Crawling at the top of the world, Thomas Ulrich spreads out his weight to avoid breaking through ice near the North Pole. Ulrich and Børge Ousland trekked from the North Pole to the remote Siberian archipelago of Franz Josef Land, following in the footsteps of pioneering Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen.
Photograph by Børge Ousland, National Geographic
Captioned “a grotto in an iceberg” when it was published in the December 1922 issue of National Geographic, this image was taken by the photographer for Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. The expedition’s ship, the Terra Nova, can be seen in the distance.
Photograph by Herbert G. Ponting, National Geographic
Nearly a thousand feet under the ground, massive beams of selenite dwarf human explorers in Mexico’s Cave of Crystals. The crystals, among the largest yet discovered on Earth, were found by two brothers working in the Naica mine, which produces lead, zinc, and silver.
Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic
A salt ridge in the mud flats of Kenya's Chalbi Desert is explored by motorized paraglider, as the salt flats surrounding it are too soft to be accessible by car. The winds were so strong that the paramotor pilot was able to walk along the ridge while flying this experimental aircraft, and reported the ridgecrest to be as hard as a brick.
Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic
Suspended inside the deepest cave in the world, Masha Basovskaya looks into the abyss. Krubera Cave is in the western Caucasus Mountains of Abkhazia. It is more than 6,500 feet deep and its explorers may spend weeks far beneath the Earth’s surface.
Photograph by Stephen Alvarez, National Geographic
Braving crocodiles and other unseen dangers, Sophiano Etouck plunges into a blackwater swamp during the last days of ecologist Michael Fay’s 15-month Megatransect of Africa. Fay and his team walked 2,000 miles from Congo to Gabon.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
Though it is called Stargate, this alien landscape is found on Earth. One of the submerged caves, or blue holes, of the Bahamas, it is extremely difficult to explore but a treasure trove for scientists.
Photograph by Wes C. Skiles, National Geographic
Bruce McCandless II cut a lonely figure over the Earth when he made a record-breaking journey via nitrogen-propelled jetpack in February 1984. He traveled 320 feet away from his spaceship, farther than any previous astronaut.
Photograph by NASA
In one portrait Aki Hoshide captured the sun, the Earth, the International Space Station, and his own helmet. The Japanese astronaut was part of a 2012 expedition to the space station.
Photograph by NASA
On a solo journey to Mars, the Curiosity rover took a self-portrait in front of the red planet’s Mount Sharp. The composite image was assembled so that the arm holding the camera cannot be seen.
Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech
For more than 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has peered into the recesses of our universe. Here the star-studded gas and dust of the Carina Nebula swirls 7,500 light-years away from Earth.
Photograph by NASA
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