Night lovers; Hormozgan province, Iran. “In this picture, you can see the Milky Way rising on a fascinating spring night on the Persian Gulf coast. The stunning cliffs of this area make every viewer imagine and even talk to them! The light pollution from a faraway city was quite strong, so it was a challenging post-processing process. I’m a nightscaper who tries to achieve an artistic look in my images, and in this image, I tried to convey and capture the magic of this location”. (Photo by Mohammad Hayati/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

“I wonder about everyone that I photograph, what are they thinking at the moment, what is going on in their life, what are they really like. Photographs are such abstractions of real life, both true and false at the same time and so limited in the scope of what can be captured, yet limitless in how it stimulates our imagination. Indeed, photography is a rich medium”. – Mike Peters. Photo: Meatpacking District, NYC, September 28, 2012. (Photo by Mike Peters)

Macro or Micro? Scientists’ pictures baffle our sense of scale. It began when Stephen Young, a geography professor at Salem State University in Massachusetts, tricked his biologist colleague Paul Kelly into thinking a satellite image was one of his electron microscope scans. Can you guess whether they are close-up or very far away? (Photo by Paul Kelly)

Fumie Takino, 89, founder of a senior cheer squad called Japan Pom Pom, and other members pose for commemorative photos before filming a dance routine for an online performance in Tokyo, Japan, April 12, 2021. “It's dancing; moving your body is nice”, Takino said. “And the costumes are unbelievably showy. Some people join just so they can wear them”. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Ice Age – Tibet, China. “This is the Chinese version of the blue ice lake, Pumoungcuo, at an altitude of 5,070 metres (16,600 feet). This lake in Tibet freezes every winter. At night, under the low temperatures of -20C, you can listen to the sound of the ice cracking while capturing the most beautiful winter sky. The blue ice surface and dazzling Orion constellation create a fantasy landscape. I felt so happy to have the stars as my companion on this magical night”. (Photo by Daniel Zafra Portill/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

If we asked you to think of your favorite cute animal, you might not immediately list a duck, but when you see this Reddit user and his pet duckling Peeps you may change your mind. Peeps is fuzzy, he’s lovable and he grew up in a beard (really). The man initially bought Peeps as an egg, thinking he was a chicken. He was wrong, but he didn’t care, it turned out to be one of the cutest friendships ever.

San Francisco-based design professor Miguel Cardona is selling his custom-drawn “Sketchcups” at Café Sophie for US$20 a piece to benefit Project Night Night, a charity that donates baby blankets, books, and toys to children in homeless shelters. Cardona discusses the project in an interview with Coolhunting. If you'd like to purchase or commission one of Cadona's pieces for yourself, you can do so for US$30 at his Sketchcups Store.

Gaikuo-Captain is a young Chinese student of chemical engineering, and a talented illustrator. His passion for the comic was demonstrated by a series of works that combine drawings with photographs, so that he himself is "immersed" in a fantasy to interact with characters from comic books and manga. His pieces are successful in social networks, particularly in Weibo, Chinese social network where Gaikuo publishes. You can see all his work on his zcool profile.