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IN THE PRESS & AWARDS

Awards

BBC Sky At Night

In 2016, Brazilian photographer Carlos (Kiko) Fairbairn won one of the most prestigious awards in world astrophotography: the Astronomy Photographer of the Year, organized by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London. His image of the Large Magellanic Cloud won the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer, intended for new talents who present outstanding work in their first forays into the field.

The photograph, taken in Luziânia, Goiás, in August 2015, reveals in stunning detail the Milky Way's satellite dwarf galaxy, highlighting star-forming regions and clouds of cosmic dust. The result is an image rich in color and texture, uniquely connecting art and science.

The award not only marked Kiko Fairbairn's entry into the international astrophotography scene, but also projected Brazil as a reference in this area, showing that talent, technique, and passion for the sky can transcend borders. His work was exhibited at the Royal Museums Greenwich, alongside other great names in world astronomical photography, inspiring thousands of visitors and astronomy enthusiasts.

THE GLOBE

In September 2016, the newspaper O Globo highlighted in its science and space section the career of amateur photographer Carlos Fairbairn, who gained international recognition by winning the Sir Patrick Moore Best Newcomer award at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year, the most important astrophotography competition in the world, organized by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in the United Kingdom.

The article, written by Sérgio Matsuura, was titled "Focusing on the beauties of the sky" and introduced the Brazilian public to the story of a Rio de Janeiro native who, with dedication and creativity, managed to transform his passion for the stars into a promising career.

The text narrates how Fairbairn, who began photographing the sky a few years ago, quickly distinguished himself through the quality of his images. One of his most notable achievements was capturing the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy neighboring the Milky Way, recorded in Goiás with relatively simple equipment, but which resulted in a photograph of international impact.

O Globo highlighted the importance of the award, which gathered more than 4,500 entries from 80 countries, and also emphasized the significance of seeing a Brazilian among the winners. The article further humanizes the achievement, showing Fairbairn's connection to his childhood, when he already looked at the sky with curiosity, and how he now fulfills that dream through astrophotography.

Furthermore, the report includes images of the award-winning work and of the photographer himself with his equipment in the field, reinforcing the inspiring nature of the achievement.

The Large Magellanic Cloud

The 16th-century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew had ample time to observe the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of the Earth. As a result, two diffuse objects easily visible in the Southern Hemisphere are known as the Magellanic Clouds, now understood to be satellite galaxies of our much larger Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is shown here in a remarkably deep and colorful image. Extending for about 15,000 light-years, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is home to the nearest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A.

Published on NASA's website.

The Southern Cross in a Southern Sky

Have you ever seen the Southern Cross? This famous constellation is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere. Captured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the four bright stars that mark the Southern Cross appear just above the horizon in the image. To the left of the constellation is the orange star Gamma Crucis. The band of stars, dust, and gas rising through the middle of the mosaic is part of our Milky Way. To the right of the Southern Cross is the Coalsack Nebula, and the bright nebula at the top of the image is the Carina Nebula. The Southern Cross is so famous that it appears on the flags of Australia and New Zealand.

Published on NASA's website.

Saturn and Mars visit Milky Way Star Clouds

Planets, stars, nebulae, and a galaxy—this stunning image has it all. Closest are the two planets Mars (right) and Saturn (center), visible as two orange dots in the upper half of the image. To the central right are the colorful Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, with the bright star Antares aligned below Mars. These clouds contain red emission nebulae and blue reflection nebulae. In the upper right corner appears the Blue Horse reflection nebula. In the lower left corner are many absorption nebulae extending from the central band of our Milky Way. The deep composite shown was made from several deep exposures taken the previous month in Brazil. Although a telescope is needed to see the nebulae, Saturn and Mars will remain visible to the naked eye this month, shortly after sunset.

Published on NASA's website.

Milky Way over Chilean Volcanoes

Sometimes, the sky imitates the earth. Taken in May 2017 in the Atacama Desert, Chile, the foreground scene of the image includes the sloping rim of an extinct volcano's caldera. Poetically echoing this depression is the arc of our Milky Way galaxy above. Many famous icons dot this southern night view, including the center of our galaxy to the left, the bright orange star Antares, the Southern Cross constellation near the top of the arc, and the Gum Nebula glowing in red to the right. Just above the horizon, radiating from two distant volcanic peaks near the center of the image, appears the Large Magellanic Cloud—the Milky Way's largest satellite galaxy.

Published on NASA's website.

