Images of the sky, stars and galaxies have the ability to strike wonder and awe.

The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition captures that awe by showcasing some of the best images in astrophotography as amateur and professional photographers alike vie for a £10,000 ($13,000) grand prize.

Now in its 16th year, the contest drew in more than 3,500 entries from photographers representing 58 countries this time around. Hosted by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, it is the largest astrophotography competition in the world—and the observatory released the winners of its 2024 contest in an online ceremony Thursday.

This year’s contest featured multiple categories: our sun; our moon; galaxies; auroras; planets, comets and asteroids; people and space; stars and nebulas; and skyscapes. The judges also handed out a few special awards that recognized astrophotography newbies, young photographers and image innovation, which requires merging open source data with space-related images.

The overall winner, Ryan Imperio, came from the “our sun” category and depicted Baily’s beads during the 2023 annular solar eclipse. Tom Williams was able to win in two separate categories, securing the top image in both “people and space,” as well as “planets, comets and asteroids.”

“An abundance of astonishing works flood to us, and it is a joy to see what the world’s best astrophotographers are producing,” says Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, in a statement. “It really is true that choosing the winners is a long process, and heavily debated amongst the panel.”

An exhibition featuring the winning photographs, alongside a selection of shortlisted images that were announced earlier this year, opened at the National Maritime Museum in the United Kingdom on September 13.

Below are the breathtaking winners, capturing in great detail the otherworldly beauty of space.

Distorted Shadows of the Moon’s Surface by Ryan Imperio

A time-lapsed picture of the moon covering the sun shows thin glowing gold rings emanating out from the dark moon at the left, with dark streaks through them
In this contest-winning time-lapse shot, the moon travels across the face of the sun, revealing the progression of Baily’s beads during the 2023 annular solar eclipse. © Ryan Imperio

This overall winning image was taken during the 2023 annular solar eclipse that traced a path over the Americas. Astrophotographer Ryan Imperio of the United States put together this sequence of continuously captured images showing the progression of a phenomenon called Baily’s beads.

When the moon’s edge aligns with the sun’s during a solar eclipse, its rugged topography of mountains and valleys allows sunlight to shine through unevenly. The resulting beads of light are called Baily’s beads. Here, the Baily’s beads break the ring of sunlight to form the illusion of black streaks.

A glowing “Ring of Fire” also appears on the left side of the striking image. Since the moon does not completely cover the sun in an annular eclipse, it results in a ring of light glowing around the moon.

Imperio describes how he captured the contest-winning shot: “Representing approximately ten seconds, the stacked sequence was shot at three frames per second and, starting on the left, includes the Ring of Fire at maximum annularity,” or the peak of the eclipse, he says in a catalog of the winners sent to Smithsonian magazine. “As the sequence progresses, a sort of exaggerated projection is created of the moon’s rough topography, allowing the viewer to appreciate the distorted lunar peaks and valleys.”

Queenstown Aurora by Larryn Rae

A pink aurora shines over a mountain and water in the night sky, with streaks emanating up from the horizon like fire
The pink hue of the southern lights shines over mountains, as captured in Queensland, New Zealand, in this winning image from the auroras category. © Larryn Rae

The Aurora Australis, or southern lights, illuminate the sky over the mountains of Queenstown, New Zealand. Given the popularity of photographing the northern lights, this category winner was just one of two shortlisted aurora photos taken in the Southern Hemisphere. The vivid red colors of this aurora are rarer than green auroras, because these are produced at high altitudes.

When charged particles from the sun energize atoms of gas in the Earth’s atmosphere, the excess energy gets released as light in brilliant auroras. The sun launches those particles in a phenomenon known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), when its outer atmosphere ejects magnetic fields and plasma mass into space.

Larryn Rae of New Zealand describes how his image was put together: “It is a 19-image panorama capturing all of the fast-moving beams that lit up the sky. … My astro-modified camera caught all the pink hues of the aurora beams.” The composition also came together with a bit of luck. “The aurora came out of nowhere, and I was the only person there to capture the surprise display.”

Shadow Peaks of Sinus Iridum by Gábor Balázs

A shot of the moon highlighting the textured craters, mountains, and dry bays
A close-up shot of the moon captures a flat plain known as Sinus Iridum, as well as the crater Pythagoras, which is visible because of a wobbling phenomenon called libration. The image won the contest's category for our moon. © Gábor Balázs

Captured by Gábor Balázs of Hungary, this image shows a large lunar crater called Sinus Iridum, also known as the ‘Bay of Rainbows,’ which stretches approximately 150 miles in diameter. The surrounding Montes Jura mountain range casts spiky shadows into the crater. This detailed photograph reveals how the bay is surrounded by several smaller craters, showcasing the moon’s rugged terrain. In the top right corner lies the crater Pythagoras, which is noted by astronomers for its depth and complex geological features.

