A juvenile specimen of the recently-discovered Australian Peacock spider, Maratus Albus, sits on the nib of a pencil in this undated picture taken in Western Australia's Nuytsland Nature Reserve. (Photo by Jurgen Otto/Reuters)

Indian mourners perform a cremation on the roof of a building overlooking The Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi on August 23, 2016. India's holy city of Varanasi has been forced to halt cremations along the banks of the sacred river Ganges as deadly floods from monsoon rains hit parts of the country, an official said. More than 100,000 people have been forced from their homes in recent days in northern Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar states as rain-swollen rivers burst their banks. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

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)

Those lights are actually bioluminescent shrimp, better known as sea fireflies, or, in Japan, as “umibotaru”. Visible every year from May until the end of October, they live in the sand around very shallow sea water and are often seen floating between the extremes of high and low tides. Here: Bioluminescent sea fireflies glittering like diamonds on the rocks and sand. Okayama, Japan. July 2016. (Photo by Trevor Williams/Jonathan Galione/Getty Images)

Some dozens of long-finned pilot whales lay dead on a remote beach in Iceland after they were discovered by tourists sightseeing in the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland aboard a helicopter, Thursday July 18, 2019. The whales were concentrated in one spot on the beach, many partially covered by sand. (Photo by David Schwarzhans via AP Photo)

Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after competing in the women's free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, February 17, 2022, in Beijing. (Photo by David J. Phillip/AP Photo)

A wax figure depicting Jennifer Lopez by wax museum Madame Tussauds dressed in a new set of clothes attracts the attention of pedestrians during a press event at a beach bar in Berlin,†Germany, August 21, 2015. (Photo by Jens Kalaene/EPA)

These macro images by Alejandro Santillana are being showcased in the Insects Unlocked project at the University of Texas at Austin. Here: A female sweat bee. (Photo by Alejandro Santillana/Insects Unlocked/Cover Images)