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)

A Hawaiian cleaner wrasse provides its cleaning services to a yellowfin goatfish in a reef community off the Big Island in Hawaii. Cleaner species help rid their hosts of ectoparasites, dead tissue, bacteria and fungi. Studies have shown cleaning to play a vital role in keeping many reef ecosystems healthy. (Photo by Marty Snyderman/Caters News Agency)

Sharafkhaneh port and lake Urmia. Masoud Ghadiri (Iran). The summer Milky Way is very prominent in this photo. On the galaxy zone, Saturn is located besides the Lagoon nebula. On the right of the horizon, you can see the extreme light pollution of Urmia, which is caused by ever-increasing city development. (Photo by Masoud Ghadiri/National Maritime Museum)

Belarusian beauty designers attend an annual national contest in Minsk, Belarus on November 7, 2019. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Cyclists desperately try to keep their heavily-laden bicycles upright as they arrive at a market with baskets full of pineapples on August 23, 2018. The men travel up to 12 and a half miles with two baskets tied to the sides of their bikes, carrying between 50 and 100 pineapples to sell. Each of the bicycles is so heavily laden with fruit it is impossible for the men to actually ride their bikes, instead having to walk alongside them. When they arrive at the market place in Madhupur, Bangladesh, buyers will pay up to 30 Taka for a pineapple – the equivalent of around 28 pence. (Photo by Abdul Momin/Solent News & Photo Agency UK)

Women wearing protective masks talk to each other on a street, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)

A trader carries his mannequins as he closes his business ahead of the lockdown restrictions set by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Eastleigh district of Nairobi, Kenya on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)