Amazing Space Photos: Royal Observatory's Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

Earth And Space: Guiding Light to the Star

Mark Gee | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

The skies of the Southern Hemisphere offer a rich variety of astronomical highlights. The central regions of the Milky Way Galaxy, 26,000 light years away, appear as a tangle of dust and stars in the central part of this image by Mark Gee, who won the 2013 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. [Read the Full Story Here]

Earth And Space: Green Energy

Fredrik Broms | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

The shifting lights of the Aurora Borealis can take on many shapes and forms as they are moulded by the Earth’s complex magnetic field. Sheets and planes of glowing gas appear to be twisted into a giant vortex above Grøtfjord in Norway. [Read the Full Story Here]

Earth and Space: A Quadruple Lunar Halo

Dani Caxete| The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

This quadruple lunar halo was taken by Dani Caxete for the astronomy photographer of the year 2013 exhibition at the royal observatory greenwich. [Read the Full Story Here]

Earth And Space: Icy Visitor

Fredrik Broms | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

Like the snowy mountains in the foreground, the nucleus of Comet Panstarrs is composed largely of ice and rock. [Read the Full Story Here]

Earth And Space: Snowy Range Perseid Meteor Shower

David Kingham | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

The photographer has combined 23 individual stills to convey the excitement and dynamism of this natural firework display. [Read the Full Story Here]

Deep Space: Celestial Impasto

Adam Block | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

Over just a few thousand years the fierce radiation from the stars in this nebula will erode the surrounding clouds of dust and gas, radically altering its appearance. [Read the Full Story Here]

Deep Space: Rho Ophiuchi and Antares Nebulae

Tom O’Donoghue | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

The smoky appearance of the dust clouds in this image is fitting, since the grains of dust which make up the nebula are similar in size to particles of smoke here on Earth. [Read the Full Story Here]

Deep Space: M81 – 82 and Integrated Flux Nebula

Ivan Eder | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

Lying at a distance of twelve million light years from Earth, M81 and M82 are galaxies with a difference. [Read the Full Story Here]

Deep Space: Omega Centauri

Ignacio Diaz Bobillo | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

Omega Centauri is a globular cluster, a spherical cloud containing several million stars. As this image shows, the stars are more densely clustered towards the centre. [Read the Full Story Here]

Deep Space: Floating Metropolis – NGC 253

Michael Sidonio | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

First discovered by astronomer Caroline Herschel in 1783, NGC 253 is a rare example of a ‘starburst galaxy’ with new stars being formed at many times the rate in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. [Read the Full Story Here]

Our Solar System: Corona Composite of 2012: Australian Totality

Man-To Hui | The National Maritime Museum | Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013

A natural dimming of the Sun’s blinding brightness, courtesy of the Moon, reveals the ghostly glow of gas that has a temperature of one million degrees Celsius. [Read the Full Story Here]

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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.