Planets, Comets and Asteroids 2024

Category winner

On Approach by Tom Williams

"This false-colour composite shows the phases of Venus on approach to inferior conjunction [when Venus and Earth appear close on the same side of the Sun]," explains category winner Tom.

"Through the use of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared filters, the intricate cloud structure within the upper atmosphere is revealed. Despite Venus’s rotation period being many months long, the atmosphere is far from stationary, circling the planet in around four days. This makes UV imaging of Venus particularly interesting as the planet is much more dynamic than it would be if viewed in the visible spectrum."

Taken in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK, 3 and 23 June and 6 July 2023

Runner-up

Methane Lights of Jupiter by Sophie Paulin and Tom Williams

"This image shows a unique false-colour view of Jupiter in the CH4 methane-band, with the Great Red Spot setting on the western limb," explain the photographers. "Intricate upper cloud formations and storms are revealed through the use of visible and methane band filters.

"As most of Jupiter’s atmosphere absorbs light at 889 nanometres, only the bright polar hoods [cap-like features encircling the polar regions] and storm cells remain in the methane channel, resulting in this striking view of the planet. During processing, R-SynG-CH4 was mapped to RGB, with the synthetic green channel being a combination of Red and CH4."

Taken in Edelweißspitze, Salzburg, Austria, 10 September 2023

Highly commended

M100 (The Blowdryer Galaxy) and Ceres by Damon Mitchell Scotting

"Perspective counts for a lot in life, especially when observing deep space. On this rare and wonderful occasion, I was able to capture a dwarf planet, more than a billion times smaller than its galactic counterpart, transit beyond the galaxy’s spiralling arms," says Damon.

"The planet Ceres shines brighter than the galaxy and zips across our night sky at an alarming pace. For this image I captured multiple long exposures over an eight-hour period to showcase the beauty of the Blowdryer galaxy and the relatively quick speed of Ceres."

Taken at El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Chile, 22, 27 and 31 March 2023, 12 January and 2 March 2024