These spectacular images of the universe are the finalists in the 2016 CWAS “David Malin” awards. The annual competition, which celebrates the best astronomy images taken by Australian photographers, is part of AstroFest 2016. The winners will be announced on 16 July. An associated exhibition opens the following day at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory visitors centre, and a second exhibition will also travel to selected venues around Australia. Here: Mars and its Rival Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. (Photo by Phil Hart/CWAS/The Guardian)

Wrocław has been selected as European Capital of Culture for 2016. The Wrocław area has many popular professional sports teams. The most popular sport today is football, thanks to Śląsk Wrocław. Some matches of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine are scheduled to take place in Wrocław on The Municipal Stadium.

Photo by: penny_7b ; Source: Flickr

Belgian-British teenager Zara Rutherford closes the canopy of her Shark Ultralight airplane as she prepares to take off at the Kortrijk-Wevelgem airfield in Wevelgem, Belgium, Wednesday, August 18, 2021. A Belgian-British teenager took to the skies Wednesday in her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. Nineteen-year-old Zara Rutherford took off from an airstrip in Wevelgem, Belgium, in an ultralight plane looking to break the record set by American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who set the world benchmark at age 30 in 2017. (Photo by Virginia Mayo/AP Photo)

John Crawford was always fascinated of a birds eye view, looking straight down in a vertical perspective. In his series ‘Aerial Nudes’ he is photographing single naked bodies from a high elevation. Perfectly timed photographs show a distant nude body laying down in a series of interesting locations. On each selected shoot day Crawford would deliver his model Carina to the location in the helicopter, positioning her in the carefully arranged set-up, then flying to 600 feet and capturing the image, which would take no more than ten minutes.

The Atlantic Puffin is definitely a curious-looking bird. The special coloring that this bird develops for the breeding season in the spring is very reminiscent of tropical birds. The bright colors of the beak and the markings around the eyes serve no particular advantage and have evolved as a result of sexual selection. However, Puffins don’t look that pretty all year round. They shed all these festive colors in partial moult after the breeding season is over. They lose the ornaments around their eyes, their face becomes darker, and their beak becomes very different. The natural habitat of these birds is the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Sports have the ability to transform groups of strangers into a united community. In the celebratory spirit surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Sony and the World Photography Organisation present UNITED – a contest honouring the passion of football fans around the world. Seven inspirational photographers have been selected by Sony and WPO to capture the atmosphere and celebration of the World Cup across the globe. Photo: France – French fans cheering for their team. (Photo by Anthony Lepinay)

Gymnast Ahmad al-Sawas performs gymnastic moves near damaged buildings in the rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria March 26, 2016. As Syrian gymnast Ahmad al-Sawas watched his country fall apart, his Olympic dream collapsed too. The last national champion before the fighting began, he knew that supporting the anti-government side in the five-year-old civil war would prevent him from being selected for the Rio Games. (Photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters)

The spectacular sequence shows the divers reaching out and even petting the 1,000-pound predators as the inquisitive beasts happily pose for the camera. Other pictures show the sharks appearing to swim with the divers as they move towards the water’s surface. The photographs were taken at Tiger Beach, Grand Bahama by photographer, Steve Hinczynski (49) from Venice, Florida, USA. To take his images Steve used a Canon 7D Mark II camera equipped with Ikelite underwater housing. (Photo by Steve Hinczynski/Mediadrumworld)