Each year Nikon Small World recognizes the excellence of photography taken under the microscope. The contest showcases the beauty and complexity of life. Anyone interested in microscopy and photography can enter the contest and in its 42nd year, Nikon Small World received 2,000 entries from 70 countries. Here: 11th Place; Scales of a butterfly wing underside (Vanessa atalanta). (Photo by Francis Sneyers/Nikon's Small World 2016)

Despite any political differences between the United States and Russia, the space agencies of the two countries continue their cooperative work in Earth's orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Apart from the research being done in microgravity, ISS crew members continue to send back amazing images of our home world, photographed from low Earth orbit. Gathered here are recent images of Earth from aboard the ISS, and from a handful of other NASA satellites.

Standalone picture dated June 7th, 2022 shows Flt Lt Adam O’Hare rehearsing in the iconic Typhoon plane over Lincolnshire yesterday (Tues) as he trains for this summers airshows with vapour trails over the wing. The phenomenon is caused by low pressure areas created on the aircraft's skin and wings as it moves through moist air. As the pressure drops so does the temperature, and if the temperature reaches the saturation point, water vapor is created. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

“Pripyat is a ghost town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, part of Kiev Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A view of empty houses in the deserted town of Pripyat near the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant Ukraine, November 27, 2012. Pripyat, the city of 47,000 had already been evacuated after the April 26, 1986, explosion of Reactor No. 4 (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. The commune's population of around 9,800 ranks 865th within the country of France.

A man is reflected in the water as he sleeps on the street in Kathmandu, Nepal, 27 June 2023. Despite the Meteorological Forecasting Division of Nepal already announcing the onset of the monsoon season in the country on June 14, 2023, the monsoon rainfall has not been significantly active yet. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Residents carry a slaughtered pig with a bamboo pole as they walk home on a street, which was shut to traffic due to ice, in Leishan county, Guizhou province January 31, 2015. Blizzards and icy rain that lasted for several days at the end of January have disrupted traffic, collapsed houses and decimated crops in central Chinese provinces, Xinhua News Agency reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)