The competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. This year astrophotographers from 91 countries sent in more than 4,200 spectacular entries. Here: The Milky Way rises above an isolated lighthouse in Tasmania. Shot by James Stone of Australia. (Photo by James Stone/Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018)

White horses of the Camargue thunder through the shallow salt flats at sunset on December 8, 2022. Known as Horses of the Sea, the breed native to the wetlands in southern France is one of the oldest in the world. (Photo by Nathalie Mountain/Media Drum Images)

Grand prize winner: environmental photographer of the year 2023; also 1st place in the humanity v nature category; and winner of the 2023 public award. Lopé national park, Gabon, 2021. An angry elephant tries to defend itself after it was hit by a train that crosses paths the animals use within Lopé national park. Park officials decided the elephant was too severely injured to be saved. After it was killed, the park director distributed the meat to local people. As the forest loses its carrying capacity to sustain its megafauna, this kind of human-wildlife conflict is increasing. (Photo by Jasper Doest/Environmental Photography Award)

A young Indian girl dressed as Hindu goddess Laxmi participates in a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa”, or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Friday, April 8, 2016. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

A Tufted Capuchin sits in a hanging food tray on a tree in it's enclosure at Sydney Zoo on February 24, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Sydney Zoo, located at Bungarribee Park in Western Sydney, is the first new zoo to be built in Sydney in more than 100 years. The Zoo opened to the public on 7 December 2019. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

A saltwater crocodile with a tyre around its neck is seen in Palu river in Palu on January 16, 2018. Indonesian conservation officials are racing against time to locate and rescue a saltwater crocodile that has had a tire wrapped around its for more than a year on the island of Sulawesi. (Photo by AFP Photo/ARFA)

A flash of lightning lights up a raincloud hovering over a township in Dharmsala, India, Sunday, April 19, 2020. (Photo by Ashwini Bhatia/AP Photo)

The sun rises behind the landmark Anchor on the quay in Appledore, North Devon, United Kingdom on June 7, 2022. The anchor has been decorated with hundreds of colourful crocheted flowers by the residents of the North Devon coastal village. (Photo by Terry Mathews/Alamy Live News)