Poisoned River. Abstract Winner. A detailed photograph of a stream filled with poison. “Poisoned Beauty” is a personal project that tells the story of the natural disaster in the Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania, which was a result of chemical waste generated by copper and gold mining, but in a beautifully abstract way. (Photo by Gheorghe Popa/Drone Photography Awards 2021)

Astronauts Harrison Schmitt (left) and Eugene Andrew Cernan practice taking geological samples at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for NASA's scheduled Apollo 17 lunar landing mission, on August 28, 1972. Schmitt is the Lunar Module Pilot and Cernan is the mission's Commander. They are training for their period of EVA (extravehicular activity) on the Moon. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Getty Images)

Igor, a 40 year-old Ukranian soldier embraces his wife in front of his military basement in the center of Odessa on March 17, 2022. Odessa, which Ukraine fears could be the next target of Russia's offensive in the south, is the country's main port and is vital for its economy. But the city of one million people close to the Romanian and Moldovan borders also holds a special place in the Russian imagination. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

An Iranian woman without wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf flashes a victory sign as two head-to-toe veiled women walk at the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A group of women wearing dresses representing flags of the Allied powers (left to right: the USA, France, Britain and the Soviet Union) outside the Eglise de la Madeleine on VE Day in Paris, 8th May 1945. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Tibetan monks dressed as demons attend the Beating Ghost festival at the Yonghe Temple, also known as the Lama Temple, in Beijing on March 19, 2015. The Beating Ghost festival, or Da Gui festival in Chinese, is an important ritual of Tibetan Buddhism and is believed to expel evil spirits and shake off troubles. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Opossums on their mothers back at a game reserve in Central Minnesota, USA, on September 2, 2013. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

“Himalayan Dog”. This dog just appeared out of nowhere and followed us for an entire week during our trekking trip in the Himalayan outback. He always used to sleep in front of our tent and guarded us in the nights. When I decided to get up at 4 a.m. to climb the next 5000 m peak for sunrise he accompanied me as well. On the top he was sitting for the entire 30 minutes on this place looking straight into the countryside. Photo location: Ladakh, India. (Photo and caption by Sebastian Wahlhuetter/National Geographic Photo Contest)