A wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)

Eurocopter's X³ high-speed hybrid helicopter demonstrator performs, September 6, 2010. The Eurocopter X³ (X-Cubed) is an experimental high-speed compound helicopter developed by Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters). A technology demonstration platform for Eurocopter “high-speed, long-range hybrid helicopter” or H³ concept, the X³ achieved 255 knots in level flight on 7 June 2013, setting an unofficial speed record for a helicopter. (Photo by Reuters/HO/Eurocopter/Penna)

Men use ropes to try and right a supply truck overloaded with wheat straw along a road in Dargai, in the Malakand district, about 100 miles northwest of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, on April 13, 2012. (Photo by Mian Khursheed/Reuters)

A radiation monitor indicates 114.00 microsieverts per hour near the building housing the plant's No. 4 reactor, center, and an under construction foundation, right, which will store the reactor's melted fuel rods at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake. Some 110,000 people living around the nuclear plant were evacuated after the massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water. (Photo by Issei Kato/AP Photo/Pool)

The Royal Observatory just announced its Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2013 winners. Australian photographer Mark Gee was chosen among a thousand amateur and professional photographers around the globe to win the top title. His work is part of an exhibition of the winning photographers, which opened on Sept. 19 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The Royal Observatory shared with us the winners and notable mentions of the competition. Their descriptions of the prizewinners can be found below the images.

Engineer Mikhail Venin works on an antenna for the Express AM8 new generation geostationary telecommunications heavy satellite at the large-sized transformed mechanical systems centre of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems company in the Siberian town of Zheleznogorsk April 2, 2014. The Express AM6 is a new generation satellite providing services including Russian governmental and presidential mobile communication, digital television and broadcasting, according to the Reshetnev company representatives. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

People take photos of hotel room lights shaping the word “Zero”, referring to Covid-19 cases, in Taipei, Taiwan, 17 April 2020. According to news reports Taiwan records no new COVID-19 cases for third time this week. Medical experts are rushing to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and advising people to practice social distancing and proper hygiene. (Photo by David Chang/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

In this February 26, 1962 file photo, Mercury astronaut John Glenn, and his wife, Annie, ride in the back of an open car with Vice-President Johnson during a parade in Glenn's honor in Washington. The Capitol is seen in the background. Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth who later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, died Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, at the age of 95. (Photo by AP Photo)