Embargoed until 00.01 BST on 20.9.12. The Royal Observatory’s 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition – Highly Commended entry in the Deep Space category. (An exhibition of all the winning images opens at the Royal Observatory on 20 September.) Image: Part of the Veil Nebula, the ‘Witch’s Broom’ is the glowing debris from a supernova explosion – the violent death of a massive star. Although the supernova occurred several thousand years ago, the gaseous debris is still expanding outwards, producing this vast cloud-like structure. In this image narrowband filters have been used to greatly increase detail while giving a reasonable representation of the nebula’s colour.