Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Starting Speed - Austin Florian of Team USA begins a run at a skeleton men's training session at Cortina Sliding Center in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 11, 2026, during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Wipeout on the Ice - Corinne Stoddard of Team USA, Rika Kanai of Team Japan, and Arianna Sighel of Team Italy crash as Team China’s Wang Xinran crosses the finish line to win a short-track heat on February 10, 2026. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: A Midair Celebration - Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland, wearing a Swiss flag as a cape, celebrates winning the gold medal in the Women's Freeski Slopestyle Freestyle Skiing event at Livigno Snow Park on Feb 9, 2026. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Sliding Beneath the Mountain - Pomagagnon, a mountain in the Dolomites, towers above Cortina d'Ampezzo & the Cortina Sliding Center, where Italy's Dominik Fischnaller competes in luge men's singles on Feb 8, 2026. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Superb Owl Sunday X - A special Sunday event: our tenth-annual photo collection celebrating these magnificent birds of prey. If you have some time before the big game (or are skipping the event entirely), we invite you to have a look. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Drone Chase. A camera drone follows close behind Barnabas Szollos of Team Israel, as he hurtles down the course during the Men’s Downhill in Bormio, Italy, on February 7, 2026, day one of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winter Olympics Photo of the Day: Dynamic Cauldrons - Torchbearers Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba light one of two Olympic cauldrons during the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, on February 6, 2026. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Winners of the 2025 Close-Up Photographer of the Year - The competition celebrates photographers who reveal the hidden world through “macro, micro and close-up imagery.” Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

People’s Choice: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 - Organizers of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest are inviting the public to vote for their favorite images from this year’s competition. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: Cold-Stunned Iguanas in Florida - As near-freezing temperatures reach southern Florida, green iguanas are dropping from the trees, unable to handle the chill. Trappers have been gathering the cold-stunned invasive reptiles by the thousands. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos of the Week: Snowy Dunes, Icy Storm, Crying Horse - Protests against ICE in Minneapolis, war-damaged bridges in Syria, a landslide in Sicily, a heat wave in Australia, heavy snow in Russia, and much more. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: A Viking Fire Festival in Scotland - In Scotland’s Shetland Islands, a fire festival called Up Helly Aa celebrates the region’s Norse heritage. It takes place every January to mark the end of the yule season. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: Snow and Ice Blanket the U.S. - A colossal winter storm brought deep cold, ice, sleet, and snow to millions across a huge swath of the country. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

The Snow Monsters of Mount Zao - Winter conditions atop Japan’s Mount Zao can create “monsters” made of snow and ice that accumulates on trees. These snow monsters, called juhyo, attract visitors to one of the country’s oldest ski resorts. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos of the Week: Icy Dip, Resting Goose, Campaign Bear - Robots at work and play in China, a new hall of mirrors in Paris, a flaming barrel festival in Scotland, a breached canal in England, and much more Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: Minneapolis Neighborhoods vs. ICE - Federal immigration agents continued enforcement actions in Minneapolis, while state officials fight the Trump administration in court and local residents confront masked agents in their neighborhoods. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos of the Week: Icy Hearts, Warm Beach, Raging Fire - A vigil in a Minneapolis neighborhood, king-tide flooding in California, the 2026 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, a robotic traffic cop in China, and much more. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: One Year After the Los Angeles Wildfires - Photojournalists recently revisited neighborhoods still recovering and rebuilding after the Palisades and Eaton wildfires destroyed more than 18,000 structures last January. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Photos: The Year in Volcanic Activity - Scenes from the wide variety of volcanic activity on Earth in 2025. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Day 25 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Dusty Pillars. This is the James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation, trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula about 7,000 light-years away. Merry Christmas, everyone! Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 24 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Gravitational Lens. Galaxies in this JWST image appear to be stretched into arcs, their images distorted by gravitational lensing in galaxy cluster Abell S1063, which bends the passing light of distant galaxies. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 23 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Distance and Perspective. This Hubble image shows galaxies that seem to be close—but are very far apart. The larger galaxy at bottom right, NGC 1356, is 300 million light-years closer to us than LEDA 95415, at left. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 22 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Heart of a Tarantula. This JWST image features the Tarantula Nebula's star-forming region about 161,000 light-years away. A cavity has been hollowed out by radiation blasting from a cluster of massive young stars. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch a wonderful light show last night at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. Called "SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light," it was a thoughtful (and chilly) stroll through an otherworldly place filled with light and sound.

Happy Winter Solstice! Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025). You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!

