The Milky Way seems to mark a glowing trail from the Cape Palliser lighthouse in New Zealand to the empty expanse of the Southern Ocean in the winning image from this year's Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Mark Gee's photograph captures the otherworldly beauty of the central regions of our home galaxy, more than 26,000 light years away, as a murky mist of star-riddled dust.
The smudges on the left of the picture are the Magellanic clouds, which are even further afield. These two small galaxies, where some stars are born, are our closest cosmic companions. Long-considered to be satellites orbiting the Milky Way, this might not be the case. They might be moving across the sky because our galaxy's gravitational pull is too weak to keep hold of them.
In Gee's photograph, the three galaxies are suspended together overhead. "This view from the shores of New Zealand makes me think of the long voyages Maori ancestors made into unchartered oceans, guided by the stars," says judge Marek Kukula. "We're in a similar situation today, as we set out to explore the universe."
Take a look at the competition's other prize-winning starlight snaps in our gallery.
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