American Dean Potter, solo and without ropes, climbing Heaven - a route on the Glacier Point cliff in Yosemite national park, California.
Lava shoots from an Icelandic volcano in this dramatic image by Skarphedinn Thrainsson, who regularly risks injury from falling rocks and lava to get his pictures.
The space shuttle Endeavour docks with the International Space Station, with the Italian mainland below.
Lightning over Dorset's Jurassic coast taken from a vantage point above Portland harbour, when a weekend storm ended a spell of hot weather.
A helicopter drops water from a reservoir on to a fire on Ogden Moor, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, which was burning for a fourth day.
Lightning strikes over buildings during a thunderstorm in Kathmandu.
A sandstorm is seen from the sky over Beijing. This is the third sandstorm to hit the Chinese capital this year.