Magellanic Mountain

Flanked by satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, a volcanic peak rises from this rugged horizon. The celestial landscape of the southern hemisphere looks south over Laguna Lejia and the high plateau of the Antofagasta Region in northern Chile. Extending the view across outer space, the Large (right) and Small Magellanic Clouds are named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The larger cloud lies about 180,000 light-years away, and the smaller one about 210,000 light-years beyond the mountain's summit.

Published on NASA's website.

Lunar Eclipse over Rio

The moonrise doesn't usually seem that interesting. For one thing, a full moon isn't usually that dark—but last Friday the moon rose while simultaneously passing through the Earth's shadow. Furthermore, the moon doesn't always appear so red—but that Friday it was slightly illuminated by reddish sunlight refracted by the Earth's atmosphere. Also, the moon doesn't usually rise next to a planet, but since Mars was almost opposite the Sun, the red planet appeared to the upper right of the moon. The sunset eclipse—specifically its remarkable Micro Blood Moon (total lunar eclipse)—was captured on Botafogo Beach in Rio, along with a large crowd of observers.

Published on NASA's website.

Southern Cross to Eta Carinae

Tracked along the southern Milky Way, this beautiful celestial mosaic was captured under dark Brazilian skies. Spanning about 20 degrees, the image begins with the vast, dark region of the Coal Sack in the lower left corner, nestled beneath an arm of the Southern Cross. This compact constellation is crowned by the yellowish Gamma Crucis, a cool giant just 88 light-years away. A line from Gamma Crucis through the blue star at the base of the cross, Alpha Crucis, points toward the South Celestial Pole. Following the Milky Way to the right, the gaze passes through IC 2948, known as the Running Rooster Nebula, before reaching Eta Carinae and the Carina Nebula on the right edge of the frame. About 200 light-years across, the Carina Nebula is a star-forming region much larger than its neighbor, the Orion Nebula. The Carina Nebula is located approximately 7,500 light-years from Earth along the plane of the Milky Way.

Published on NASA's website.

Orion Rising over Brazil

Have you seen Orion recently? The coming months will be the best time to see this familiar constellation, which rises earlier and earlier in the evening. However, the stars and nebulae of Orion won't appear as colorful to the naked eye as they do in this fantastic camera image. In the image shown, Orion was captured displaying its true colors over a Brazilian copal tree in the Central-West Region of Brazil. Here, the red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange hue as the brightest star on the left. Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with the supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse in the upper right, Bellatrix in the upper left, and Saiph in the lower right. Aligned in Orion's belt (from bottom to top) are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation's dense interstellar clouds.

Published on NASA's website.

Carina in Perspective

You have to be in the south, looking south, to see a sky like this—and only if you're lucky. Just above the photogenic tree is the stunning Carina Nebula, one of the few nebulae visible to the naked eye. The image required a very dark location to capture the Carina Nebula with such perspective and so close to the horizon. The Great Carina Nebula, cataloged as NGC 3372, is home to the highly variable star Eta Carinae, which sometimes explodes, becoming one of the brightest stars in the sky. Above Carina is IC 2944, the Running Rooster Nebula, which contains remarkable dark knots of dust. Above these reddish emission nebulae are the bright stars of the Southern Cross, while in the upper left corner appears the dark Coalsack Nebula. This image was composed from six consecutive exposures taken the previous summer in Padre Bernardo, Goiás, Brazil.

Published on NASA's website.

Venus and Mars: Passing in the Night

When two planets approach each other in the night sky, they can usually be seen close for a week or more. In the case of this conjunction, Venus and Mars passed within 4 degrees of each other earlier in the month. The image shown was taken a few days earlier, as Venus was rising in the pre-dawn sky, night after night, while Mars was setting. The image, a four-part mosaic, was captured in Brazil, in the small town of Teresópolis. Besides Venus and Mars, the morning sky also included the more distant planet Saturn. Of course, these conjunctions are only angular—Venus, Mars, and Saturn continue to orbit the Sun in very different parts of our Solar System.

Published on NASA's website.

NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide

Astronomers have been playing detective trying to explain surprising sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is a massive elliptical galaxy that began, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral neighbor, NGC 1317, to its upper right. Evidence includes dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint ripples and shells of stars and gas visible in this wide, deep image. Something that remains unexplained are the unusually small globular clusters, seen as faint points. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than NGC 1316. Still, the observed clusters are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis is that these clusters survive from a former galaxy that was absorbed by NGC 1316. Another striking attribute of NGC 1316, also known as Fornax A, is its large lobes of gas that shine brightly in radio waves.

Published on NASA's website.