Museum assistant and former Soviet soldier, Sheikh Abdullah looks at a display in the Manzar-e Jahad, or Jihad Museum, which depicts the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the Afghan resistance, in Herat, on February 15, 2014. Sheikh Abdullah, who was a Soviet intelligence officer by the name of Khakimov Bakhrodin, was captured after being injured in battle with the Mujahideen. Abdullah stayed with his captors, converted to Islam and was renamed Abdullah. He never returned to his former homeland and now works at the Jihad Museum. (Photo by Aref Karimi/AFP Photo via The Atlantic)

A figure of a skeleton is seen painted in a hallway of the house built underground by Manuel Barrantes in San Isidro de Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica, March 14, 2016. Barrantes started digging through red soil and volcanic rock on his farm 12 years ago to build his subterranean house, between 15 and 63 feet (4.57 and 19.2m) underground. The dwelling, which Barrantes says provides a peaceful and comfortable home for him and his family away from noise pollution and the effects of climate change, now covers about 2,000 square feet (185.8 square metres). (Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

In this Friday, January 9, 2015 photo, bathhouse worker Omid Riahi, 39, scrubs a man to remove dead skin, at the Ghebleh public bathhouse, in Tehran, Iran. The steamy air and curved tiled walls of Iran's famed public bathhouses, some rinsing and massaging patrons for hundreds of years, slowly may wash away as interest in them wanes. The bathhouses, known as “hammams” in Persian, find themselves in rough financial times as modern conveniences now allow showers and baths in most homes across the Islamic Republic. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Aisha, 15, (L) (who asked to withhold her last name), a Syrian refugee from Raqqa, waits with a fellow refugee while harvesting cannabis in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon October 19, 2015. Syrian refugees work to harvest and process spiky-leafed cannabis plants in neighbouring Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Often farmers of cotton and wheat back home in Raqqa province – now the de facto capital of Islamic State – the conflict in Syria drove them to seek safety in a region where Syrian migrant workers used to spend a few months a year before returning home. (Photo by Alia Haju/Reuters)

For 20 years, Joann Biondi worked as a freelance writer. Then one day she adopted a kitten that had been tossed in a garbage can and left for dead. That kitten had an unusual quirk; he liked to wear clothes and pose for the camera. So Joann started shooting, and then she got serious about photography. Fast forward four years and that kitten is now Lorenzo the Cat, a feline art photography project that has gotten both the cat and the photographer a lot of attention; gallery shows, museum exhibits, and stories in major media outlets throughout the world. Amid it all Lorenzo has remained a mellow dude who still likes to roll around in the dirt, chase lizards, and knock things off the kitchen counter when his food bowl is empty.

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its sixth year and has received over 2,500 entries. Photo: Centre of the Heart Nebula by Ivan Eder (Hungary). Situated 7500 light years away in the “W”-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation. (Photo by Ivan Eder)

Star trails form over the Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party on mount Buzludzha in this long exposure picture taken on September 12, 2014. The monument was officially opened in 1981 by the Bulgarian Communist regime to mark 100 years of the set up of an organised Socialist movement, a predecessor of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The monument, no longer maintained by the Bulgarian government after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, is now abandoned and vandalized. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

Nimbus, the 2 month old clouded leopard cub, who was hand reared at the home of curator Jamie Craig. Photographed sitting in her hammock at Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford, Oxfordshire, UK on September 2014. Jamie Craig the curator of the Cotswold Wildlife park has hand reared the baby clouded leopard in his family bathroom after he was rejected by his mother. Now two months old Nimbus is been fed a cat milk replacement diet by bottle and is given soft toys to play with. It is hoped that the leopard will re-join others at the park and eventually join their breeding program. (Photo by SWNS/ABACAPress)