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 koala soaked by floodwaters sits atop a fence post to escape the deluge in the town of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia in this picture taken September 14, 2016. (Photo by Russell Latter/Reuters)

Competitors make their way up Heartbreak Hill during the 2022 City to Surf on August 14, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

A squid swims underwater off the shore of the coastal city of Qalamun, north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on September 24, 2019. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

Kayla DiCello of the U.S. in action during the Women's All-Around Final at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, October 21, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A boy stands near the rotting carcass of a camel that that died of hunger which people had burned to stop the bad smell, in Belif, Garissa county, Kenya on Sunday, October 24, 2021. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

A flight crew from China Airlines, wearing protective masks, stand in the international terminal after arriving on a flight from Taipei at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on February 28, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the global coronavirus risk level to “very high”. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Rocky the cat's recovery from a nerve condition in his legs is coming along swimmingly – thanks to regular hydrotherapy sessions at a 20ft-long swimming pool in United Kingdom in the second decade of March 2022. The two-year-old wears a life vest to help keep him afloat and needs a plastic toy to lure him from one end of the pool to the other. (Photo by Max Willcock/BNPS Press Agency)