Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Csaba Karai (Hungary)

The jet trail

'One summer evening, I set up my camera in my backyard in Bicske, Hungary, to try out my new 500mm telephoto lens on the moon. When I uploaded the images onto my computer I couldn't believe it, I had no idea the aeroplane had passed by, a chance in a million - and an image of our times.' How the moon formed has been a mystery for years. Humans first visited in 1969, and analysis of the material they collected revealed it was made from similar but not exactly the same material as Earth. This supports the theory the moon formed during an impact between Earth and another small planet, and that debris from this collision collected in an orbit around Earth to form the moon.

Canon EOS 20D + 500mm f4 IS lens and 2x teleconverter; 1/50 sec at f8; ISO 800; tripod.

This photograph is available to buy as a print.