A rider picks up a hada, a traditional Tibetan ceremonial scarf, during a horse racing event of the 18th Mount Qomolangma culture and tourism festival in Xigaze, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on June 20, 2023. (Photo by Sun Fei/Xinhua News Agency/Alamy Live News)

Contrasted against the white flowers in a cotton field, a brown bear is out for a ramble just after midnight in the second decade of July 2023 in Kainuu, Finland, where the sun does not fully set for more than 70 days in the summer months. (Photo by Jane Jeffrey/Animal News Agency)

Penitentes, or nieves penitentes (Spanish for “penitent-shaped snows”), are a snow formation found at high altitudes. They take the form of tall thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced with the blades oriented towards the general direction of the sun.

The sun sets over the sea looking towards Lands End viewed from Gwenver beach near Sennen Cove on February 7, 2011 in Cornwall, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The winter sun rises over the Somerset Levels viewed from Glastonbury Tor on December 10, 2011 in Glastonbury, England. After being hit by winter storms this week, the UK is experiencing colder temperatures but high winds are forecast to return. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

People crowd onto 42nd Street as they take photos of the “Manhattanhenge” phenomenon in the Manhattan borough of New York July 11, 2014. Manhattanhenge, coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, occurs twice a year, when the setting sun aligns itself with the east-west grid of streets in Manhattan. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station experiences months of darkness. The sun dips below the horizon on March 21, after which follows several weeks of twilight before complete darkness results. Photo taken on June 25, 2009. (National Science Foundation/Jeremy Johnson)

Alligators and an egret stand on the banks of the Bento Gomes river next to the Transpantaneira road at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Monday, September 14, 2020. A vast swath of the vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)