Astrophotos Archives

May 13, 2024May 14, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

What a Weekend! Spectacular Aurora Photos from Around the World

Spectacular aurora seen at the cliffs of Etretat in France. This is a a panorama composed of 25 images taken on May 11, 2024. Credit: Julien Looten. Used by permission.

“A dream come true.”
“I never expected this!”
“The most amazing light show I’ve ever seen in my life!”
“Once in a lifetime!”
“No doubt, this weekend will be remembered as ‘that weekend.’”

That’s how people described their views of the Aurora borealis this weekend, which put on a breathtaking celestial show around the world, and at lower latitudes than usual. This allowed hundreds of millions of people to see the northern lights for the first time in their lives. People as far south as Arizona and Florida in the US and France, Germany and Poland in Europe got the views of their life as a series of intense solar storms – the most powerful in more than 20 years – impacted Earth’s atmosphere starting Friday and through the weekend.

September 15, 2023September 15, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Stunning New Images from the 2023 ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year’ Competition

Circle of Light © Andreas Ettl. A stunning photograph of a vivid aurora over Skagsanden beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway. The mountain in the background is Hustinden, which the aurora appears to encircle.

The winners of the 15th annual “Astronomy Photographer of the Year” competition have been announced at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich England. The annual competition features some of the best space photography taken by amateur astrophotographers from around the world.

For the 2023 competition there were over 4,000 entries from 64 countries. Our lead image features an eye-catching capture of an aurora by photographer Andreas Ettl over the Lofoten Islands of Norway.

“Pictures of the aurora such as this are so enchanting,” said one of the competition’s judges, Imad Ahmed. “The icy temperature of the landscape is almost palpable, with the snow-capped mountain framed by the cold emerald hues. … There are a lot of rich details in the picture too, including a canopy of stars subtly strewn across the sky, really adding to the majesty of the shot.”

See more beautiful images below, plus an image that captured a surprising discovery.

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Aurora Hunter Todd Salat Captures a Bizarre Spiral Made by a SpaceX Fuel Dump

A mysterious spiral appeared in the sky over Donnelly Dome near Delta Junction, Alaska on April 15, 2023, caused by a fuel dump from a SpaceX rocket. Credit and copyright: Todd Salat/AuroraHunter.com

Astrophotographer Todd Salat was out in the early hours of April 15, 2023, hoping to capture an aurora display over Donnelly Dome near Delta Junction, Alaska. While the stunning aurora didn’t disappoint, Salat was in for a surprise: a weird spiral appeared in the sky over the summit.

“I had no idea of what I was seeing,” Salat said on his website, “but this phenomenon appears to be caused by engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched southward on the Falcon 9 about three hours earlier from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.”

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

One Total Lunar Eclipse Photo to Rule Them All

A composite image from the November 8, 2022 total lunar eclipse showing the moon in various stages throughout the night. Credit and copyright: Andrew McCarthy.

We’ve seen some great images from the total lunar eclipse this week. But this one might top them all. Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy created this incredible composite image, showing the Moon in various stages of the eclipse throughout the night.

“The size and shape of Earth’s shadow is clearly visible here,” McCarthy said on Twitter. “These events are absolutely magical to witness and quite surreal.”

August 23, 2022August 23, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Rare “Red Sprites” Seen From ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile

This picture, taken from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows bright red streaks known as red sprites. Credit: Zdenek Bardon/ESO.

This new image taken of the skies above Chile’s Atacama Desert near the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) La Silla Observatory, shows bright red streaks in the sky known as red sprites. Red sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, usually triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground. However, the red sprites appear high in Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes 50-90 km in altitude.

July 7, 2022July 7, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Here's the Final Shortlist for Astrophotographer of the Year 2022

The starry sky over the world's highest national highway by Yang Sutie - Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022 People & Space.

We look forward to this every year! The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition showcases and recognizes some of the most stunning views of the night sky and astronomical objects. The shortlisted images from this year’s competition have now been released, and they include awe-inspiring scenes of the Milky Way, colliding galaxies, stellar nurseries, planets, nebula and the always photogenic Moon.

