People fight for the ball as they take part in a mud football match during a festival for celebrating harvest in a village in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China September 24, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

Russian cadet preparing before the International Kremlin Cadet Ball in Moscow, Russia 12 December 2017. More than 1500 students from all Russian cadets school attend in Cadet Ball. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

A follower of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda pays tribute for Iemanja, goddess of the sea, in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 29, 2017. Hundreds of practitioners of Brazil's Afro-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda faiths have gathered at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach to honor Yemanja. Worshippers were mostly dressed in white as they launched their offerings to Iemanja: small boats with flowers and bowls with candles and fruits. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

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)

Pierre Thivillon (R), director of the zoological park of Saint-Martin-La-Plaine and his wife Eliane look at Digit, an 18-year-old female gorilla, on August 19, 2016, in Saint-Martin-La-Plaine between Lyon and Saint-Etienne, southeastern France. The zoological park of Saint-Martin-La-Plaine is a shelter for beasts seized by the justice. (Photo by Philippe Desmazes/AFP Photo)

A man wearing a mask and dressed in a clown costume rides an electric tricycle while carrying a container in the shape of a rubber duck amid heavy smog in Beijing, China, December 29, 2015. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A protester gestures after he saw a dead protester in Kampala, Uganda February 15, 2016. At least one person has been killed in Uganda's capital Kampala as police clashed with opposition supporters after briefly detaining a top presidential candidate twice as he tried to hold campaign rallies days before a general election. Several people were wounded in the clashes as police fired bullets and tear gas while opposition supporters hurled rocks and erected street barricades in the capital's Wandegeya suburb, witnesses said according to a Reuters news agency report. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Ratana Das, 40, a female vendor, carries sacks full of clothes at a second-hand clothing market early morning in Kolkata, India, March 10, 2016. Das said she was born and brought up in Kolkata and feels proud being a resident of the city that gives her he opportunity to be financially independent. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)