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Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard). (Lionel Majzik) |
There's a big, wide, wonderful, breathtaking Universe out there, beyond the bubble of life on Earth – although not much of it is visible to most of us, here on this pale blue dot. We look up; we may see stars, and galaxies, and the disk of the Milky Way, as specks and smears of light.
To see deeper, and clearer, requires the use of tools,
and people able to use them – like the amazing astrophotographers now
shortlisted for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the
Royal Observatory Greenwich in the UK.
This year saw the submission of over 3,000 entries
from 67 countries around the world, to be awarded prizes in nine categories in
addition to two special prizes, and the grand prize to be awarded to the
photographer judged best overall.
The shortlisted photographs range from near to far: to
images of Spaceship Earth, against its shimmering backdrop of stars; to the
Solar System; to more distant nebulae, and galaxies colliding by way of an
intricate dance beyond the confines of the Milky Way.
These winners won't be announced until September 15,
but the announcement of the shortlist means that you can enjoy the submissions
now. As the great science communicator and astronomer Carl Sagan once wrote,
"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the
Universe to know itself."
Or, if you prefer Oscar Wilde: "We are all in the
gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Here's a selection of some of our favorites.
Circles and Curves by Sean Goebel
Taken in the California desert in a natural stone
formation, this image shows a timelapse of the stars forming arcs in the sky as
Earth rotates.
At the center is Polaris, the North Star, which due to
its position almost directly over the North Pole appears to remain still in the
sky. It shines over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, including Mount Whitney
on the left – the tallest mountain on the US continent.
Suburbs of Carina Nebula by Ignacio Diaz Bobillo
The Carina Nebula, located roughly 8,500 light-years
away, is one of the biggest and most beautiful cosmic clouds we can see in our
sky. This small (well, relative to the entire nebula complex) section is known
as RCW 53c, and it's rarely photographed in isolation.
This image, taken from Argentina, uses two colors to
map the hydrogen and oxygen in the gas that makes up the cloud.
An Icelandic Saga by Carl Gallagher
This image, a single exposure, shows the aurora
borealis shining through a gap in the clouds over the wreck of the once-whaling
ship Gardur on the coast of Iceland.
The aurora dancing across the sky is the result of
solar particles colliding with and ionizing particles in Earth's atmosphere –
very similar to the process of ionization from stellar radiation that makes
clouds like RCW 53c glow.
Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) by Lionel Majzik
Comet Leonard was discovered in the sky in January of
last year, and grew so bright in December that it was visible, for a time, with
the naked eye. This image, revealing the complex structures in Leonard's
gorgeous tail, was captured at the end of December. The green glow is produced
by cyanide or cyanogen in the comet's atmosphere excited by ultraviolet
radiation from the Sun.
Comet Leonard, alas, won't be back: it broke apart and disintegrated as it went around the Sun.
The starry sky over the world's highest national highway by Yang Sutie
National Highway 219 in Tibet is the highest national highway in the world. In this 245-second exposure, the highway glows in the foreground with the light of cars speeding around its snaking bends, the serene array of stars in the disk of the Milky Way shining overhead imaged using a separate instrument.
On the horizon, Mount Kula Kangri on the Tibet-Bhutan
border, is illuminated by the glow of the Moon just set to the west.
You can view more of these images on the Royal MuseumsGreenwich website. The winners will be announced on 15 September 2022.
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