Some of the best entries so far in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. There are two weeks left to enter, and the winners will be announced in September. Here: Aurora over Laksvatn Fjord, Laksvatn, Norway. The aurora borealis dances in the skies over the town of Laksvatn, with the Milky Way to the left. The image is a single shot with no compositing, only post-processing to bring out the aurora, and some colour corrections. The photographer Matt Walford said: “I love the way the northern lights look like they are just wistfully dancing over the fjord, framed by the mountains on either side”. (Photo by Matt Walford/National Maritime Museum)

An unmanned Antares rocket is seen exploding seconds after lift off from a commercial launch pad in this still image from video shot by Matthew Travis of Zero-G News from the press area at Wallops Island, Virginia October 28, 2014. The 14-story rocket, built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp, bolted off its seaside launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6:22 p.m. EDT/22:22 GMT. It burst into flames moments later, then plunged to the ground in a huge ball of fire and smoke, but authorities said no one was hurt. The cause of the accident was not immediately known. (Photo by Matthew Travis/Reuters/Zero-G News)

In this picture taken on Sunday, March 5, 2017, a Tehran's urban animal control worker catches a stray dog after being shot with his anesthetic dart on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, Iran. The shelter has been hired by the Tehran city government to take a new, more humane approach to deal with the burgeoning problem of stray dogs in the capital. It’s a sign of changing attitudes among officials in a country where Islamic authorities long saw dogs as “un-Islamic” and would at times confiscate them from people who kept them as pets. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A creative Dad brings family-favourite cartoon characters to life by putting them into hilarious situations. You would be forgiven for thinking that the following images are created using Photoshop – but complete with real fire and coffee splashes, Mitchel Wuís images are all shot in real-time. Using plastic toy characters from family-favourite films such as Toy Story, Star Wars, ET and The Muppets, the California-based photographer puts the plastic characters into surreal situations. (Photo by Mitchel Wu/Barcroft Images)

Gertrude “Billie” Murphy, 22, is brought in for questioning in the murder case of Michael Stopec, who was shot and killed in an apartment hotel, circa July 1927. Murphy had been friends of the married Stopec and his suspected killer Henry Guardino, 31. It is said that Stopec and Guardino were “bitter rivals for the favor of Billie” and that Murphy had tired of Guardino and was going to stay with Stopec. Murphy was also married to a man in the Joliet penitentiary. (Photo by Chicago Herald & Examiner Historical Photo)

Todd Bretl specializes in underwater photography, and is able to capture striking photos of aquatic life big and small. His photos of sharks are particularly striking; though he rarely faces hostility from the animals, he tries not to spend too much time looking through his viewfinder and many shots are framed by educated guesses and impeccable timing. What follows are photographs taken over the past several years on trips to the Bahamas and Isla Guadalupe, an island off the coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. (Photo by Todd Bretl)

Friends and relatives of Palestinian Fulla al-Masalma, 16, mourn during her funeral in the village of Beit Awa, west of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank on November 15, 2022. Israeli forces shot dead the Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank the previous day, the Palestinian health ministry said, while the army confirmed raids and a shooting incident in the area. The Israeli Defence Forces reported that its soldiers had fired at a car that was speeding toward them and that “hits were identified”, but without confirming the fatality. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP Photo)

Sarah Campbell by Nick Knight and other cover shots – The Face Magazine: Culture Shift at the National Portrait Gallery in London on February 19, 2025. A new exhibition that celebrates iconic fashion images and portraits from The Face, a trail-blazing youth culture and style magazine. Bringing together 200 photographs by over 80 photographers from the 80s, 90s, 00s, the exhibition is an opportunity to see many of these images away from the magazine page for the first time. (Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy Live News)