Chief priest Gbenga Saala raises a cutlass to kill a dog during an annual prayer and sacrifice celebration of the iron god Ogun in Abuja, Nigeria, June 23, 2015. Every year worshippers offer a dog as sacrifice to Ogun, a traditional Nigerian deity, in hope of an auspicious year ahead. Taxi drivers, blacksmiths, panel beaters and mechanics – trades that depend on metal for their livelihood – pay homage to Ogun, led by high priest Gbenga Saala. As part of the ceremony, the priest pours the dog’s blood on symbols of these workers’ trade: keys, spanners and other tools piled up in a metal barrel. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant powered by lignite, operated by Polish utility PGE, in Rogowiec, Poland on November 22, 2023. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

A shepherd and his flock in the Bitlis province of eastern Turkey in the first decade of April 2024. Shepherds regularly embark on gruelling journeys through the dusty outback, as they take their sheep to the high plateaus needed for grazing and then back to villages for milking. (Photo by Kahraman Kaya/Solent News)

“People and Space”. Winner: Wanderer in Patagonia by Yuri Zvezdny (Russia) A lone stargazer stares up at the stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as they stretch across the night sky over the glacier “White Stones” (Piedras Blancas) in the Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina. El Chaltén, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, 27 September 2016 iOptron Sky-Tracker mount, Sony A7S camera, 18 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 5000, 30-second exposure Wanderer in Patagonia. (Photo by Yuri Zvezdny/Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017)

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)

“Kids of Sapa”. Four little beautiful Hmong girls from Lao Chai Village, near Sapa, Vietnam. (Photo and caption by Felipe Hanower/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Couples (L-R) Chaiyut Phuangphoeksuk and Prontathourn Pronnapatthun, and Nichapatr Koomsombut and Pirat Rungthongoran run from sheep during their wedding ceremony at a resort in Ratchaburi province February 13, 2015. Three Thai couples took part in the wedding ceremony arranged by a resort themed around fun activities ahead of Valentine's Day. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)