looks.
In this case, Sullivan's father happened to be nearby, preparing to take a picture with his own camera. His flashlight provided the finishing effect.
Seven Sisters
Photograph courtesy Jacob von Chorus, APOY/Royal Observatory
Twinkle, twinkle, little stars: The bright lights of the Pleiades, often called the Seven Sisters, dazzle in this closeup taken by 15-year-old Jacob von Chorus of Canada, who took top honors in the category of Young Astronomy Photography.
"It was taken near dusk, with only two frames and an hour of exposure," said the teenager. "The image was a test to see what would happen with such a long exposure."
This shot reveals many of the hot, young stars that make up the Pleiades cluster, beyond the brightest ones that are normally visible to the naked eye during winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Swirling wisps of a bluish gas cloud, which the cluster is passing through, are also visible in the picture.