Day 21 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Warped Space. This Hubble view shows galaxy cluster Abell 209, about 2.8 billion light-years away. The mass of the galaxies warps and magnifies images of background galaxies in a process called gravitational lensing. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 20 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Cosmic Cliffs. The JWST peered inside a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity in the star cluster NGC 3324. The cluster, about 9,100 light-years away, is thought to be only about 12 million years old. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 19 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Sombrero Galaxy. First discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, the Sombrero Galaxy lies about 30 million light-years away, and is well known for its distinctive ring of dust, seen here edge-on. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Photos of the Week: London Fog, Scooter Blankets, Giant Snowman - 28 images from the past seven days, including flooding in Washington State, flamingos in Venice, winter cherry blossoms in China, New Year’s preparations in New York City, and much more. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Day 18 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Spider Among the Stars. About 5,000 light-years away, the Red Spider Nebula is the result of the spectacular final act of a dying star—casting off its outer layers, and blasting them with radiation. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

A Visit from Krampus - Yuletide parades across Europe for the demonlike creature who playfully frightens onlookers, looking for naughty children to punish—or to drag back to his lair in a sack. Gift link: theatln.tc/KGhcksdh

Day 17 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Distant Starbursts. Last year, the JWST observed I Zwicky 18, a dwarf irregular galaxy 59 million light-years away. At its heart are star-forming regions surrounded by gas clouds that are sculpted by stellar winds. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 16 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Bullseye. About 50 million years ago, scientists believe LEDA 1313424, (the Bullseye Galaxy), was pierced by the smaller blue galaxy seen just below it, creating enormous rings in its wake like ripples in a pond. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 15 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Turbulent Lagoon. Back in 2018, to celebrate its 28th anniversary, scientists pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at the Lagoon Nebula, a roiling cloud of gas and dust about 4,000 light-years away. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 14 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Ripples of a Galactic Merger. The Hubble Space Telescope recently gathered this image of lenticular galaxy NGC 4753, about 60 million light-years away, believed to be the result of an earlier merging of two galaxies. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 13 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Sea of Galaxies. The James Web Space Telescope pointed its Near-Infrared Camera toward the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223, capturing an image of hundreds of galaxies at varying distances, sizes, shapes, & colors. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 12 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Barred Spiral. This galaxy, NGC 5335, is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy, displaying a striking bar-like structure across its center, backdropped by dozens of other more-distant galaxies. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Hopeful Images of 2025 - Every year, after rounding up often-difficult “news photos of the year,” I've put together an essay of uplifting images from the past 12 months—to seek out & recognize some of the abundant joy and kindness present in the world around us. Gift link: theatln.tc/mFS3XIb9

Day 11 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Looking for Signs of a Black Hole. Spiral galaxy M83 lies 15 million light-years away from Earth. Recent images from JWST found highly ionized neon gas—suggesting the presence of a supermassive black hole at its heart. Gift link theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Day 10 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Cosmic Tornado. The JWST captured this image of Herbig-Haro 49/50, about 630 light-years from Earth. The object visible at the "tip" of the tornado is a more-distant spiral galaxy unrelated to the closer object. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

2025 in Photos: Wrapping Up the Year - Looking back at some of the most memorable events toward the end of 2025, including Gen Z protests in Nepal, Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, and much more. Gift link: theatln.tc/I7NA1VMG

Day 9 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Cosmic Cat's Paw. Emission nebula NGC 6334, otherwise known as the Cat's Paw Nebula, lies about 4,000 light-years away. The JWST recently took a close look at one of its 'toe beans,' a bright star-forming region. Gift link: theatln.tc/pS0boJ4g

Posting this again because a lot of people said they found it helpful! Guide to ALT text: www.perkins.org/resource/how...

2025 in Photos: A Look at the Middle Months - Looking back at some of the most memorable events of mid-2025, including war in Gaza and Ukraine, a wildfire in the Grand Canyon, and much more. Gift link: theatln.tc/9vVbtigV

Day 8 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Sculpted by Stellar Winds. NGC 346 is a young star cluster about 200,000 light-years away, carving out a space inside the surrounding nebula of gas and dust. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again? In the 90s, my college had a planetarium, and I took a course & learned how to operate the device, compose a lesson, and I put together shows about parallax and constellations changing over time. (Set to instrumental songs by the Cure)

2025 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded - A look at some of the most memorable events of early 2025, including California's Palisades Fire, the inauguration of President Trump, and much more. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Day 7 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: A Warped View Through an Einstein Ring. You are seeing two galaxies here, one in front of the other. The more distant galaxy seems warped due to gravitational lensing occurring around the closer galaxy. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Day 6 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Shell of a Dying Star. About 1,500 light-years from Earth, a dying star at the heart of planetary nebula NGC 1514 is performing a spectacular final act, shedding huge amounts of gas and dust. . Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...