September 2021 has been an incredible month for fans of spectacular photos of space, space phenomena and images taken from orbit. A “space jellyfish?” Tick. An award-winning “golden ring” eclipse? Yup. How about a close-up of Jupiter taken from just above its cloud tops? That, too!
Here’s a selection of the best images from a month in space photography:
1. An ‘edge-on’ Earth from the ISS
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is taking a lot of incredible photos while on the International Space Station (ISS) on his Mission Alpha, but this one taken from the cupula window (main picture, above) is surely the most dramatic.
“Sometimes star lights battle it out with city lights for who’s the brightest and more beautiful,” wrote Pesquet. “I’m just lucky to get to be the judge.”
Follow him on Twitter for more incredible images.
2. A ‘space jellyfish’ above Florida
Just after the launch on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 of the Inspiration 4 mission—the first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth—official photographer John Krauss captured a spectacular “space jellyfish” or “rocket jellyfish.”
The phenomenon occurs when a rocket (in this case a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket) is launched just after sunset, with an exhaust plume of gases creating a halo that’s illuminated by the Sun from underneath the horizon.
3. ‘The Golden Ring’ scoops astrophotography prize
Last week an image taken of an annular “ring of fire” solar eclipse on last year’s summer solstice scooped the $13,900 (£10,000) top prize at the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year 13 staged by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London.
Photographer Shuchang Dong from China took the image from Ali in Tibet on June 21, 2020 during that day’s spectacular annular solar eclipse.
His image takes pride of place in the exhibition of winning photographs that opened at the National Maritime Museum on September 18, 2021.
4. Swooping views over Jupiter’s cloudtops
What would it be like to fly over Jupiter’s cloud-tops? NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently re-jigged its orbital path around the giant planet so it could visit Ganymede.
One consequence is that its orbit reduced from 53 to 43 days, and that each close flyby—or perijove—is closer than before.
Cue this incredible shot, skilfully processed by citizen scientist Andrea Luck.
5. Hubble captures a ‘galactic wander’
After a few technical issues that threatened its existence, the Hubble Space Teleescope is back and doing what it does best. Direct from Earth orbit comes this awesome image of a globular cluster called NGC 6717, which lies more than 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius.
A roughly spherical collection of stars tightly bound together by gravity, this image of NGC 6717 contains some bright foreground stars close to Earth.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
