Early snowfall meets the last of the autumn colors, Japan (© SpontaneousPictures/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Aurora australis over the Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica (© Stuart Holroyd/Alamy)

Dawn sunlight and waves at Portland Bill Lighthouse, Dorset, England (© Lee Pengelly/Getty Images Plus)

Male Atlantic puffin gives his mate nesting material, Skomer Island, Wales (© Danny Green/Minden Pictures)

Rhinos and an oxpecker bird in the Amakhala Game Reserve, South Africa (© Robert Harding World Imagery/Offset)

Christmas tree farm in Ontario, Canada (© FatCamera/Getty Images Plus)

The Pinnacles at Nambung National Park, Western Australia (© Frank Krahmer/Getty Images Plus)

A scooter adorned with multiple mirrors, lights, and air horns (© stocknshares/Getty Images)

Circuit board of a computer (© Bobkov Evgeniy/Shutterstock)

Waxwings feeding on rowans (© Berndt Fischer/Getty Images Plus)

Tengboche Monastery in the Himalayan Mountains, Nepal (© Kyle Hammons/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Icelandic sheep (© John Porter LRPS/Alamy)

Spruce grouse in a spruce tree in Denali National Park, Alaska (© Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott/Minden Pictures)

Spruce grouse in a spruce tree in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska (© Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott/Minden Pictures)

Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa (© 4FR/Getty Images)

Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa (© 4FR/Getty Images)

Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum, Italy (© Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images)

Annual Schwäbisch Hall Weihnachtsmarkt in the market square, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (© sack/Getty Images Plus)

Cabins in Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania (© Mark C. Morris/Shutterstock)

Snowflake (© TothGaborGyula/Getty Images Plus)

｢冬のリンゴの木｣ (© Chris Stein/Getty Images)

Eselspinguine diskutieren in der Antarktis (© Grafissimo/Getty Images)

Gentoo penguins in Antarctica (© Grafissimo/Getty Images)

A herd of reindeer in Norway (© Lena Granefelt/plainpicture)

Christmas decorations in Warsaw, Poland (© David Milsen/Alamy)

Skating on a frozen canal near the windmills at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands (© Lourens Smak/Alamy)

Trumpeter swans at Kelly Warm Springs, near Kelly, Wyoming (© DEEPOL by plainpicture)

Trumpeter swans at Kelly Warm Springs, near Kelly, Wyoming (© DEEPOL by plainpicture)

Ice skaters on Hintersee, a lake in Ramsau, Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, Germany (© Jana Mänz/Westend61/Offset)

Saguaro cacti in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona (© Jack Dykinga/Minden Pictures)

Fireworks for New Year's Eve in Backnang, Germany (© Lilly/Alamy)