Embargoed until 00.01 BST on 20.9.12. The Royal Observatory’s 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition – Runner Up in the Deep Space category. (An exhibition of all the winning images opens at the Royal Observatory on 20 September.) Image: The photographer here set out to show not only the main subject of the image – a vast supernova remnant – but also the objects in the wide starscape that surrounds it. Straddling the constellations of Auriga and Taurus, Simeis 147 consists of the expanding debris of a massive star which exploded around 40,000 years ago. As the wreckage continues to spread out into space it collides violently with the dust and gas between the stars, sculpting it into the glowing shells and filaments which have earned Simeis 147 the nickname of the ‘Spaghetti Nebula’.