Kelsea Ballerini performs at the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., November 19, 2025. (Photo by Seth Herald/Reuters)

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)

In this picture taken Thursday, August 4, 2016, seal Tristan looks out of a basket while being released into the North Sea together with others at the beach of the island Juist, Germany. He is part of the first group of released seals of the seal breeding station Norddeich this year. (Photo by Carmen Jaspersen/DPA via AP Photo)

Rescue workers stand next to TK Bremen cargo ship which ran aground during a powerful storm, spilling oil off the coast of France's northwestern region of Brittany as it lies stranded on Kerminihy beach in Erdeven, on December 16, 2011. (Photo by Damien Meyer/AFP Photo)

The Jet Propulsion Lab team's RoboSimian robot turns on a valve at a simulated disaster-response course during day one of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge finals in Pomona, California, June 5, 2015. (Photo by David McNew/Reuters)

A group of women take photos of a giant donut installation outside the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London on Thursday June 24, 2021, to celebrate a new exhibition entitled Villainy, a body of work by an anonymous street artist from New York who operates under the alias, “Jerkface”. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire Press Association)

Russian Communist party activists and supporters carry portraits of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin (R) and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (L) as they attend a flowers-laying ceremony at the Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square in downtown Moscow on November 7, 2021, marking the 104th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution also known as the October Revolution. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

Farmers dry red peppers in Gaotai County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, China, September 13, 2023. It is reported that Gaotai County pepper planting has a history of 300 years. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)