The winner of the 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is a stunning image of a rare ‘shutdown event’, when the solar wind breaks off part of a comet’s tail. The image is just one of many in the world’s most prestigious astrophotography contest.
“Once again we had a great year for astrophotography and the entrants produced some fantastic images for the competition,” said Ed Bloomer, astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. “The standard is incredibly high. It was great to see how many participants challenged themselves to capture unusual, rarely filmed or fleeting events: there are some things you haven’t seen before and even some things you won’t see again.”
Gerald Rehman
The incredible image that won this year was taken by Austrian photographer Gerald Riemann in Namibia over Christmas. The image shows Comet Leonardo, only discovered in early 2021, and Riemann was lucky enough to catch the super-rare shutdown event before the comet left our solar system and was never seen again.
“A piece of Comet Leonardo’s tail was torn off and blown away by the solar wind,” Gerald explained. – I was very lucky that the weather at Tivali Farm in Namibia was perfect when I opened the roof of the observatory. I noticed that the tail of the comet looked dramatic in the first shot I took, so I decided to widen the field of view with a second shot, and that’s where the disconnect happened.”
Martin Lewis
Another highlight is the winner of the Moon category by British photographer Martin Lewis. Judge Steve Marsh said the spectacular image highlights the extraordinary scale of some of these lunar craters.
“I never tire of looking at craters on the moon, but this shot of Plato took my breath away with its long, sweeping shadows,” Marsh said. “When you consider the length and scale of these shadows and the mountains that create them, this image is a truly deserving winner.”
Zihui Hu
Other impressive moments show the International Space Station hovering over the site of the 1969 moon landing, stars streaming behind a snow-capped mountain in Tibet, and a truly unique mosaic of multiple images of the Sun stacked to resemble rings on a tree stump.
Take a look at all the great winners of this year’s competition in our gallery.
Source: RMG