We’re featuring some of our favorites from this year’s competition here. The contest is operated by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, in cooperation with Liberty Specialty Markets and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. In 2022, the competition received over three thousand entries from passionate amateur and dedicated professional photographers, submitted from sixty-seven countries.

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021 by Matthew Cimone

The Galactic Beauty of Star Formation

Image of Galaxy NGC 3627 located in the constellation LEO. The golden gas glow corresponds to clouds of ionized hydrogen, while the bluish regions reveal the distribution of slightly older stars. Credit: ESO/PHANGS

I’d never seen galaxy images like this before. Nobody had! These images highlight star forming regions in nearby(ish) galaxies. There are still a number of unanswered questions surrounding how star formation actually occurs. To answer those questions, we are observing galaxies that are actively forming stars within giant clouds of gas. Until recently, we didn’t have the resolution needed to clearly image the individual gas clouds themselves. But images released by a project called PHANGS (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS) in a collaboration between the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope and the Atacama Large millimeter/submillmeter Array (ALMA) have provided never before seen detail of star forming clouds in other galaxies.

This image combines observations of the nearby galaxies NGC 1300, NGC 1087, NGC 3627 (top, from left to right), NGC 4254 and NGC 4303 (bottom, from left to right) taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Each individual image is a combination of observations conducted at different wavelengths of light to map stellar populations and warm gas.. Image and Image Description PHANGS/ESO. Original Image

November 22, 2020November 22, 2020 by Nancy Atkinson

A High Resolution, Cross-Eyed Look at the Entire Surface of Mars

A group of amateur and professional astronomers have collaborated to create what may be the highest resolution global map of Mars ever created with images taken from Earth.

The images were taken with the 1-meter telescope at the Pic-du-Midi observatory in the Pyrenees of France, during several nights in October and November, 2020 when Mars was at opposition, or its closest approach to Earth.

December 13, 2018 by Evan Gough

You’re Looking at an Actual Image of a White Dwarf Feeding on Material from a Larger Red Giant, 650 Light Years from Earth.

This image is from the SPHERE/ZIMPOL observations of R Aquarii, and shows the binary star itself, with the white dwarf feeding on material from the Mira variable, as well as the jets of material spewing from the stellar couple. Image Credit: ESO/Schmid et al.

The SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope captured this image of a white dwarf feeding on its companion star, a type of Red Giant called a Mira variable. Most stars exist in binary systems, and they spend an eternity serenely orbiting their common center of gravity. But something almost sinister is going on between these two.

Astronomers at the ESO have been observing the pair for years and have uncovered what they call a “peculiar story.” The Red Giant is a Mira variable, meaning it’s near the end of its life, and it’s pulsing up to 1,000 times as bright as our Sun. Each time it pulses, its gaseous envelope expands, and the smaller White Dwarf strips material from the Red Giant.

Continue reading “You’re Looking at an Actual Image of a White Dwarf Feeding on Material from a Larger Red Giant, 650 Light Years from Earth.”

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018 by Evan Gough

This Beautiful Photo of Galaxy NGC 3981 was Taken by the Most Powerful Telescope in the World for no Scientific Reason at all. Just Because it’s Pretty

This image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3981 was captured by the FORS2 instrument on the ESO's VLT. NGC 3981 is in the Crater constellation. Image: ESO

The world’s most powerful telescopes have a lot of work to do. They’re tasked with helping us unravel the mysteries of the universe, like dark matter and dark energy. They’re burdened with helping us find other habitable worlds that might host life. And they’re busy with a multitude of other tasks, like documenting the end of a star’s life, or keeping an eye on meteors that get too close to Earth.

But sometimes, they have to take a break.
Continue reading “This Beautiful Photo of Galaxy NGC 3981 was Taken by the Most Powerful Telescope in the World for no Scientific Reason at all. Just Because it’s Pretty”