An iguana in Bali helped Julij Kopilović, age eight, from Slovenia, earn second runner-up in Amazing Animals. (Photo by Julij Kopilović/National Geographic)

A helicopter drops water over a wildfire as a firefighter works to contain it in Benahavis, southern Spain, May 19, 2015. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

A hot air balloon floats past an almost full rising moon on a warm fall evening near Encinitas, California October 5, 2014. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

An Andalusian horsewoman waits for the animal to drink water before a classical dressage contest during the Sacab Andalusian Horse Show in Coin, southern Spain, April 12, 2015. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

A cat wering glasses lies in a pet dryer at the “Pet Expo Championship” in Bangkok, Thailand on August 30, 2019. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Young Icelandic mares graze on a meadow in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, on a foggy Tuesday, September 26, 2023. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

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.

Alexo Carmona, 2, looks at Coco, a two-year-old pony, in downtown Havana, in this March 6, 2015 file photo. Nearly a quarter of a million people follow the Reuters Instagram account – and it's still growing fast. To mark the mid-point of 2015, Reuters has compiled the twenty most-liked pictures so far. This picture was 20th most popular. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)