Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Huge plasma arc wins

[TygrBright]

Article link: (Please go look, many more AMAZING photos...) https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-66807814

A photo of a huge plasma arc next to the Andromeda Galaxy has won this year's prestigious photography prize.

A team of amateur astronomers led by Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty captured the surprising discovery.

Scientists are now investigating the newly discovered giant cloud of gas.

It could be the largest such structure in the nearby environment in the Universe.

This one of the "sprites" blew my mind:



delightedly,
Bright

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Both of these are brilliant photos! Thanks so much, my dear TygrBright, for sharing them. ♥ nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Plasma arc

Made me think galaxy looks at itself in a cosmic mirror.

[Demovictory9]

3. Wow

[ShazzieB]

4. Holy cow, this stuff is amazing!

I just looked through the other photos in the article, and I am BEYOND impressed! I especially love this one:



I can't get over how much the surface of the sun resembles fur in this photo. It just blows my mind. (I recommend going to the link to see the original in all its glory if you haven't already. I resized this because I wasn't sure how DU would handle such a large pic and some of the fine detail has been lost.)

My hat is off to people who can take photos like these.