A girl yawns as she and others wait for the start of their first day in school, an occasion known as the Day of Knowledge, in the small town Ignalina, some 110km (68 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, September 2, 2019. (Photo by Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo)

Starting on Monday, August 12, Perseid meteors will streak across the summer sky for a couple of nights, offering casual stargazers and serious nighttime photographers a chance to capture a glimpse of the annual meteor shower. Photo: Photographer David Kingham created this composite image from 23 photos on August 12, 2012. (Photo by David Kingham)

A Ukrainian MSLR BM-21 “Grad” fires towards Russian positions, near Bakhmut at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo by Iryna Rybakova via AP Photo)

A hot air balloon rises in the sky during the International Hot-Air Balloon festival in Pokhara on December 27, 2024. With Nepal's snowy Himalayan peaks as a backdrop, the sky above Pokhara transformed into a vibrant canvas of colours for the country's first hot-air balloon festival. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Roxy, a Red Labradoodle, Jaku, a Black and Tan Lurcher, Kobe, a White German Shepherd, Rocky, a Black and Tan German Shepherd, and Busy, an English Springer Spaniel Cross, queue outside an Aldi store in Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK on Monday, December 1, 2025. (Phoot by Lucy Ray/PA Media Assignments)

“NASA's Pathfinder, Pathfinder Plus, Centurion and Helios Prototype were an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as “atmospheric satellites”, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The solar-electric Helios Prototype flying wing is flies over the Hawaiian islands of Niihau and Lehua during the first solar-powered test flight July 14, 2001 from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, HI. The 18-hour flight was a functional checkout of the aircraft's systems and performance in preparation for an attempt to reach sustained flight at 100,000 feet altitude later in the summer. (Photo Courtesy of NASA/Getty Images)

“Reem Riyashi (1982 – 14 January 2004) was a Palestinian mother of two from Gaza City who killed herself and four Israelis at the Erez crossing on January 14, 2004 in a suicide bombing attack. Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed that the attack by Riyashi was a joint operation mounted as a response to weeks of Israeli incursions into West Bank cities that had left about 25 Palestinians dead”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Reem Saleh Al-Riyashi, the first woman suicide bomber from Hamas, is shown with her daughter, Duha, in the Gaza Strip. She was married and the mother of two young children. (Photo by Getty Images)

Honorable Mention: “The Storm”. During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment. Photo location: Kocaeli, Turkey. (Photo and caption by Aytül Akbaş/National Geographic Photo Contest)