Astronomy Photographer of the Year, the annual photo competition showcasing all things space, is back for its 16th run.
More than 3500 images were submitted for the award. Among the 30 to make the shortlist is Carina Letelier Baeza’s shot Arctic Dragon. Taken at the Arctic Henge in Iceland, it shows an aurora, the result of a geomagnetic storm generated by a coronal mass ejection, which looks like a rearing dragon.
Also on the shortlist is The Scream of a Dying Star (below), taken by Yann Sainty. The “star” in question is actually what remains of a supernova – when a star dies and explodes in a tremendous display of light and energy. This one occurred around 10,000 years ago.
Sainty exposed rarely seen details of this glowing remnant, called the Cygnus Loop, by capitalising on a clear sky in the Atlas mountains in Morocco, combined with a long exposure time. The image’s name is a nod to the famous painting The Scream by Edvard Munch, though it also symbolises the “scream” that echoes through space after a star dies, according to Sainty.
Below is a dazzling shot of the sun’s corona (its outermost layer of atmosphere) above the Himalayas, captured by Geshuang Chen near the Tibetan city of Shigatse. Usually hidden by the brightness of the sun’s surface, here its corona can be glimpsed thanks to the thin, blanketing clouds that diffract sunlight as it passes through, resulting in this vibrant array of iridescent colours. Chen has called the image The Palette of the Himalayas.
The winners of the competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory in London, will be announced on 12 September. The winning images will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London from 14 September, alongside a selection of shortlisted images.