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)

One-year-old female giant panda cub Nuan Nuan reacts inside her enclosure during joint birthday celebrations for the panda and its ten-year-old mother Liang Liang at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur on August 23, 2016. Giant pandas Liang Liang, aged 10, and her Malaysian-born cub Nuan Nuan, 1, were born on August 23, 2006 and August 18, 2015 respectivetly. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

This picture taken on July 8, 2015 shows 13-year-old jockey Purevsurengiin Togtokhsuren (R) watching a horse rolling in the dirt after a training session in Khui Doloon Khudag, some 50 kms west of Ulan Bator. Despite being only 13 years old, Togtokhsuren is riding for the fifth time in the national races for Mongolia's summer festival, known as Naadam, lining up against some 170 other child jockeys. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

An interactive art installation created by artist Michael Verdon called the “Temple of Essence” dedicated to "victims of the war on drugs" is burned on the U.S. National Mall in front of the Washington Monument in Washington November 22, 2015. People were encouraged to write personal messages on the temple walls and leave mementos behind inside the interactive art piece, which was the centerpiece of a 48-hour vigil called "Catharsis on the Mall: A Vigil for Healing the Drug War". (Photo by Jim Bourg/Reuters)

A poster by street artist Aaron Li-Hill as part of the "Brandalism" project is displayed at a bus stop in Paris, France, November 28, 2015, ahead of the United Nations COP21 Climate Change conference in Paris. Brandalism is a revolt against corporate control of the visual realm. Following on in the guerilla art traditions of the 20th Century and taking inspiration from Agitprop, Situationist and Street Art movements, the Brandalism project sees artists from around the world collaborate to challenge the authority and legitimacy of commercial images within public space and within our culture. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

An Indigenous man stands under a water fountain outside a government building in Brasilia, on April 26, 2019, during the last day of a protest camp. Approximately 4,000 indigenous people from different tribes are taking part in protests during the Indigenous National Mobilization (MNI) week, a mobilization which seeks to tackle territorial rights' negotiations with the government. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

Syrian fighters from the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) fire a missile against regime positions on May 13, 2019 in the rebel-held northern part of Syria's Hama province. Clashes on the edge of a jihadist bastion in northwestern Syria have killed at least 42 fighters in 24 hours, a monitor said today, after regime bombardment on the region devastated health services. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP Photo)

Chippi, 22, from Senegal sits on someone’s shoulder shirtless participating in a large snow ball fight in Washington Square Park on January 29, 2022 in New York City. According to the National Weather Service New York City is expected to receive between 8-12 inches of snow and 40 to 45 mph wind gusts during the first major Nor’Easter storm of the season. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that there is a 24 hour a State of Emergency in effect. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)