The Royal Observatory just announced its Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2013 winners. Australian photographer Mark Gee was chosen among a thousand amateur and professional photographers around the globe to win the top title. His work is part of an exhibition of the winning photographers, which opened on Sept. 19 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The Royal Observatory shared with us the winners and notable mentions of the competition. Their descriptions of the prizewinners can be found below the images.

A wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)

A fledgling solar system containing deep within it enough water vapor to fill all the oceans on Earth five times, located in our Milky Way galaxy about 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The “Rabid Transit” Burning Man art car erupts with flames from it's onboard propane poofers during the 4th day of the annual Burning Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, U.S., August 31, 2017. (Photo by Jim Bourg/Reuters)

A poster for the IMAX presentation of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (left), and a teaser poster for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I”, both created by the Los Angeles-based design firm IGNITION. Both are nominated for the 2014 Key Art Awards in the category of Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet. The Hollywood Reporter's annual competition for the best in film and TV advertising honors some of the most creative imagery used in movie posters. Here is a selection of some of this year's nominees. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Festivalgoers are seen during the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 20, 2019 in Indio, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella)

People walk among yellowish trees at Kolomenskoye Park during autumn season in Moscow, Russia on October 03, 2021. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)