"All the effort that went into making this image a success was worth it."
The winning photograph of Comet Leonard.
Source: Gerald Rhemann / Royal Museums Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022
The Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners have been announced.
The top spot goes to an image that's so
impressive it almost doesn't look real. Austrian photographer Gerald Rhemann
captured the image of Comet Leonard and its glowing tail on Christmas Day,
2021, from Namibia, a report from LiveScience reveals.
Rhemann's image provides an ethereal view of the
gas cloud surrounding the comet being swept away by solar wind as the space
rock was making its way through the central Solar System.
Comet Leonard's Ghostly Tail
Comet Leonard was only discovered in January last year, only a month before Rhemann captured his picture. The photographer readied his equipment as the comet was making its closest approach to Earth.
"This award is one of the highlights of my
astrophotography work," Rhemann explained in a statement. "All the
effort that went into making this image a success was worth it."
As it came closer to Earth, charged particles
from its tail started to interact with the solar wind, giving it a ghostly
glow. Thankfully, Rhemann decided to snap his impressive photograph before
Comet Leonard started to travel away from Earth. According to astronomers, the
comet's trajectory means it will now travel far into interstellar space and
will likely never return to the central solar system.
Other Impressive Category Winners
Other impressive submissions to the contest, and
winners of other categories, include an image titled "Andromeda Galaxy:
The Neighbor." It is a photograph of the closest galaxy to our own,
captured by 14-year-olds Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen of China. They won the
Young Photographer category.
Martin Lewis, from the U.K., meanwhile, won the
Moon category with an image highlighting shadows falling across a large crater
called Plato on the moon's surface.
An image of the Plato crater, the site of the Apollo 11 moon landing, won the Moon category.
Source: Martin Lewis / Royal Museums Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022
Another impressive image comes from American
photographer Andrew McCarthy, who won the People and Space entry. His
photograph shows the silhouette of the International Space
Station (ISS) against the Sea of Tranquility, the site of the Apollo 11
moon landing.
Indian photographer Soumyadeep Mukherjee won the
Sun category for his image titled "A Year in the Sun," which
shows how sunspots, cooler zones on the sun's surface, drift over the
course of a year.
The photograph titled 'A Year in the Sun' shows how sunspots move over the course of a year. Source: Soumyadeep Mukherjee / Royal Museums Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022
The Royal Museums
Greenwich's contest website shows a full gallery of all the winners and
runners-up. The images are well worth a look. For those who want to see the
photographs in person, they are also now on display at the National Maritime
Museum in London.
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