Folk artists perform intangible culture heritage items during a celebration at a park in Chengshan Town to welcome Chinese new year, on Janaury 18, 2022 in Rongcheng, Shandong Province of China. (Photo by Yang Zhili/VCG 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)

Audience members react as American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift gets onstage to receive the Artist of the Year award during 2022 American Music Awards, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 20, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Three young women sprint for cover after getting caught but they were laughing with joy. Fun for some – not so much for others. Leaping over and into puddles. Torrential rain and lightning and thunder in North London Highgate on August 17, 2022. Storm drenched people out and created huge puddles for traffic People ran to escape. (Photo by Gavin Rodgers/Pixel8000)

A member of the “Sibspas” Siberian search and rescue group dressed as Santa Claus (R), waits for his team mate, dressed as Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, as he climbs the rock named “The Fourth Stolb” (the Fourth Pillar) at the Stolby national nature reserve during a training session of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia December 15, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini, in effigy, are about to take a mile-high plunge over Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia, June 21, 1942, as part of the scrap rubber drive. Private Elias Nour, who arranged the stunt as a farewell party on the eve of his entrance into the army, is on the running board. He guided as the “Axis” plunged to destruction. Spectators had to give a scrap of rubber as the price of admission to the spectacle. (Photo by AP Photo)

A Palestinian girl is seen inside the giant jerry can filled with water as displaced Palestinians, sheltering in tents they have set up in schools and along roadsides, experience the increasing temperatures in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on June 11, 2024. Especially children are the most affected by the extremely hot weather conditions, while the number of Palestinians migrating to Deir al-Balah is increasing day by day due to Israeli attacks on different parts of Gaza. (Photo by Hasan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A little girl rubs her tired eyes during the first day at the lyceum named after Moldovan writer Gheorghe Asachi in Chisinau on September 2, 2024. (Photo by Dumitru Doru/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)