A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man sits on the banks before taking a holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers with the mythical, invisible Saraswati river, during the “Maha Kumbh Mela”, or the Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India, on January 13, 2025. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
A woman reads a newspaper with a front-page report on the crash of the Iranian president's helicopter outside a kiosk in Tehran on May 20, 2024. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was declared dead on May 20 after rescue teams found his crashed helicopter in a fog-shrouded western mountain region, sparking mourning in the Islamic republic. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)
Fishermen carry calabashes to attend Argungu fishing and cultural festival at Argungu Town, Kebbi State in northwestern Nigeria, on March 14, 2020. Argungu fishing and cultural festival is one of the oldest and most widely attended festivals in the country dating back many generations, featuring series of water competitions and traditional games. The festival returned after 10 years suspension due to insecurity in northwest Nigeria. (Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP Photo)
A 16-foot- ( almost 5 meters ) tall hand sculpture named Quasi stands perched on its fingertips atop the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, October 30, 2024. (Photo by Charlotte Graham-McLay/AP Photo)
The Milky Way is the galaxy in which Earth is contained. This name derives from its appearance as a dim “milky” glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (pr. galaxías kýklos, “milky circle”). The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
The fairy chimneys are seen with light illuminations created with different techniques in Cappadocia, Nevsehir, Turkiye on August 01, 2024. Fairy chimneys are formed by volcanic eruptions and erosions over millions of years and are considered as one of the unique characteristics of the geography. (Photo by Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)