A photo of a far-off, shark-shaped cloud of gas in area has actually made the leading reward in a Royal Observatory Greenwich contest for amateur area professional photographers.

Called “The Quiet Predator,” the image by skywatcher Ali Alobaidly displays the Shark Nebula (LDN 1235), which is approximately 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus.(For point of view, the nearby galaxy to our world is just about 4 light-years away.) The spectacular image was selected as the total winner of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s 18th ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest, whose honorees were revealed Thursday (Sept. 17).

Elizabeth Howell was personnel press reporter at Space.com in between 2022 and 2024 and a routine factor to Live Science and Space.com in between 2012 and 2022. Elizabeth’s reporting consists of numerous exclusives with the White House, speaking a number of times with the International Space Station, experiencing 5 human spaceflight launches on 2 continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and taking part in a simulated Mars objective. Her most current book, “Why Am I Taller?” (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.