The competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. This year astrophotographers from 91 countries sent in more than 4,200 spectacular entries. Here: The Milky Way rises above an isolated lighthouse in Tasmania. Shot by James Stone of Australia. (Photo by James Stone/Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018)

Undated handout photo of members of Ballet Ireland during a photocall on Edinburgh's Calton Hill before taking part in the Edinburgh Festival 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Issue date: Tuesday, August 7, 2018. (Photo by Julie Howden/Culture Ireland/PA Wire)

An artist has discovered a bizarre way to create his work – by coating the feet of insects with paint who then crawl across the canvas creating intricate pieces of art. (Photo by Caters News)

Praia du Forte, Bahia. “This was the lead picture for a National Geographic story on Bahia, because it was both mysterious as well as a “geography” picture showing where the slaves arrived from Nigeria. Beach pictures seem like they should be easy to take, but for me they are actually quite difficult. Too easy to fall into cliche. When I saw the kid coming on the horse, I quickly ran to see if I could make something with a woman in a bikini that was not a bikini shot”. (Photo by David Alan Harvey/The Guardian)

Boys play with water as they celebrate Myanmar's New Year Water Festival of Thingyan in Yangon, April 13, 2016. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A child sleeps under a table at the Jorkpan market in Sinkor district in Monrovia, Liberia on May 2, 2016. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP Photo)

A Russian army conscript called up for service in the Kremlin regiment and a woman say farewell at Yekaterinburg-Passazhirsky railway station in Yekaterinburg, Russia on November 15, 2018. (Photo by Donat Sorokin/TASS Russian News Agency)

A French rock climber named Jean Michel Casanova scales the 172-meter-high steel derrick of the Bailong Elevator, also known as Bailong Sky Ladder, with his bare hands at the Wulingyuan Scenic Area on June 28, 2023 in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province of China. (Photo by Deng Daoli/VCG via Getty Images)