These stark images tell a dark tale about the mining of cobalt, one of the most prized minerals of the modern technological age.

Taken near Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a major cobalt reserve, photos draw attention to the huge appetite for this metal. This is driven by its high stability and energy density, which make it suited for use in everything from lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles to superalloys. The demand has led to corporations setting up vast extraction operations in the region, displacing villages.

The main image shows villagers in Tshabula, about 10 kilometres from Kolwezi’s centre, searching for cobalt among the waste dumped on the embankments of one of the largest open-cast mines in the area. It is run by the state and the company COMMUS (a wider view of the mine can be seen in the below image). The complex is set for an expansion that will destroy much of the housing nearby.

But not all the mines in the region are official. Some have taken this lucrative practice into their own hands, digging deep tunnels. There are government schemes to regulate this trade and improve working conditions, but the 150,000-odd “artisanal” miners around Kolwezi receive little pay for their efforts.

Extreme in scale and ambition, this is ITER, the €20-billion energy project being built in southern France. It is set to pave the way to fusion power, akin to that which fuels the sun.

Work started on the world’s biggest fusion experiment in 2006 through an international effort, including the European Union, the US, China and Russia. The first run of the reactor, during which it will create superhot matter known as plasma – a state necessary for nuclear fusion to occur – was scheduled for 2020. This was first pushed back to 2025, and fresh delays have now postponed it to 2035.

Meanwhile, exclusive photographs taken by offer a glimpse into ITER’s construction and potential.

The main image�� shows the size involved, with a 30-metre-deep assembly pit for the tokamak, a device responsible for confining spiralling plasma to a doughnut-shaped torus using magnetic fields. Pictured above is a shot of one of the toroidal coils that produce these fields.

The below images show some of the nine sectors that make up the ITER vacuum vessel. This weighs 5200 tonnes and provides a highly resilient “cage” for experiments, ensuring that continuously spiralling plasma doesn’t touch its walls.

The image above shows part of the vacuum vessel being transported for repairs, while the below shots show supports lining the wall of blanket modules that shield the structure and magnets from the heat and high-energy neutrons of the reactions.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year, the , is back for its 16^th run.

More than 3500 images were submitted for the award. Among the 30 to make the shortlist is Carina Letelier Baeza’s shot Arctic Dragon. Taken at the Arctic Henge in Iceland, it shows an aurora, the result of a geomagnetic storm generated by a coronal mass ejection, which looks like a rearing dragon.

Also on the shortlist��is The Scream of a Dying Star (below), taken by Yann Sainty. The “star” in question is actually what remains of a supernova – when a star dies and explodes in a tremendous display of light and energy. This one occurred around 10,000 years ago.

Sainty exposed rarely seen details of this glowing remnant, called the Cygnus Loop, by capitalising on a clear sky in the Atlas mountains in Morocco, combined with a long exposure time. The image’s name is a nod to the famous painting The Scream by Edvard Munch, though it also symbolises the “scream” that echoes through space after a star dies, according to Sainty.

Below is a dazzling shot of the sun above the Himalayas, captured by Geshuang Chen near the Tibetan city of Shigatse. It shows a meteorological phenomenon called a corona, produced by the thin, blanketing clouds, which are diffracting sunlight as it passes through, resulting in this vibrant array of iridescent colours. Chen has called the image The Palette of the Himalayas.

The winners of the competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory in London, will be announced on 12 September. The winning images will be displayed in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London from 14 September, alongside a selection of shortlisted images.

These solitary structures were once a key pillar of aviation navigation, but, due to their remote locations, today they are little known. Photographer starkly beautiful shots shine a light on the beacons, dubbed VORs (very high-frequency omnidirectional range stations), and their role in carving out routes in the sky for aircraft.

Essentially giant antennas, VORs beam out radio signals from secluded spots to allow planes to fix their location and stay on course by flying from VOR to VOR. The signals can be thought of as “breadcrumbs”, says Evangelista. The isolation is necessary to avoid interference in broadcasts between VORs.

Stations like the ones pictured here are a dying breed, as they are increasingly being decommissioned in favour of satellite-based GPS. But although GPS may be a more accurate means of navigation, VORs offer a back-up during events like solar storms or GPS interference, without which there could be a great deal of chaos, says Evangelista.

