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)

The Northern Lights glow green in a spectacular light show above a field of trees frozen solid with snow. (Photo by Jaak Sarv/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A koala soaked by floodwaters sits atop a fence post to escape the deluge in the town of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia in this picture taken September 14, 2016. (Photo by Russell Latter/Reuters)

Maja, a 40-year-old elephant, extends her trunk into a bakery as a customer buys a newspaper while Maja took a stroll through the neighborhood with her minders from a nearby circus on July 1, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

An Arizona Diamondbacks fan catches a foul ball during the seventh inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Chase Field on June 14, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)

Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka points at the smoke rising after an airstrike on a maternity hospital, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Photo by Mstyslav Chernov/AP Photo)

Yeshiva School students briefly dance on Grant Street after the menorah lighting outside of the City-County Building for the fifth night of Hanukkah, Thursday, December 26, 2019, in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP Photo)

Beesan al-Jubeh, (L), Palestinian under-10 national karate champion, trains with her father Sami (R) and other family members, all wearing face masks and gloves due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, outside their house in the city of Hebron in the Occupied West Bank on April 9, 2020. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP Photo)