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)

A Southwest Airlines jet takes off from Reagan National Airport with a thunderhead to the east on June 20, 2017 in Alexandria, VA. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

A general view of the residential area is pictured during dusk at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, April 5, 2015. Jodhpur, also known as the blue city in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan, which residents say originally, was used to show where the highest caste of priestly Hindus live, who wanted to set them apart from the rest of the population. Later the rest of the population followed suit. Another reason for the city to be blue is to keep the buildings cool during the summers, local residents said. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A fledgling solar system containing deep within it enough water vapor to fill all the oceans on Earth five times, located in our Milky Way galaxy about 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The eruption of Cordon Caulle began on June 4, 2011, located in the Region of Los Rios in Chile. For about 12 months, people and animals became accustomed to living with the daily fall of ash, which also caused problems in the air traffic in South America. The explosions and lightning during first days of the eruption could be seen from hundreds of miles around. This photograph was taken on the second night of eruption from the town of Lago Ranco. (Photo and caption by Francisco Negroni/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

Soldiers from 12 Mechanized Brigade perform a simulated casualty evacuation at the Ministry of Defence training area at Copehill Down on Salisbury Plain on March 9, 2012 in Wiltshire, England. The Defence Secretary Philip Hammond visited the military facility to meet soldiers from the Brigade who are shortly to deploy to Afghanistan for Operation Herrick 16, and troops from the 3rd Battalion, the Yorkshire regiment which lost five of the six men who died this week in the deadliest single attack in Afghanistan since 2001. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The annual calendar features stunning shots of lighting, cloud formations and the aurora australis. Hundreds of photographers from every Australian state and territory submitted images to the Bureau of Meteorology for selection in the year’s calendar, with only the best chosen to represent the full spectrum of Australian weather. Here: April. A path through the clouds between Townsville and Richmond, Queensland. (Photo by Captain Victoria Harrison/Australian Bureau of Meteorology)

A model presents a creation from Dior's Cruise 2021 collection during a live-streamed runway show without an audience due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the Piazza del Duomo, in Lecce, Italy on July 22, 2020. Christian Dior hosted a live but audience-free fashion show in the Italian city of Lecce, in a dazzling celebration of local crafts and traditions that included a dance spectacle in the middle of the baroque main square. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)