Planned improvements to Rio’s favelas have meant increases in rent, forcing the poorest families into squatting in unoccupied buildings. Photographer Tariq Zaidi visits the Mangueira community favela, less than 1km from the showpiece Maracanã stadium, to see what life is like for the women living there. Here: Victoria, 12, at her home in Mangueira. (Photo by Tariq Zaidi/The Guardian)

The fourth annual BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition aims to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth, and encourages people to protect and conserve it. Here: “The Salmon Catchers”. Terrestrial Wildlife. To capture this view of a mother grizzly bear and her cub, photographer Peter Mather set up a camera trap on a log that he knew the bears tended to traverse while fishing for salmon, in the Yukon River watershed in Canada. (Photo by Peter Mather/BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition 2017)

Hikers walk to reach the top of Naqba Rum area in South Sinai, Egypt, November 20, 2015. Bedouins in the "Sinai is Safe" group guided more than 100 hikers over a 25 km (15 mile) trek over the trails of the White Canyon and the Closed Canyon. The NGO aims to challenge mainstream perceptions of the area by encouraging Nile Valley residents to explore the untamed wilderness with the Bedouin tribes. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)

This combination of April 15, 2013 and April 2, 2014 photos show a police officer clearing Boylston Street following a bomb blast near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, and pedestrians crossing at the same corner nearly a year later in Boston. (Photo by Charles Krupa/AP Photo)

Employees of a food stand take pictures of Titan, a robot created by England Cyberstein Robots, performing at the Danilovsly market in downtown of Moscow, Russia, 12 May 2014. Titan visited to Moscow to attend “Bal Robotov”, an interactive exhibition of the most recent advances in robotics which will be opened on 15 May in Artplay Moscow exhibition center. Titan worked alongside superstars including Will.i.am, Rihanna, Will Smith and Jackie Chan. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA)

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.

Tech. Sgt. Milo Hinson, 3rd Combat Camera Squadron, uses a flashlight while shooting a Berretta 9mm during the night-fire portion of Advance Weapons, Tactics and Techniques training in San Antonio. During night-fire training, airmen learn how to tactically illuminate targets with flashlights and practice using night vision goggles. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder/U.S. Air Force). 2011

“Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puʻuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Women fire fighters directing a hose after the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). (Photo by Three Lions)