Earth-bound viewers can only see one side of the moon, but a phenomenon called “libration,” in which the moon slightly oscillates, allows astronomers to see approximately 59 percent of the satellite’s total surface. This photograph includes glimpses of areas that are typically out of view because libration caused them to wobble toward the Earth.

One of the competition’s judges, Yuri Beletsky, an astronomer and award-winning photographer in his own right, stated about this capture: “This image not only highlights the capabilities of modern astrophotography equipment but also offers a vivid illustration of lunar surface features, contributing valuable insights into lunar geology.”

Echoes of the Past by Bence Tóth

Centaurus A, a galaxy only visible from the Southern Hemisphere, shines with glowing jets of radiation.
Galaxy NGC 5128, the fifth brightest galaxy as seen from Earth, won the category for galaxies. © Bence Tóth, Péter Feltóti

A shot of galaxy NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A, took home the prize in the galaxies category. At the center is a visualization of a powerful jet of radiation and particles known as a relativistic jet. Moving at close to the speed of light, the jet serves as an indicator of a supermassive black hole.

Centaurus A is the closest radio galaxy to Earth, meaning it emits a large amount of radio waves. Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky and can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

Bence Tóth of Hungary describes how he and Péter Feltóti got the shot: “We captured the image data in parallel with two astrophotography setups and processed the final image from all the data.”

“This galaxy has quite a violent past due to several galaxy merging events. One of the main goals was to show how these disrupting events shaped the galaxy, as the shockwaves are propagated through the entire disc,” he adds. “The other target was to show the relativistic jet, the tell-tale sign of the supermassive black hole at the center.”

High Tech Silhouette by Tom Williams

An image of the surface of the sun with the International Space Station traversing in front of it.
The International Space Station creates a silhouette above the sun's active surface as it speeds around the Earth. This image won the contest's people and space category. © Tom Williams

Tom Williams of the United Kingdom captured this moment as the International Space Station transited in front of the surface of the sun. He describes the discipline and accuracy needed to get this detailed image: “Crossing the field of view in just 0.2 seconds, these ISS transits of the sun are particularly rare for any one location on Earth.”

The International Space Station is the largest space station ever built, maintaining an orbit with an average altitude of 250 miles. The station makes 16 orbits of the Earth per day, meaning its astronauts experience 16 sunrises and sunsets daily. It travels at a rapid five miles per second, emphasizing the precision needed to get this photo.

Williams’ image also showcases the dynamic and active nature of the sun. A large, bright, extruding solar prominence extends out from the star near the station’s transit location, making this shot extra special.

“Luckily weather conditions were great, and the sun was very lively at the time,” the photographer adds. “After many days of planning, it was a treat to have it all come to fruition.”

On Approach by Tom Williams

A collection of views of Venus’s blue and orange surface.
Venus, seen in three views as it approaches a conjunction with Earth and the sun, won the planets, comets and asteroids category. © Tom Williams

The above image shows the phases of Venus as it approaches to pass between the Earth and sun. Whenever a planet sits directly between the sun and Earth, this is referred to as an inferior conjunction. Such an alignment occurs with Venus occurs every 19.5 months.

Venus is a breathtaking, unique planet. It spins slowly in the opposite direction from most planets in our solar system. And as the closest planet to Earth, the highly reflective Venus is the third brightest object in the sky, after only the sun and moon. However, the reflectivity of its clouds makes conventional imaging methods difficult.

“This makes UV imaging of Venus particularly interesting as the planet is much more dynamic than it would be if viewed in the visible spectrum,” Williams notes. He used ultraviolet and infrared filters to reveal the intricacies of cloud structures within the planet’s upper atmosphere, represented by added colors in the image that resemble the planet’s natural hue.

Tasman Gems by Tom Rae

Stars, nebulae, and aurora shine in this summer night sky in New Zealand
Stars, nebulas and galaxies illuminate the night sky over the Tasman Valley in New Zealand. This image won the contest's skyscapes category. © Tom Rae

The rugged peaks of New Zealand’s Tasman Valley stretch upward toward an array of celestial features in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer night sky.

At the center, the red regions are hydrogen clouds of the Gum Nebula, the largest emission nebula in the sky, spanning the width of 72 full moons. Despite its size, the Gum Nebula was unknown before 1955 due to its faintness. This shot also features other regions in the Milky Way that aren’t photographed very frequently given their low brightness.

In the top right side of the frame are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are two irregular dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. Additionally, the bright stars Sirius and Canopus can be seen in the center of the image. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, lies in the Canis Major constellation. Canopus is part of the constellation Carina and is the second-brightest star seen from the Southern Hemisphere. On the left of the image, you can see the Orion constellation with its characteristic three-star belt.

