Some of the best entries so far in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. There are two weeks left to enter, and the winners will be announced in September. Here: Aurora over Laksvatn Fjord, Laksvatn, Norway. The aurora borealis dances in the skies over the town of Laksvatn, with the Milky Way to the left. The image is a single shot with no compositing, only post-processing to bring out the aurora, and some colour corrections. The photographer Matt Walford said: “I love the way the northern lights look like they are just wistfully dancing over the fjord, framed by the mountains on either side”. (Photo by Matt Walford/National Maritime Museum)

As the sun rises, Gentoo penguins start their day on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, on Sea Lion Island, Falkland Islands. Sea Lion Island, which lies about 10 miles to the south of mainland East Falkland, is the southern most human-inhabited island of the more than 750 islands and islets of the Falkland Islands. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

A women sell food under the wing of a plane wreckage being used as housing in M'Poko Internally Displaced Persons camp in Bangui, Central African Republic on Saturday, February 13, 2016. The M'Poko IDP camp, just outside the capitol's airport, currently houses close to 20,000 people displaced due to the ongoing conflict in Central African Republic. (Photo by Jane Hahn/The Washington Post)

From left, Cierra Fraser, 28, Los Angeles, a nanny, and Joslin Farley, 28, Los Angeles, a barista, poses in the outfits they wore to see the movie “Barbie” at TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, on July 22, 2023. “I just knew that it was in good hands. I knew we were not gonna get a stereotypical barbie movie. I knew it was gonna be exactly what the people needed”, said Farley. (Photo by Jenna Schoenefeld for The Washington Post)

Night lovers; Hormozgan province, Iran. “In this picture, you can see the Milky Way rising on a fascinating spring night on the Persian Gulf coast. The stunning cliffs of this area make every viewer imagine and even talk to them! The light pollution from a faraway city was quite strong, so it was a challenging post-processing process. I’m a nightscaper who tries to achieve an artistic look in my images, and in this image, I tried to convey and capture the magic of this location”. (Photo by Mohammad Hayati/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

Girls Aloud: Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh, Sarah Harding and Cheryl Cole at Kimberley Walsh's birthday party hosted by Damian Darkko at Mint Nightclub in London, Britain on November 25, 2006. The Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding has died at the age of 39, her mother has said in a post on Instagram. Issue date: Sunday September 5, 2021. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman cries near the flowers, brought to the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, 28 June 2022. At least 18 people died following Russian airstrikes on the crowded shopping mall, the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine said in a Telegram post. The Amstor shopping center one-story building was hit by Russian rockets on 27 June afternoon. (Photo by Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA/EFE)

America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually. Fright Nights attendees make a turn through one of four haunted houses at this year's spooking season setup at the South Florida Fairgrounds. This house is named The Smiths and was created by Craig McInnis. (Photo by The Palm Beach Post)