Because their locations are publicly available, anyone can seek out a remaining VOR simply by using GPS – a “curious technological pirouette”, as Evangelista puts it. This set him on course to document some of the more photo-worthy stations before they disappear for good.

Pictured from the top, the first two stations are in Spain – VOR NVS is on the edge of the village of Navas del Rey, 50 kilometres from Madrid, while VOR CMA is 1.5 km from the village of Calamocha. The last, VOR BRY, is on the edge of French village Bray-sur-Seine.

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In the right place at the right time, cast your eyes to the sky and you may see something awe-inspiring.

This is the feeling evoked by these images, a few of the winners of this year’s competition. Each year, the top 25 spellbinding shots of our galaxy, captured from prime spots around the world, are curated and published by Dan Zafra, editor of travel photography blog Capture the Atlas.

Tom Rae’s entry (main image), shows the Milky Way emerging from New Zealand’s highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, on a winter’s night. “In rare alpine weather conditions, I embarked on a journey up the glacial valley one night,” said Rae in an announcement on Zafra’s site. “Upon reaching the lake, the scene that unfolded made me feel like I had landed on another planet.”

In another elevated endeavour, Andrea Curzi captured an “arch” of the Milky Way (pictured above) over Passo Giau, a mountain pass in Italy.�� The red blurs in the sky are clouds of glowing hydrogen called emission nebulae, which appear red due to emitting only at particular wavelengths. The light is produced due to the ionisation of atoms in the gas, caused by newly forming stars.

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Meanwhile, the images above show remarkable scenes from the US. Brandt Ryder’s shot, first of the two, was taken in the Eastern Sierra region of California, where the Milky Way frames a violet sea of lupines. Stephanie Thi named her image, taken in Utah, Starry Hoodoo Wonderland – a nod to the toadstool-like hoodoo rocks that add to the aura of her starry backdrop.

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With its gaping jaws and pointy teeth, this humpback anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) seems even more terrifying when its inner intricacies are revealed. The deep-sea monster, also known as Johnson’s abyssal seadevil, was photographed by .

The image shows the fish after a long process of cleaning and staining to reveal its internal structures. Scientists used a digestive enzyme to remove the soft tissue, exposing bones and collagen, which were then stained. Blue shows cartilage, while the red is bone. Sometimes not all tissues become transparent during the chemical processes: for example, the dark mass (left) is the fish’s stomach.

This technique offers a rare glimpse inside the anglerfish, from its gills to its two sets of impressively scary jaws – just one of the remarkable adaptations that have evolved in deep-sea species, says Zankl. But don’t worry: females, like the one shown here, grow to about 153 millimetres long, while males are a mere 28 millimetres.

The fish live at a depth of about 900 metres in tropical oceans. This specimen was collected from the Benguela Upwelling System, very fertile deep waters in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of South Africa and Namibia, during a research expedition to document the region’s wildlife.

Since deep-sea photography is a big challenge, Zankl says that working with scientists lets him visit otherwise inaccessible places. Documenting such creatures sheds light on their biology and on the broader ecological processes in fragile ecosystems, he says.

FEW insects (or even animals) hold quite as much sway on the planet as bees. As pollinators that flock from flower to flower, crop to crop, they keep the world’s flora and biodiversity thriving. And yet, thanks to a myriad of deadly factors, such as pesticides, habitat destruction and climate change, thousands of species are teetering on the brink.

A new exhibition all about these vital creatures, , provides an immersive window on their world, from the intricate anatomy of a single bee to the structure of entire colonies. In collaboration with artist Wolfgang Buttress, it uses sound, sculpture and light, blending art and technology to show visitors the lives of bees around the world, illuminating just how devastating it would be to lose them.

The main image is of a bee from the genus Euglossa, also known as orchid bees. These are a key orchid pollinator in North and South America (although they also flock to rotting fruit, fungi and even faeces). The males, one of which is shown here, use the odours from the chemicals they collect from pollination to court females – the more complex the odour, the greater the attraction.

The next images show (top to bottom): a violet carpenter bee (Xylocopa violacea), recognisable through its purple-sheened wings and body, and one of the largest bees in Europe; a bee from the genus Nomioides, which is one of the smallest types of bee; and an African carpenter bee (Xylocopa inconstans).

The exhibition will be at the World Museum in Liverpool, UK, until 5 May 2025.