Spain's #02 Tania Moreno Matveeva digs the ball in the women's round of 16 beach volleyball match between Spain and Netherlands during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris on August 5, 2024. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP Photo)

People run for cover following a series of explosions in the Embakasi area of Nairobi on February 2, 2024. At least 30 people have been transferred to different hospitals, according to the Kenya Red Cross, after explosions rocked an industrial and residential area of the Kenyan capital. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)

A woman looks on as she takes part in a protest on the Day of the Dead against gender violence and femicide, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 2, 2020. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

This photo taken and received courtesy of an anonymous source on April 8, 2021 show a woman looking at shoes displayed with flowers in Yangon's Myaynigone township, as part of the “Marching Shoes Strike” called on social media to protest against the demonstration against the military coup in Myanmar. (Photo by Handout via AFP Photo)

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.

A life-size robot named “Mark 1”, built by product and graphic designer Ricky Ma, 42, is seen in Hong Kong, China March 31, 2016. Ma, a robot enthusiast, spent a year-and-a half and more than HK$400,000 ($51,000) to create the humanoid robot, which is modelled after a Hollywood star, to fulfil his childhood dream. The eyes of the robot include face and color tracking functions. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

Hugo Gonzalez of Lake Worth works to put final strokes on his rendition of a Raksha demon. (Photo by Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post)

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its sixth year and has received over 2,500 entries. Photo: Centre of the Heart Nebula by Ivan Eder (Hungary). Situated 7500 light years away in the “W”-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation. (Photo by Ivan Eder)