“It’s very challenging to create this sort of composition without tipping the balance in favor of either foreground or background,” says contest judge Bloomer. “As well as being technically impressive, the balance also produces a surreal quality. A slightly dream-like connection between the Earth-bound and the celestial.”

SNR G107.5-5.2 Unexpected Discovery (The Nereides Nebula in Cassiopeia) by Marcel Drechsler, Bray Falls, Yann Sainty, Nicolas Martino and Richard Galli

Bright blue remnants of a gigantic supernova form a wispy ring against red remnants and a red foggy backdrop with stars
In this winning image from the stars and nebulas category, the remnants from a gigantic supernova form wispy rings at the center of the Cassiopeia constellation. © Marcel Drechsler, Bray Falls, Yann Sainty, Nicolas Martino, Richard Galli

“A new supernova remnant right at our doorstep!” writes the team of five photographers who captured this image. “One team, 3,559 frames, 260 hours of exposure time, telescopes on three continents and one goal—not only to explore a supernova remnant that has not yet been discovered by science, but also to photograph it in an ambitious joint project.”

This gigantic supernova remnant in the resulting image is a lingering structure left over from the explosion of a star, featuring shock waves and filled with ejected materials from the blast.

The team of photographers discovered this remnant, which stretches across a wide expanse of the night sky the size of six full moons. It was a surprise find, considering it lies in the center of the famous constellation Cassiopeia, known for its “W” shape formed by five bright stars.

“Who knew this fantastic and delicate structure was there all along in one of the best-known constellations in the night sky?” says contest judge Steve Marsh, the art editor for BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

The clever coloring specifically wowed judges as it illuminated the structure’s details. Even more impressively, the team that made this miraculous discovery consisted of amateur astronomers, demonstrating the remarkable impact amateurs can have on the field.

SH2-308: Dolphin Head Nebula by Xin Feng and Miao Gong

A blue nebula is looks like a dolphin's head with its nose pointing to the top left against a colored blue and red sky
The Dolphin Head Nebula appears as a blue bubble in this image that won the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer. © Xin Feng, Miao Gong

Xin Feng and Miao Gong of China took home the award for the best newcomer image, which features the charming SH2-308, commonly known as the Dolphin Head Nebula.

The bubble of ionized atomic hydrogen was pushed out from a very luminous Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars are at an advanced stage in the stellar life cycle and have a high rate of mass loss. Around the Dolphin Head Nebula, stellar winds, or gas ejected from the star’s upper atmosphere, can reach over 3.3 million miles per hour, making the region lively.

Feng and Gong note the nebula “is at a low angle and can only be shot for five hours a day. … This image comprises a total of ten days of shooting and post-processing.”

NGC 1499, A Dusty California by Daniele Borsari

A reddish-pink emission nebula in the vague shape of the state of California
The California Nebula emits ionized gasses to form a long, reddish-pink shape. Captured by a 14-year-old photographer, the image won the young astrophotographer category. © Daniele Borsari

Fourteen-year-old Daniele Borsari of Italy captured the above image of the emission nebula NGC 1499, also known as the California Nebula for its resemblance to the elongated shape of the state. An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gasses that glows, typically in red, due to being heated by nearby stars.

This nebula is just about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. Borsari captures the nebula’s shape beautifully, demonstrating the promise of young astrophotography talent, per the contest judges.

“This incredibly beautiful image… captures a nebula, atmospheric gasses and has extraordinary balance of light, composition and structure,” says judge Neal White, a researcher of contemporary art and science at the University of Westminster in England. “The future of astronomy photography being fearlessly, and openly, taken forward by a new generation.”

Anatomy of a Habitable Planet by Sergio Díaz Ruiz

A depiction of Earth’s atmosphere features shown with green, red, and blue visualizations from a full view of the spherical planet from space
This visualization of Earth’s global atmospheric conditions, based on satellite data, won the Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation. © Sergio Díaz Ruiz

Spanish photographer Sergio Díaz Ruiz creates a shocking depiction of a world plagued by impending global catastrophes, despite having intelligent life forms. What planet is this? Our Earth.

Various colors represent data captured by the GOES-18 weather satellite, denoting landmasses, oceans and atmospheric features. Combined with a map of artificial lights at night, the image shows Earth as an alien civilization might view and study it. The image evokes the pressing need for climate action to manage greenhouse gas emissions and other atmospheric risks to humankind.

As judge Victoria Lane, senior curator of art and identity at Royal Museums Greenwich, aptly writes, “the image poignantly emphasizes the significant environmental challenges we face and the urgent need to protect and preserve our planet.”

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Sam Sanders is the author of Your Next Big Idea, a book about entrepreneurial creativity. He teaches at the University of the District of Columbia and is working on a forthcoming book on how play can be used to reduce conflict diplomatically.