Like being pushed out of an airlock without a flight suit, these Elite Dangerous planet screenshots will take your breath away. When we challenged our burgeoning Just About Elite community to send us their best planet screenshots, they smashed our image-based bounty records into the stratosphere. We often include a few honourable mentions who just missed out on a prize, and it’s testament to the Elite Dangerous community’s planetary photography skills that we’ve included a whopping 17 honourable mentions in this one. The quality of these screenshots has led us to decide to give our community of Commanders what they want: lots more in-game photography bounties with lots more prizes. Keep an eye on our Elite Dangerous bounties feed for your next chance to get involved. Without further ado, prepare yourself for some true galactic beauty: 

Twinmerlin’s twin planets 

Okay, so they’re not quite twins, but they’re definitely siblings. Twinmerlin kicks us off with a fantastic shot of two planets locked in orbit as a ship skims along their debris rings:

Alec Turner’s spacescape

Filled with intriguing details and hints of colour, the more you look at Alec_Turner's screenshot, the more you lose yourself in it. It tells a story; a story we’d very much like to read. 

FireyToad’s pale blue (ringed) dot

FireyToad's bounty entry received some of the best community reactions of the entire bounty. It shows a rare, ringed Earth-like world floating alone amidst the black.   

Symbiote’s Earth approach

Fireytoad captured a stunning earthlike planet, but - as Symbiote shows - there’s no place like home. Have a flick through his Instagram album for more: 

Deniiara’s colours of the cosmos

Deniiara submitted six images to the bounty, each with just a subtle hint of colour. Frankly, any one of them could have earned a prize. We don’t have space to include them all here, so check out their submission for the whole lot. Here’s our personal favourite:

Matt G’s ring of fire

We received plenty of stunning planetary eclipse photos, but none burn as brightly or as ferociously as Matt G's showstopper, in which the planet looks like its about to be devoured by its sun: 

Vingtetun’s giant glowing space marbles

Vingtetun submitted a few photos, but it was this beautifully composed shot that left our jaws hanging. Is anyone else getting an irrepressible desire to fly between them?

Mind you, their second shot isn’t too shabby either: 

Nor is their third for that matter, which we've chosen as the cover image for this article.

Zolaries’s starlight stunner

What’s a few hundred light seconds between friends? The scintillating star in Zolaries's illusory image burns so brightly that it appears to lie within the planet’s ring: 

Rico’s crimson crest

Not a centimetre of Rico's shot is wasted. Between its perfect composition, crimson strip, and city lights, we strongly considered it for our first-place prize. 

Loghen’s monochrome marvel

The dual illuminated rings of Loghen's planets perfectly match the lights on his ship. It was one of their first-ever exploration photos, and we’re already looking forward to seeing what they submit to our next Elite screenshot competition. 

DoppyTheElv’s station with a view

The looming station in the top-right corner of DoppyTheElv's image gives it a decidedly ominous feel. We love how the composition draws the viewer's eye from foreground to horizon. 

Commander Cordulisk’s Earth revisited

Commander Cordulisk also chose to capture Earth for his planetary photo. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot the Barnard’s Loop nebula and two dwarf galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - in the background.  

CMDR_M’s ringception

We could look at CMDR_M's image - captured in NGC 5662 - all day. It’s another shot that makes us want to while away the hours weaving between these circumplanetary disks.

Evoflash’s cratered serenity

If you’ll excuse the low-hanging fruit, there’s really only one way to describe Evoflash's photo: atmospheric. Something about the cratered surface and the planet’s blue atmospheric halo gives it a vintage feel. Evoflash captioned it with “bloody gorgeous”, and we can’t help but agree: 

CMDR AndenBeliam’s adventure in the making

Another close contender for our first-place prize comes from CMDR_AndenBeliam for this dramatic and colourful shot that looks like it belongs on the Elite Dangerous homepage. Here’s the backstory: 

“I started a personal expedition a few years back. This is a shot of an inhabited planet before I entered into the great unknown. This game never ceases to take my breath away.”

1st place: OxygenSupply’s retro resplendence

To say that it was difficult to decide which image to award first place - which came with a larger bounty prize - is the understatement of the aeon. In the end, we decided on this beauty by OxygenSupply. Its charm is in its vintage feel and abstract simplicity; it makes us think of the covers of the sci-fi novels of yore, a la Clarke, Asimov, and Cummings. Congratulations OxygenSupply! 

Honourable mentions

As promised, here’s a selection of entries that didn’t quite earn a prize, but that we felt were well-worthy of recognition. They may not have won a cash prize, but we've included their socials, so why not give them a like or follow if you like their captures. 

Moonshade Gaming

Why we love Moonshade Gaming’s entry: the sense of serenity.

Stormerseeker

Why we love Stormseeker's entry: the minimalism and that deep azure.  

PatrickJr

Why we love PatrickJr's entry: an Elite Dangerous planetary showcase in its own right, with special credit to the hypnotising kaleidoscopic colours of the rings in the third shot. 

LittleBigYin

Why we love LittleBigYin's entry: its sense of foreboding, menace, and clandestineness.

Nightstalker

Why we love Nightstalker's entry: the contrasting pale navy and burnt orange hues.

Silvermind

Why we love SilverMind's entry: it’s a smorgasbord of varied planets, each expertly captured.

Rootsrat

Why we love rootsrat's entry: how the first image makes it look like space itself is burning.

Ottosiux

Why we love ottosiux's entry: just look at those rings!

RicZA

Why we love RicZA's entry: vivid colours and a mastery of the photography ‘rule of thirds’.

Ricardos Gaming

Why we love RicardosGaming's entry: it’s filled to the brim, action-packed, and comes complete with a Titan maelstrom!

Mrpsb

Why we love mrpsb's entry: beautiful composition and an iconic sci-fi feel.

Alix Cozmo

Why we love Alix_Cozmo's entry: it’s an SRV… in space.

Mibe7070

Why we love MIBE7070's entry: it’s an epic shot of two moons that look like they’re ready to collide, and it also kind of looks like an unimpressed frog.

Luriant 

Why we love Luriant's entry: the story - “This is an old picture from an unexpected player meeting around Mars, taken at the exact time that NASA landed the Perseverance rover in the Jezero Crater. You can even compare the terrain. In a 1:1 real Milky way, you can make game events using real world events and astronomy.”

AlexxxA

Why we love AlexxxA's entry: the framing and the impression that their ship is on a mission of great significance. 

AndyFirebladeMuza

Why we love AndyFirebladeMuza's entry: the beautiful scarring on the planet's surface.

CMDR Henckes

Why we love CMDR Henckes's entry: who isn’t mesmerised by illuminated city lights on the dark side of a planet seen from space? 

Let us know which was your favourite planet photo in the replies! Do you have any ideas for our next screenshot bounty? Share those too! If you enjoyed this article, why not share it or check out last week’s curated content - Assault on Titan Thor. Alternatively, check out these Mandalay screenshots. Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Cover image credit: Vingtetun, all courtesy of Frontier Developments.