A long skater speeds away on the rain-wet ice on lake Orlangen, South of Stockholm on December 15, 2013. Meteorologists forecast temperatures around 5 degrees for southern Sweden. (Photo by Tobias Rostlund/AFP Photo)

P.S. All pictures, as usual, 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 (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

Vietnam’s Son Doong cave, the largest in the world, could hold a 40-story skyscraper inside. The pristine ecosystem has its own river and jungle. Despite its size, Son Doong wasn’t discovered until 1991. It was lost again for nearly two decades and was fully explored for the first time in 2009. (Photo by Jason Speth/HuffPost)

Some of the worlds most iconic cities have been photographed as youve never seen them before in the shape of tiny round planets. By using a pioneering method of aerial photography, each location can be now seen at a full 360 degree angle. After some skilful manipulation on Photoshop known technically as stereographic projection, each sweeping panorama is then turned into a small circular shaped image. Whether its the Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building or the Shanghai Skyline, each image manages to show hundreds of miles of city landscape. Here: the French Riveria of Cannes, France. (Photo by Airpano/Caters News)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

Mother hen chicken with cute tiny baby chicks all protected beneath her wings keeping warm outdoors only their 12 legs visible poking out the bottom outside. (Photo by Matthew Troke/iStockphoto via Getty Images)

A huge supercell dominates the Texas skyline like an atomic bomb explosion on April 11, 2015 in Lubbock, Texas. A huge supercell dominates the Texas skyline like an atomic bomb explosion. These incredible images were taken on April 11th, by photographer Darin Kuntz who has spent in his entire life in so-called Tornado Alley. And Darin confirmed that he snapped the storm standing in his backyard in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by Darin Kuntz/Barcroft Media)

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A cow carrying a bell and autumn flowers headgear walks by in front of spectators at the traditional cattle show in Schwellbrunn, Switzerland, 26 September 2022. The traditional show in the Appenzell region is held annually in autumn, when local farmers return from the alp with their groomed and cleaned cows to present them on a show ground. “The most beautiful and best performing cows are awarded prizes”, the Appenzellerland tourism office adds on their website. (Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA/EFE)