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)

Two cats watch a mouse walking on the pavement in Kuwait City on March 8,2017. (Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP Photo)

In this January 4, 2016 photo, the weapon of a rebel fighter for the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, hangs from a branch serving as a makeshift clothesline, near a rebel camp, in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia. “We’ll lay aside our weapons, like the accord says, but never hand them over”, says Juan Pablo, a commander of the 36th Front. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Breitling Wingwalkers aircrafts perform during an aerobatic display at an air show in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, September 25, 201. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A boatman rests on his boat in the flooded Ganges river under the Shastri bridge at Daraganj Ghat, in Allahabad, India on August 22, 2019. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

This family of warthogs regularly visited our campsite in the Ethiopian highlands so I set up a remote camera with a wide-angle lens to photograph them as they rummaged around for food. They just had a mud bath. (Photo by Will Burrard-Lucas/Caters News Agency)

Mae Zelinsky, left, and Betty O'Beda test ammunition on a .30 caliber rifle at a Remington Arms plant on April 30, 1943. Many women took over jobs that were left vacant when men went overseas to fight in World War II. (Photo by AP Photo)

Aerial photo taken on April 20, 2018 shows the view of advection fog above Qingdao, a coastal city in east China' s Shandong Province. (Photo by Lu Hui/Xinhua News Agency/Eyevine)