Stunning images of space abound in this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Taking photos of our universe is hard work, but the winners and contestantsin the Royal Observatory Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition make it look easy.

People who take images of the cosmos are called astrophotographers, and it can become an obsession. But they come from all walks of life, with varying degrees of equipment and know-how from all around the globe. But what they all have in common is a love of our night sky and the desire to share it with others.

Taking astronomical photos requires a lot of patience. For deep-sky images like nebulas, galaxies and star clusters most astrophotographers use special cameras that attach to their telescopes.

Much like space telescopes, the photographers often use different filters, such as red, green and blue, but sometimes others that only allow particular wavelengths to show up on the sensor. They take many images in each filter, leaving the camera's shutter openfor varying amounts of time, sometimes 10 minutes or more, depending on how dim the object is.

Then,using special astrophotography software, they stackthose imagestogether imagine literally adding photos one on top of the other; this sharpens the image andreduceswhat photographers call noise. This produces the final colour image that canthen be processedusing different photographic software.

Here are some of the winners of this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year, along with honourable mentions and special considerations.

Disconnection Event

The overall winner of the award wasGerald Rhemannfor the above image of Comet Leonard, which was discovered by G.J. Leonard on Jan.3, 2021. The comet made its closest pass of Earth in December 2021.

Comets are balls of dust and ice that orbit the sun. As comets often called"dirty snowballs"near the sun, their tails can elongate and become brighter.

Rhemann's imageshows the comet on Dec.25, 2021, where a noticeable part of its tail was pinched offand carried away bysolar wind.

Unfortunately, Comet Leonard disintegrated in early 2022 and will not be seen again.

The Jovian Family

Damian Peach is an accomplished astrophotographer, with most of his images focusing on Jupiter and Saturn. He won runner-up in the Planets, Comets and Asteroids category.

He took animageof our solar system's biggest planet, Jupiter, together with three of its largest moons Ganymede, Io and Europa from Chile in August 2021.

Also visible is Jupiter'sGreat Red Spot, a storm that has been brewing across the planet for at least 400 years.

Cosmic Rose

Lionel Majziktook this image of Comet 4P/Faye in front of a nebula known as Lower's Nebula or Sh2-261 in the constellation Orion. This image was highly commended in thePlanets, Comets and Asteroids category.

He used a remote telescope located in Mayhill, N.M.,and was able to capture this rose-like nebula with the comet creating what looks like agreen stem.

Misty Green River

Canadian Fred Bailey was the runner up in the aurora category. He captured the magnificence of the northern lights over Cameron Rivernear Yellowknife on Sept.1, 2021.

He took this shot using only a camerawith an 18-mm lens and a 15-second exposure.

Winged Aurora

A highly commended image inthe Aurora category is this one byAlexander Stepanenko. He photographed an almost angel-like auroraagainst a clear sky inMurmansk, Russia, on Jan.15, 2022. This was just a 1.6-second exposure.

"Aurora pictures are always beautiful to look at, but never have such images stopped me in my tracks like this one," said judge Melissa Brobby.

"This wonderfully fortunate capture is simplistic in its beauty, but the sheer majesty of the winged aurora looming over the mountain is breathtaking. I haven't stopped looking at this picture in awe."

Majestic Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy is a favourite of many astrophotographers. This imagewas a collaboration between Utkarsh Mishra, Michael Petrasko andMuir Evenden. The images were taken fromPie Town, N.M.,onMay5, 2021.

The galaxy seems to be hanging in a jewel box of stars withfaint dusty star streams that were created when a smaller galaxy collided with our Milky Way Galaxy. The image won in the Galaxies category.

A Giant in the Sun's Limb

A massive solar prominence a feature made of plasma, a hot gas that contains electrically charged helium and hydrogen hangs above oursun. The image was highly commended in the category, Our Sun.

Miguel Claro capturedthis image from the Dark Sky Alqueva region in Portugal on Feb. 7, 2022. The prominence was visible for two days, and later threw a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. If Earth is in the path of a CME, we can get great displays of auroras, or northern (and southern) lights.

Miguel used a telescope with a special solar filter and captured the prominenceon video.

The International Space Station Transiting Tranquility Base

The International Space Station (ISS) is seen directly over the Apollo 11 landing site on the moon, in the Sea of Tranquility.

Andrew McCarthy, the winner in the People and Space category,was able to get the shot from Florence, Ariz. The entire transit of the ISS across the moon lasted only a few milliseconds and required a lot of planning to get the shot just right.

The image itself was just a 0.3 millisecond exposure.

The Eye of God

The winner in the Stars and Nebula category is Weitang Liangwho photographed the Helix Nebula from theRo Hurtado, Coquimbo Region ofChile onAug.8, 2021.

This nebula often called the Eye of God is a planetary nebula, whichsurprisingly has nothing to do with planets. It is a cloud of gas and dust that has been shed by a parent star as it nears the end of its life. It is believed that one day, our sun will also create a beautiful nebula such as this.

Liangcollected 22.5 hours of data to produce this final image.

Badwater Milky Way

Abhijit Patilis the runner up in the Skyscapes category. He photographed the Milky Way stretched over the salt flats at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park in California.

Each winter new rainwater is brought to the flats, where a continuous freeze-thaw-evaporationprocess creates the hexagonal patterns seen in this photograph.

The image is a composite of a five-second exposure of the ground and a five-minute exposure of the sky.

Andromeda Galaxy, The Neighbour

Finally, the Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year award was won by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, two 14-year-old boys from China. The pair collaborated to take animage ofour nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy on Feb.21, 2021.

The galaxy is one of our closest and largest neighbours and is on a collision course with the Milky Way. But there's no need to panic: it's notexpected to happen for another five billion years. It took a total exposure of 17 hours to capture this image.

For a full list of winners, visit the Royal Museum Greenwich website. The photographs will also be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London beginning Sept.17.