A person looks up at the Aurora Australis in Judbury in the Huon Valley, Tasmania on April 24, 2023. (Photo by Toby Schrapel freelance photography/The Guardian)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

The Borealis in the second decade of December 2023 gets ready to leave Liverpool for the Classic Christmas Markets cruise. It will call at Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Hamburg to take in some of Europe’s best festive markets. (Photo by Bav Media)

Her name is Aurora, and she is the star of “Aurora's Parade”, the London chapter of ceride – Greenpeace’s global day of action to protest against Arctic destruction. According to DesignBoom, this giant people-powered super-puppet weighs about 3 tons and needs 15 puppeteers and 30 volunteers to operate. Aurora, described as “part protest, part performance”, has fur that includes the names of each supporter in the movement. Greenpeace hopes she will bring the voice and spirit of the Arctic to the public.

View from the Insta360 360 degree camera in the last decade of November 2023 attached to a satellite launched 500km into outer space. Chinese firm Insta360 say they have achieved “the first fully exposed camera in space” a feat which required a lot of preparation to get X2 ready for the harsh environment. (Photo by South West News Service)

Thousands of fireflies dance around Aurora Ghizzi Panizza, age 4, in the grounds of the 15th-century Castello di Torrechiara in Parma, Italy on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Alberto Ghizzi Panizza/Animal News Agency)

“Aurora over a glacier lagoon”. A vivid green overheaded aurrora pictured in Iceland's Vatnajokull National Park reflected almost symetrically in Jokulsrlon Glacier lagoon. A complete lack of wind and currrent combin in this sheltred lagoon scene to crete an arresting mirror effect giving the image a sensation of utter stillness. Despite theis there is motion on a suprising scale, as the loops and arcs of the aurora are shaped by the shifting forces of the Earth's magnetic field. James Woodend of Great Britain won the grand prize with the image, beating out more than 2,500 other entries. The Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 contest is judged by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and BBC Sky at Night magazine. (Photo by James Woodend/The Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 Contest)

A person stands on a car while looking at Auroras, caused by a coronal mass ejection on the Sun, that illuminate the skies in the southwestern Siberian Omsk region, Russia on November 6, 2023. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)