A man salts a downtown sidewalk in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2015, as snow begins to fall. The U.S. federal government said its offices in the Washington area will be closed Thursday because of a new round of winter weather expected in the region. The Office of Personnel Management said non-emergency personnel in and around Washington were granted excused absences for the day. Emergency employees and telework-ready employees were expected to work. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

West Bromwich Albion's Saido Berahino (front) is challenged by Manchester City's Fernandinho during their English Premier League soccer match at The Hawthorns in West Bromwich, central England December 4, 2013. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Reuters)

Swimmers in fancy dress splash as they participate in the New Year's Day Loony Dook swim at South Queensferry, Scotland January 1, 2015. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

A tale of two foxes. Surprising behaviour, witnessed in Wapusk national park, on Hudson Bay, Canada, in early winter. Red foxes don’t actively hunt Arctic foxes, but where the ranges of two predators overlap, there can be conflict. Though the light was poor, the snow-covered tundra provided the backdrop for the moment that the red fox paused with the smaller fox in its mouth in a grim pose. (Photo by Don Gutoski/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Rolando Pujol Rodriguez photographed the Cuban raft exodus in 1994, and twenty years later Enrique de la Osa took portraits of some of the people who made it to the United States, in this story which combines archive and present day images. Here: People put the finishing touches to a makeshift boat on a rooftop before lowering it onto a truck and launching it into the Straits of Florida towards the U.S., on the last day of the 1994 Cuban raft exodus in Havana, in this September 13, 1994 file photo. (Photo by Rolando Pujol Rodriguez/Reuters)

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.

A woman holds a champagne bottle during New Year's celebrations in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, January 1, 2014. Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of the Romanian capital to join parties and watch fireworks. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its sixth year and has received over 2,500 entries. Photo: Centre of the Heart Nebula by Ivan Eder (Hungary). Situated 7500 light years away in the “W”-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation. (Photo by Ivan Eder)