Editor’s note: These images taken by Soumyadeep Mukherjee left us starstruck (no pun intended). Soumyadeep is the first Indian to be awarded ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year’ by Royal Museums Greenwich. His award winning image ‘A Year in the Sun’—which you see above–won the award in the ‘Our Sun’ category. The image captures all the sunspots that appeared on the sun over the course of a year—creating two bands on both its hemispheres.
Soumyadeep’s work has appeared in magazines and platforms ranging from Forbes to NASA. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Linguistics at IIT Kanpur.
A cosmic odyssey
Centaurus A: Situated around 16 million light years away, NGC 5128 or Centaurus A is a lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Centaurus. It is one of the closest radio galaxies (the kind that emit more light at radio wavelengths than visible ones) to Earth.
Comet and Clusters: This image captures comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)—that passed through our cosmic neighbourhood last year—near the globular cluster M10 (centre) and M12 (top-left).
Fighting Dragons: What you’re seeing here are the Dragons of Ara, also known as the Rim Nebula. This is an emission nebula (the kind that are made up of ionised gases that emit light in multiple wavelengths) located in the constellation Ara.
In Search of Minerals: The lunar surface seen behind this plane appears colourful due to the mineral deposits such as titanium and iron on the lunar surface.
Petal and Lagoon: This 3 panel mosaic captures the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way, with a number of nebulae and interstellar dust.
The Lonely Astrophotographer: This image captured in Nepal features colourful star trails in the north-east direction in the backdrop of the ‘Sleeping Buddha’ mountains, which include Kangchenjunga—the third highest mountain in the world.
Waves of Cosmos: What you’re seeing here is the California Nebula. This is also an emission nebula and is situated in the Perseus constellation.
