The Daily Croissant

Picture: USGS/NASA/Landsat / Rex Features

"What look like pale yellow paint streaks slashing through a mosaic of mottled colours are ridges of wind-blown sand that make up Erg Iguidi, an area of ever-shifting sand dunes extending from Algeria into Mauritania in northwestern Africa. Erg Iguidi is one of several Saharan ergs, or sand seas, where individual dunes often surpass 500 metres - nearly a third of a mile - in both width and height."

Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)

Pointing skyward, the wall of this ruined Viking church still stands after a thousand winters, near the town of Vallentuna, Sweden. The time exposure records the scene on December 14th as stars leave graceful arcing trails during a long night, reflecting planet Earth's daily rotation on its axis. The Earth's axis points toward Polaris, the North Star, near the center of the concentric trails. Welcomed by skygazers on this winter's night, a bright meteor from the annual Geminid meteor shower also flashes through the frame. The meteor cuts across the star trails just above the lower church wall. Contributing to the beautiful composition, meteor streak and church apex both gesture toward the North Celestial Pole.

Picture: USGS/NASA/Landsat / Rex Features

"Along the south-eastern coast of Greenland, an intricate network of fjords funnels glacial ice to the Atlantic Ocean. During the summer season, newly calved icebergs join slabs of sea ice and older weathered bergs in an offshore slurry that the southward-flowing East Greenland Current sometimes swirls into stunning shapes. Exposed rock of mountain peaks, tinted red in this image, hints at a hidden landscape."