These incredible pictures look like a bird's-eye view of a faraway alien planet – but they're actually hot springs. The amazing snaps are up-close shots of Iceland's hot springs, and the point-blank pictures produce a breathtaking array of colors and effects. Here: The amazing snaps are up-close shots of Icelandic hot springs. (Photo by Johann Vilhjalmsson/Caters News)

The underbelly of fetish parties has been exposed in photographs captured by Belgian photographer MagLau. The photographer dedicated three years to capturing the obsession with leather and chains, visiting fetish parties through Europe and Japan. The photographer told: “I just took pictures, always finding some beauty in the dark side”. He said that most people were happy to be photographed for the project, with the images included in a new book Fetish Ballad. Aiming to capture the candid moments, he said he never judged but instead wanted to simply observe and understand. Here: Picture from Fetish Ballad book. (Photo by MagLau/Laurent Muschel)

“Winter Climbing from inside Ben Nevis”. The view from inside the mountain, as a winter climber passes through the cave on Minus Three gully. Photo location: Ben Nevis, Fort William, Scotland. (Photo and caption by Daniel Wildey/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

“Cub”. In the colony of penguins in South Georgia. (Photo and caption by Ondrej Zaruba/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.

“G.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The term G.I. stands, in popular usage, for Government Issued and after the First World War became a generic term for U.S. soldiers. The origin of the term dates to World War I, when much of the equipment issued to U.S. soldiers was stamped “G.I.”, meaning that it was made from galvanized iron. The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term “action figure”. G.I. Joe's appeal to children has made it an American icon among toys”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Vintage G.I. Joe figurers are on display at the 2003 Hasbro International G.I. Joe Collectors' Convention June 27, 2003 in Burlingame, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Joan Miro i Ferra (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an “assassination of painting” in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Joan Miro's, grandsons, Emilio Fernandez Miro and Joan Punyet Miro pose beside Personnage (1970) in the Yorkshire Sculpture park on March 14, 2012 in Wakefield, England. Yorkshire Sculpture Park stages the first major UK survey of sculpture by Spanish artist Joan Miro. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

“The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a Shuttle-Derived heavy launch vehicle being designed by NASA, following the cancellation of the Constellation Program, to replace the Space Shuttle after its retirement. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 envisions the transformation of the Ares I and Ares V vehicle designs into a single launch vehicle usable for both crew and cargo. It is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The proposed SLS is visually similar to the legacy Saturn V booster and in particular the proposed, two-stage, Saturn INT-20”. – Wikipedia

Photo: In this illustration provided by NASA, the design for a new space rocket system, the Space Launch System, is seen. NASA's new rocket design will reportedly cost about $35 billion and be ready to for test launch in 2017. According to NASA, the rocket will be used to carry Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle as well as cargo and science experiments to earth's orbit, as a backup for the space station and possibly destinations beyond that. (Illustration by NASA via Getty Images)