Cute giant pandas enjoy life in China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda in Wenchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, 8 February, 2023. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This image made available by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 depicts NASA's Solar Probe Plus spacecraft approaching the sun. On Wednesday, NASA announced it will launch the probe in summer 2018 to explore the solar atmosphere. It will be subjected to brutal heat and radiation like no other man-made structure before. (Photo by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory via AP Photo)

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/SDO via The Atlantic)

A woman carries an inflatable float with the sahpe of a portion of pizza in a Barcelona, on July 18, 2020. Four million residents of Barcelona have been urged to stay at home as virus cases rise, while EU leaders were set to meet again in Brussels, seeking to rescue Europe's economy from the ravages of the pandemic. (Photo by Josep Lago/AFP Photo)

New Forest ponies graze as the sun rises over Godshill in the New Forest, Hants on September 18, 2022, on the day before the Queen's state funeral tomorrow. (Photo by Claire Sheppard/Solent News & Photo Agency)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

This picture taken on November 1, 2014 shows Japanese body-painting artist Hikaru Cho (L) adding the finishing touches to a body painting of fingers sticking out from prison cell bars on the head of Ryonosuke Tanaka during “Tokyo Designers Week” in Tokyo. Cho, 21, was born to Chinese parents in Japan and burst onto Tokyo's art scene when she entered the city's Musashino Art University in 2012. Cho's ultimate ambition is to paint an entire – and naked – body. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

Armed forces veteran Frank Simpson at the Portico library being camouflaged by body artist Carolyn Roper in Manchester, UK on May 16, 2016 as part of the #CountThemIn campaign launched on Monday by the Royal British Legion. (Photo by Jon Super/Royal British Legion/PA Wire)