American singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus attends the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, broadcast on Sunday, August 30, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020/Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020 via Getty Images)

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 pedestrian leaps across a flooded portion of the La Paz and Seventh Street intersection as a winter storm arrived, Thursday, December 6, 2018 in Victorville, Calif. The second round of a fall storm dumped snow and rain that jammed traffic on Southern California highways and loosened hillsides in wildfire burn areas on Thursday. (Photo by James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP Photo)

A local farmer Theophilus Mwendwa runs through a swarm of desert locusts to chase them away in the bush near Enziu, Kitui County, some 200km east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, 24 January 2020. Large swarms of desert locusts have been invading Kenya for weeks, after having infested some 70 thousand hectares of land in Somalia which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa. FAO cautioned that it poses an “unprecedented threat” to food security and livelihoods in the region. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA/EFE)

Leo, an orphaned Sumatran orangutan, is taken to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme rehabilitation centre. Leo will join other orangutans who have been reintroduced to the Pinus Jantho nature reserve. The SOCP has gradually formed a completely new wild population of species that have been threatened with extinction. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/Barcroft Images)

Shooting star by Tony Wu, US/Japan. Winner, underwater. The electrifying reproductive dance of a giant sea star. As the surrounding water filled with sperm and eggs from spawning sea stars, Wu faced several challenges. Stuck in a small, enclosed bay with only a macro lens for photographing small subjects, he backed up to squeeze the undulating sea star into his field of view. The dancing posture of spawning sea stars rising and swaying may help release eggs and sperm, or may help sweep the eggs and sperm into the currents where they fertilise together in the water. Kinko Bay, Japan. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off in Florida on Saturday, October 21, 2023. The rocket is carrying 23 Starlink satellites. (Photo by Malcolm Denemark/AP Photo)

Preparation of a Cuban cake (a Mexican sandwich that is made with bread, generally a telera, bolillo or baguette, which is split in half and filled with different ingredients such as milanesa, sausages, cheese, avocado, onion, tomato, bacon, chili, chorizo, pineapple, among others), during the International Cake Fair on the esplanade of the Venustiano Carranza mayor's office in Mexico City on August 2, 2023. (Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)