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)

In this April 7, 2015 photo, a tourist peers through the door of a jail cell inside the now empty Garcia Moreno prison during a guided tour for the public in Quito, Ecuador. According to tour guides, this cell was nicknamed “Los Polillas”, or “The Moths”. Here, in a room designed to hold two prisoners, about 15 inmates with drug addictions were locked in overnight by the prison gangs that controlled daily life. The locked-in prisoners were also known to prostitute themselves to get access to drugs. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

An American flag is visible in the windows of the cupola aboard the International Space Station. Thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislators in 1997 that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts – nearly all of whom live in Texas – they have the ability to vote from space through specially designed absentee ballots. To preserve the integrity of the secret vote, the ballot is encrypted and only accessible by the astronaut and the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. (Photo by NASA)

Marie Joseph bathes her friend Jean Robert outside a shelter for the internally displaced where they live due to police violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, September 16, 2021. Most of the population of Port-au-Prince has no access to basic public services, no drinking water, electricity or garbage collection. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

An Iraqi woman and foreigners use pair of compact discs as a filter to watch the partial solar eclipse in war-torn Baghdad, 29 March 2006. Without access to proper equipment to protect their eyes from the sun's rays, eclipse watchers in Iraq used makeshift filters. The moon blotted out the sun over northwest Africa early Wednesday, turning day into night in a total solar eclipse as it swept a shadowy path from the outer tip of Brazil to the steppes of Mongolia. (Photo by Hassan Ammar/AFP Photo)

The king penguin in his moulting suit joins his waddle on their way to the water despite not being waterproof yet at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands, 2023. (Photo by Judy Rogero/Media Drum Images)

Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka points at the smoke rising after an airstrike on a maternity hospital, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Photo by Mstyslav Chernov/AP Photo)

La Traviata chandelier is positioned on stage at Mrs Macquarie's Point on March 16, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. Covered with 10,000 Swarovski crystals, the 9 metre high chandelier will be hung above the performing stage of the La Traviata Opera. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)