The 5 absolute best space images of 2026 (so far)
BBC Science Focus highlights the top space photography winners of 2026, featuring Ali Alobaidly’s 'The Quiet Predator' as the overall winner. The article showcases various categories including solar photography and aurorae, emphasizing the technical skill involved in capturing these celestial events.
Why it matters
It celebrates advancements in amateur and professional astrophotography and public interest in space exploration.
An image of the Shark Nebula (see below), which is some 650 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, has been crowned the overall winner of this year’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
The nebula’s silhouette is formed by thick clouds of interstellar dust and gas that block the light of background stars.
Photographer Ali Alobaidly spent two nights in the desert of western Kuwait to capture the striking nebula – the result was his award-winning image: The Quiet Predator.
It was pulled together using hundreds of long exposures over more than 28 hours.
“The juxtaposition of an oceanic predator prowling through the skies above the Kuwaiti desert is something I find deeply poetic,” Alobaidly, who won £10,000, said.
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