Spectacular Milky Way images astound in space photography competition – featuring a 'winter fairy tale' shot from an ice cabin.
Stars of astonishing quality grace the nightscapes vying for the 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year prize. Photographs taken from various locations across the globe, including space, Chile, and the United States, are among the contenders.
The captivating images, showcased by the eighth annual competition, were revealed by travel blog Capture The Atlas. One of the standout entries, taken from an Austrian ice hut by photographer Uroš Fink, features the core of the Milky Way and both Jupiter and Mars shining brightly.
Speaking about his winter adventure, Fink mentioned that the trio formed a true winter fairytale. The competition highlight includes a rare Milky Way shot captured from the International Space Station, along with stunning views from lesser-known locations like Chad, northern Argentina, Socotra Island, Namibia, Australia, New Zealand, and beyond.
The collection showcases 25 breathtaking images of the night sky, featuring celestial events such as comets, meteor showers, and lunar eclipses. This year's competitors also include images shot in remote locations like Easter Island amid the moai sculptures. The Milky Way Photographer of the Year is set to reward one photographer with an out-of-this-world picture prize.
Milky Way Facts:
The Milky Way is the galaxy that holds our Solar System. It is a barred spiral galaxy, characterized by a central bar-shaped structure of stars and spiral arms that extend outward. Notable features include a dense, stellar region named the galactic center believed to contain a supermassive black hole, a surrounding spherical region called the bulge, a flat disk filled with stars, gas, and dust, and an extended halo containing older stars and globular clusters. The Milky Way is around 100,000 light-years in diameter and contains between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, with the Sun located roughly 27,000 light-years from the galactic center.
Sources:[1] Travel blog Capture The Atlas[2] The Sun[3] privacy policy of The Sun[4] Enrichment Data[5] Additional sources based on Enrichment Data
- The eighth annual competition, showcasing captivating images of the night sky, includes entries from various branches of science, such as the Milky Way shot from the International Space Station, a testament to the intersection of environmental-science, space-and-astronomy, and technology.
- As the competition progresses, the Milky Way Photographer of the Year contenders demonstrate a diverse range of locations, from well-known spots like Chile and the United States, to lesser-known territories like Chad, Socotra Island, Namibia, and even Easter Island, further showcasing the wonders of environmental-science and technology.
