The name “Aiguille du Midi” translates literally as “Needle of the Noon” or “Needle of the South”. It gets its name from its tapered form and from its position when viewed from Chamonix: it approximately indicates noon when the sun passes over its summit.

A handout photo made available by the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities shows the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the OneWeb communication satellites launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 07 February 2020. Thirty-four satellites from OneWeb were successfully put into orbit on a single Soyuz rocket from Baikonur. (Photo by Roscosmos/EPA/EFE)

The northern lights as seen from from Yell in the Shetland Islands, Scotland on January 15, 2023. The aurora borealis is caused by collisions between electrically charged particles released from the sun that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. (Photo by Ryan Nisbet/Capture Media Agency)

Everton fan and legendary fashion photographer Matt Lever has captured the dizzying drama behind the scenes at catwalk shows since 1999. Here: Balmain, Spring/Summer 2011. (Photo by Matt Lever)

“Asaro from the Eastern Highlands”. The mudmen could not cover their faces with mud because the people of Papua New Guinea thought that the mud from the Asaro river was poisonous. So instead of covering their faces with this alleged poison, they made masks from pebbles that they heated and water from the waterfall, with unusual designs such as long or very short ears either going down to the chin or sticking up at the top, long joined eyebrows attached to the top of the ears, horns and sideways mouths. (Photo and caption by Jimmy Nelson)

Meet the woman who has made playing with food her job and creates incredible pieces of edible art. From city landmarks to colorful animals, Anna Keville Joyce lets her imagination run wild as she creates a series of intricate art works made entirely from food. Using anything from vegetables to sausages, Annas pieces are so detailed that at first glance it is difficult to tell what they are made from. Here: a nesting bird. (Photo by Anna Keville Joyce/Caters News)

A light pillar is a visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surfaces. The light can come from the Sun (usually at or low to the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. It can also come from the Moon or from terrestrial sources such as streetlights.

Thick smoke rises during an eruption from Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano, as seen from Tunggularum village in Sleman on March 11, 2023. (Photo by Devi Rahman/AFP Photo)