“Mountain Goats, Colorado”. A herd of mountain goats huddle together on top of Mount Evans, Colorado during a lightning storm. This photo was selected out of more than 5,000 entries to go on display in “Wilderness Forever: 50 Years of Protecting America’s Wild Places”, a new photo exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, which will run through summer 2015. (Photo by Verdon Tomajko/Smithsonian Wilderness Forever Photo Contest)

The photos were taken at the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Reunion Island, a French island in the Indian Ocean one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Here: The powerful erupting volcano. (Photo by Luc Perrot/Caters News)

The tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Carina. (Photo by Reuters/NASA)

“The Last Pollen Spore Preparing to Leave a Ladybug Trying to Hold On, Because It Didn't Want to Be Alone”. Photo by Hiep Nguyen Hoang (Hanoi, Vietnam). Photographed in Hanoi, Vietnam, April 2012.

Tourists sit around a bonfire on the Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana. (Photo by Yang Mengxi/Xinhua News Agency/Barcroft Media)

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.

The Villarrica volcano shows signs of activity, as seen from Pucon, some 800 kilometers south of Santiago, on November 21, 2022. Villarrica volcano is among the most active in South America. (Photo by Mario Quilodran/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.