A French photographer won a photography contest. Nicolas Lefaudeux won the prize in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. This is run by the UK's Royal Observatory. Lefaudeux won $17,000 for his photo of our closest galaxy - Andromeda. This is two million light years from Earth. It is next to our Milky Way galaxy. He used a special technique to take his photo. It is a spectacular photo that makes Andromeda look really close to us. In the photo, we can clearly see the bright galaxy in the darkness of space. It is surrounded by countless other stars.
Mr Lefaudeux is a well-known photographer. His photo is titled "Andromeda Galaxy at Arm's Length". It beat thousands of other photos from top photographers. It won in the "Galaxies" category, as well as the competition's overall best photograph. He was very surprised at winning the top prize. He said: "I was really not expecting to be the overall winner. I had some hopes for being placed in the galaxy category, as I liked the sense of depth given to the galaxy." He joked that he was "over the Moon" when he got the news. Reporters said he could now "reach for the stars".