The X-47B prototype on Tuesday flew off an aircraft carrier and into the history books. Today's achievement, the first-ever catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from the flight deck of a carrier, promises to open up a new chapter in the annals of naval aviation. Photo: An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, May 14, 2013. The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Tuesday by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

“A Hawaiian photographer braved freezing temperatures for this cold SNAP – of what appears to be a firebird bursting from an aurora. Keen snapper CJ Kale, more used to sun, sea and sand while at work than snow, captured the incredible moment while on a trip to Alaska. It was his first time seeing the spectacular sight and lucked out – capturing some of the rarest colors of aurora on his first night”. – Caters News

“A dirty thunderstorm (also, Volcanic lightning) is a weather phenomenon that occurs when lightning is produced in a volcanic plume. Dirty thunderstorms have been reported in Chile above the Chaiten Volcano, above Alaska's Mount Augustine volcano, and Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano”.

Photo: A cloud of ash pours from Puyehue volcano in southern Chile, at sunset on June 5, 2011. (Claudio Santana/AFP)

At the beginning of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis set out to document what he saw as a disappearing race: the Native American. From 1907 to 1930, Curtis took more than 2,000 photos of 80 tribes stretching from the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He then published and sold these photos, along with narrative text, in 20 volumes of work known as “The North American Indian”. It is one of the most significant collections of its kind, “probably the most important photographic document of its age and its topic,” said Jeffrey Garrett, associate university librarian for Special Libraries at Northwestern University. (Photo by Edward S. Curtis)

Corey Arnold is a fine art photographer and a commercial fisherman, working the stormy waters of the Bering Sea by Alaska. His latest work documents life in this remote wilderness, both at sea and on the shore, capturing trawlers, foxes, eagles and the grandeur of the scenery. “Aleutian Dreams” can be seen at Charles A Hartman Fine Art in Portland, Oregon, until 27 May. Here: “Roadside Friend”. (Photo by Corey Arnold/Charles A. Harman Fine Art/The Guardian)

Standing nearly 20-feet-high, 43 U.S. Presidential busts rest on April 9, 2019 in Croaker, Virginia. From George Washington to George W. Bush., these remnants of bankrupted Presidents Park are stored on the property of Howard Hankins. He has recently partnered with historian and photographer John Plashal to provide legal tour of the busts. According to multiple media reports, Hankins has said he is seeking to restore and transport the massive sculptures, but needs to fund more than $1.5 million in order to do so. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

In this photo taken Friday, September 4, 2015, tourists Sarah and John Scott from Worcester, England, take a step back as a male silverback mountain gorilla from the family of mountain gorillas named Amahoro, which means “peace” in the Rwandan language, unexpectedly steps out from the bush to cross their path in the dense forest on the slopes of Mount Bisoke volcano in Volcanoes National Park, northern Rwanda. Deep in Rwanda's steep-sloped forest, increasing numbers of tourists are heading to see the mountain gorillas, a subspecies whose total population is an estimated 900 and who also live in neighboring Uganda and Congo, fueling an industry seen as key to the welfare of the critically endangered species as well as Rwanda's economy. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A local farmer Theophilus Mwendwa runs through a swarm of desert locusts to chase them away in the bush near Enziu, Kitui County, some 200km east of the capital Nairobi, Kenya, 24 January 2020. Large swarms of desert locusts have been invading Kenya for weeks, after having infested some 70 thousand hectares of land in Somalia which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa. FAO cautioned that it poses an “unprecedented threat” to food security and livelihoods in the region. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA/EFE)