The launch of a rocket into space is projected on Dubai's Burj Khalifa on February 9, 2021 as the UAE's “Al-Amal” – Arabic for “Hope” – probe's to Mars carries out a tricky manoeuvre to enter the Red Planet's orbit. A tense half-hour today will determine the fate of “Hope”. If successful, the probe which is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, will become the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month. (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP Photo)
The characters fighting for Westeros in Game of Thrones are fighting mostly for CGI backdrops. Like many others TV series and movies, visual effects is a huge part of the production process as it handles details both great and small. A great credit to Game of Thrones is that the story is so good that we forget about the effects, and another great credit goes to the VFX team because their work is seamless. If you want to see the seams, you have to get a visual breakdown of how the shots are put together.
Revelers of the “Societe des Champs Elysee” launch fireworks before boarding the Rampart-St. Claude street car line, which just opened last fall, to commemorate the official start of Mardi Gras season, in New Orleans, Friday, January 6, 2017. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)
South Korean prostitutes hide their identities as they participate in a rally on September 22, 2005 in Seoul, South Korea. Prostitutes rallied against government law aimed at the s*x industry. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
A Palestinian boy holds an umbrella as he runs near houses that witnesses said were destroyed or damaged by Israeli shelling during the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, on a rainy day in the east of Gaza City November 16, 2014. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
Varanasi is a city on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 320 kilometres (200 mi) southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It is holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism. Hindus believe that death at Varanasi brings salvation. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in India.
Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.
Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)