“Thunderstruck”. Summer stom. A super cell formed off the coast of New Zealand, intensified and swept across Christchurch and North Canterbury, February 23, 2014. Photo location: Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo and caption by David Hardy/National Geographic Photo Contest)

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (branded as 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum) is the principal memorial and museum commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the attacks. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation was renamed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center in 2007.

Photographer Vincent Jansen travels throughout Europe, visiting beautiful abandoned places. He explores churches, factories, sanatoriums, mortuaries, villas and theaters, all quietly waiting for renovation or demolition. His photos show a unique perspective on what is happening behind the “no trespassing” signs: where nature is slowly gaining ground and the desolation, loneliness and decay leave their stunning traces. Photo: This piano was located in one of many rooms of a huge chateau in Poland. (Photo by Vincent Jansen)

“Aurora Hunters”. Photographers taking part in a photography tour on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, pull over on the side of the road to take a photo of their first ever Aurora Borealis after spotting it from their tour bus. Photo location: Rystad, Lofoten Islands, Norway. (Photo and caption by Mark Gee/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A pupil of the Dao ethnic tribe returns home from school along a hillside path at Suoi Thau village in Hoang Su Phi district of Vietnam's northern province of Ha Giang, located at the border with China, September 18, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

Dan Copeland, left, and Alex Morneau of Biddeford, Maine, former high school cheerleaders, perform back flips while enjoying the record breaking heat, Thursday, May 18, 2017, at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The temperature climbed well into the 90s in many locations throughout the state. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

Natalia, 51, a mother of three, serving as a combat medic in the 24th Mechanized Brigade takes part in a field training exercise in an undisclosed location in the eastern region of Ukraine, on March 18, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/AFP Photo)

In this Saturday, March 3, 2018, photo, a contestant gets ready to throw a hatchet at a wooden bull's-eye at the Kick Axe Throwing venue in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Kick Axe Throwing is the first bar in New York City to pick up on a nationwide trend of ax throwing, a growing sport that some enthusiasts hope will take off the way bowling did in the last century. (Photo by Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)