Four pillars of light from the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) are shown reaching into the Chilean night sky in this image from ESO Photo Ambassador Fred Kamphues, on September 2, 2016. The lasers are a key part of the adaptive optics system on the VLT. Adaptive optics allows astronomers to drastically reduce the atmospheric distortion present at even the best sites in the world for astronomy, including Paranal in Chile, the home of the VLT. (Photo by F. Kamphues/ESO)

Dalmatian pelicans on Lake Kerkini in Greece captured over the space of one week (16-21 January 2023) by tour guide photographer Sean Weekly. The Dalmatian pelicans resemble the winged dinosaur pterodactyl as they swoop, splash and feed in the waters of Lake Kerkini in Greece. With wings outstretched, and colourful faces and beaks on display, the birds appear to be in paradise, with the awe-inspiring Kerkini mountains as a mesmerising backdrop. (Photo by Sean Weekly/Animal News Agency)

A resident receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a rural village on December 01, 2021 in Aringay, La Union province, Philippines. The Philippines is rushing to vaccinate its population as it mulls making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory and amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country, which has just approved booster shots for its adult population, launched a three-day national vaccination holiday on November 29 to December 1 with the goal of vaccinating at least nine million additional people. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

In this Tuesday, June 4, 2019, photo, a Yamanote Line train travels above commuters walking across the crossing during evening rush hours in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. Operated by the East Japan Railway Co., the Yamanote Line in Tokyo makes a loop around the center of the city, connecting 29 stations that include key stops such as Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro. A complete loop of about an hour offers scenes of Japanese daily lives. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Long-tailed mayflies (Palingenia longicauda) mate on the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszakurt, Hungary, June 14, 2016. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours during “Tiszaviragzas” or Tisza blooming season from late spring to early summer every year. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini, in effigy, are about to take a mile-high plunge over Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia, June 21, 1942, as part of the scrap rubber drive. Private Elias Nour, who arranged the stunt as a farewell party on the eve of his entrance into the army, is on the running board. He guided as the “Axis” plunged to destruction. Spectators had to give a scrap of rubber as the price of admission to the spectacle. (Photo by AP Photo)

An Indian nomadic shepherd from the western Rajasthan state guides his flock of sheep through an access road in Greater Noida, outskirts of New Delhi, India, Tuesday, December 5, 2017. Looking for suitable pasture lands for grazing, shepherds migrate their flocks over extensive areas in the same state or to neighboring states in India. (Photo by R.S. Iyer/AP Photo)

Kieron Connolly’s new book of photographs of more than 100 once-busy and often elegant buildings gives an idea of how the world might look if humankind disappeared. Here: Bodie, Mono County, California. Gold was discovered at Bodie in 1859 (just after the initial California gold rush) and it went from mining camp to boomtown. Its decline began in 1880, when word spread of new boomtowns elsewhere. The Standard Consolidated Mine closed in 1913, and four years later the Bodie Railway was abandoned. By 1940 the population was down to 40. Today, Bodie is maintained in a state of arrested decay as a visitor attraction. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)