A Ukrainian serviceman fires a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun during military exercises near the village of Divychky in Kiev region, Ukraine, October 21, 2016. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

This undated image provided by World View shows World View capsule and balloon spacecraft that will rise to 100,000 feet above Earth for passengers to see the curvature of the planet and the blackness of space. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. While developers envision ultimately taking people to orbiting habitats, the moon or beyond, the immediate future involves short flights into or near the lowest reaches of space without going into orbit. (Photo by World View via AP Photo)

U.S. Army helicopters providing support for U.S. ground troops fly into a staging area fifty miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam, August 28, 1966. Helicopter fuel is stored in the large rubber tanks, foreground. (Photo by Henri Huet/AP Photo)

Storm clouds blanket the sky over Great American Ball Park as Starlin Castro #13 of the Chicago Cubs fields a ground ball in the fifth inning against the Cincinnati Reds as on July 7, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Second Place Winner: “Thunderstorm at False Kiva”. I hiked out to these ruins at night hoping to photograph them with the Milky Way, but instead a thunderstorm rolled through, creating this dramatic image. – Max Seigal. National Geographic Traveler Director of Photography Dan Westergren, one of this year's judges, shares his thoughts on the second place winner: “This photo combines two different scenes into one: the small kiva in a cliff dwelling and the grand vista of Canyonlands National Park across the valley. I really like the two different color palettes – warm inside and purple outside. This two-for-one scene was caused by the lightning storm outside the dwelling, which lit up the landscape like it was a huge electronic flash. Looking at this picture I can imagine what a wonderful sight it must have been for the ancient people who lived here. It doesn't seem too amazing now in our modern world, but might have been mind-blowing for the prehistoric residents”. Location: Utah. (Photo and caption by Max Seigal/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

The antennas of the European Southern Observatory's Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, also known as ALMA, are set against the splendor of the Milky Way in this picture by Babak Tafreshi. Construction of the full ALMA array is due to be completed in Chile's Atacama Desert in 2013, but the facility is already making scientific observations with a partial array of antennas. (Photo by ESO/B. Tafreshi/TWAN)

Dancers Daisy Kerry (R) and Alice Rathbone pose as characters from The Nutcracker, for the annual Christmas event at Chatsworth House near Bakewell in Britain November 4, 2016. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)

Syrians gather during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held neighbourhoods on December 15, 2016 in the embattled city of Aleppo. A convoy of ambulances and buses left rebel territory in Aleppo in the first evacuations under a deal for opposition fighters to leave the city after years of fighting. The rebel withdrawal will pave the way for President Bashar al-Assad's forces to reclaim complete control of Syria's second city, handing the regime its biggest victory in more than five years of civil war. (Photo by Karam Al-Masri/AFP Photo)