A woman participates in the “Carnaval na Central” block party in Rio. (Photo by Felipe Dana/Associated Press)

The name “Aiguille du Midi” translates literally as “Needle of the Noon” or “Needle of the South”. It gets its name from its tapered form and from its position when viewed from Chamonix: it approximately indicates noon when the sun passes over its summit.

“Sunward”. When the Mediterrenean Mantis opened its wings, It seemed very impressive at the sunshine... Photo location: Nicosia, Cyprus. (Photo and caption by Hasan Baglar/National Geographic Photo Contest)

In this photo taken Saturday, February 14, 2015, Benjamin Miller, 20, from Georgia, in the US, is gored by a bull during the “Carnaval del Toro” in Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain. An American youth is recovering in the intensive-care unit of a hospital in western Salamanca after being savagely gored during a bullfighting festival celebrating Carnival, officials said Sunday. Surgeon Enrique Crespo said he was called to operate on 20-year-old Benjamin Miller from Georgia, who had been gored and tossed by a large fighting bull on Saturday, the first day of nearby Ciudad Rodrigo's “Carnaval del Toro”. (Photo by Jose Vicente/AP Photo)

A bully greenfinch (left) got its comeuppance when a small but fiery dunnock (right) defended itself with its talons in Suffolk, United Kingdom on April 18, 2022. The smaller bird was perched peacefully before the finch burst onto the scene and aggressively squared up to the dunnock. But as the finch tried to peck at the dunnock, the small brown bird expertly used its foot to slam its mouth shut. (Photo by Paul Sawer/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A four-week old southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus) is rolled up into a ball next to its mother in the tropical house of Budapest Zoo in Budapest, Hungary on May 3, 2019. The South American insect-eating mammal and its close relative, the Brasilian three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) are the only two species of armadillos capable of rolling into a complete ball to defend themselves when feeling threatened. (Photo by Attila Kovács/EPA/EFE)

Elley Dann indulges in some sunbathing in Primrose Hill, London on June 24, 2020, after the UK officially recorded its warmest day of the year so far when the temperature reached 32.6C (90.7F) at London's Heathrow Airport at 2.46pm. (Photo by Evening Standard/The Sun)

While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese amateur photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. Photo: Bioluminescent phytoplankton washes up on Maldives beach. (Photo by Will Ho)