An Italian photographer travelled to Chile where he visited several star-gazing sites, home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes, located in the spectacular setting of the Atacama desert. Surrounded by vast desert and distant snow topped mountains, the enormous satellite dishes, dome-shaped buildings and telescopes are run by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) , an intergovernmental body dedicated to observing space. Photographer Alberto Ghizzi Panizza was granted access to several observatory sites.
Sprawled out on top of a log, this sleeping leopard takes a relaxing break from his daily routine .
PERCHED on a branch, these two frogs hold hands as they look into the camera .
Beautiful turquoise waves rise and fall in a series of stunning images taken along the coastline of south-eastern Australia .
DIVING boffins fired harpoons into 30-foot-long whale sharks in a bid to put the sea-beasts on Google Maps .
A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .
The aurora lights captured in Blair Nebraska, America - WITH electrifying purple and illuminous green brightening up the night sky, this is the rare moment a flash of 'sprite' lightening was captured on camera .
This is the moment a nimble red fox and a lumbering Alaskan brown bear were locked in a tense stand-off .
It's incredible to think anyone could live in such horrendous squalor - yet two men have been prosecuted for keeping their homes in such revolting conditions that it was no longer fit for their animals .
WITH his spiked ears and yellow and blue body, a colourful monkey bears an uncanny resemblance to Marvel Comics’ Wolverine .
Staring death in the face, a little field mouse bravely confronts a hungry cat .
HOTSPOT MEDIA - BACK TO THE FUTURE WITH AR' KID: A POSTAL SORTER has perfected the art of time travel by delivering images that are from the past .