Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

Aliia Nasyrova laying her hair on the couch to show her hair's length on March 5, 2017 in Riga, Latvia. Real-life Rapunzel Aliia Nasyrova has hair so long that her husband admits he thinks of it as another member of the family. Aliia, 27, who lives in Riga, Latvia, took 20 years to grow out her hair, which measures 90 inches to the floor – and even has its own space in the marital bed. And while her massive mane attracts stares when out in public, her husband Ivan Balaban says he loves it and is proud of her for not cutting it. Weighing in at 4.5lbs (2kg), Aliia says her lengthy locks weigh as much as the family cat. (Photo by Eduard Kolik/Barcroft Media)

We're getting some feedback: “Hi, I have a question. Why is it that 90% of your posts are about women? You don't seem to acknowledge the existence of men unless they were migrants. You're seriously telling me that you can't find a few great accomplishments that MEN are making?? If this is a feminist website I think you should make that public. I've been viewing your posts since 2010 I think, since you first created avaxnews. Now I'm seriously considering blocking you guys”.



And we can reply: We like women more and for that humbly beg for your forgiveness. In general you are right. We promise to rectify the situation somehow.

A young chimpanzee reacts on a pirogue with Rohmay Ndoulek, from the Papaye International association, during an outing in the Douala-Edea Natural Park in Marienberg on December 15, 2024. In the heart of Douala-Edea Natural Park, dedicated Cameroonian caretakers tend to and rehabilitate chimpanzees, victims of poaching and deforestation, at Papaye International, a sanctuary dubbed a “monkey paradise”. Founded in 2001, the association funded by 30 million friends and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation regularly receives eco-volunteers from all over the world. (Photo by Daniel Beloumou Olomo/AFP Photo)

A five meters high sculpture “Pentateuque” created by Contemporary French artist Fabien Merelle, is displayed in Central, business district of Hong Kong, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The artwork brings to real life the fantastical and seemingly impossible act of an average man balancing a gigantic elephant. The elephant and the man are modeled on one at the Singapore Zoo and on the artist himself. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

A general view shows solar panels to produce renewable energy at the photovoltaic park in Les Mees, in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, southern France March 31, 2015. The solar farm of the Colle des Mees, the biggest in France, consists of 112,780 solar modules covering an area of 200 hectares of land and representing 100 MW of power. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

An aspiring Catholic priest Jose Luis Guerra, a member of Raza Nueva in Christ, a project of the archdiocese of Monterrey, and other missionaries hand out a Bible to Angel Castillo, who wants to become a missionary with Raza Nueva, in the municipality of Garcia, outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, July 12, 2016. In the troubled fringes of the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, an aspiring priest is using his faith to reach out to young gang members and at-risk youth, and bring them into his “Gang of Christ”. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

Baloo (R), a North American Black Bear, rubs snouts with his companion Shere Hkhan, a Bengal tiger, inside their shared enclosure at Noah's Ark animal sanctuary in Locust Grove, Georgia, USA, 28 August 2014. According to the facility, the pair and a lion named Leo, were confiscated at a young age from a drug dealer's basement in Atlanta, Georgia. Noah's Ark cares for about 100 different species of animals on a 250 acre farm since 1990. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA)