The best astrophotos of 2022 (17 photos)

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, 2022 has become truly breathtaking for astronomy and astrophotography. This and new opportunities in space exploration, and amazing clarity images of nearby planets and distant galaxies!





From the very first image of the telescope, which gave a detailed image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, before the image of the polar aurora on Jupiter taken with a near-infrared camera range (NIRCam), "James Webb" never ceases to amaze.

But not James Webb alone. Independent astrophotographers in this year, too, did not let us down and made a lot of new wonderful pictures. We will show the most interesting and memorable.

Pillars of Creation



Tarantula Nebula





Spiral galaxy NGC 628



Butterfly Nebula



Jupiter's auroras



Neptune (record clearest image ever)



7. Nebula Snail (Eye of God)



Close-up of the surface of the sun



Dust envelopes around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 140 (the constellation Cygnus)



Galaxy Cartwheel



The galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, the first full image of the James Webb telescope



And some works of independent astrophotographers:



Photographer: Andrew McCarthy



Photographer: Andrew McCarthy



Photographer: Andrew McCarthy



Photographer: Dane Smith



Photographer: Paul Chain