Galaxies
This curvaceous shot of the Milky Way is a panoramic image of our galaxy that took two years to complete. It won the—go figure—Galaxies category of the competition. The image shows all parts of the Milky Way that are visible from Earth and was put together from images taken in China (in Sichuan and Qinghai) and New Zealand (Lake Pukaki) to capture elements of the galaxy exclusively visible to the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.
Fashioned in a ring, the galaxy echoes the overall winning image of the annular eclipse. At the top of the ring is the galactic bulge, the concentration of cosmic structures at the center of the galaxy. From Earth, the bulge is seen in a cross-section (as we, obviously, are in the galaxy ourselves). Jupiter is also visible, above that bulge and to the left of the red giant star Antares. Besides the bulge, the constellation Orion and the Magellanic clouds are visible on the lower half of the image. Seeing our galaxy in a ring shape warps our typical view of the night sky, from a tableau of what’s right in front of us into a more totalizing view of our residency in the cosmos. If the solar system is our street, the Milky Way is our entire city.
