National Geography Photo of the Day: November 23rd of 2014

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: October 26th of 2014

Astronomy Picture of the Day: October 26th of 2014

National Geographic Photo of the Day: August 11th of 2014

Astronomy Picture of the Day: August 11th of 2014

National Geographic Photo of the Day: April 14th of 2014

In a Fog

April 14, 2014

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April 14, 2014

In a Fog

Photograph by Antic Zlatko, National Geographic Your Shot

“I always say that the best things happen unexpectedly and spontaneously,” says Antic Zlatko, a member of our Your Shot community who captured this scene on the Tamiš River near his home in Pančevo, Serbia. “It was taken on a cold winter day, but the ambience was magic—the cold afternoon with the fog and the sun [shining] over it. I saw this through the window and had afterward gone on a walk with my kids. I made a few shots but I think this one shows the true ambience.”
Zlatko’s picture was featured in the Your Shot Daily Dozen.
This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 14th of 2014

2014 April 14

An Unusual Globule in IC 1396
Credit & Copyright: T. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage) & H. Schweiker (WIYN, NOAO, AURA, NSF) Explanation: Is there a monster in IC 1396? Known to some as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, parts of gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on foreboding forms, some nearly human. The only real monster here, however, is a bright young star too far from Earth to hurt us. Energetic light from this star is eating away the dust of the dark cometary globule near the top of the above image. Jets and winds of particles emitted from this star are also pushing away ambient gas and dust. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a much larger region on the sky than shown here, with an apparent width of more than 10 full moons.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 13th of 2014

2014 April 13

Saturn in Blue and Gold
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA Explanation: Why is Saturn partly blue? The above picture of Saturn approximates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The above picture was taken in 2006 March by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Here Saturn's majestic rings appear directly only as a thin vertical line. The rings show their complex structure in the dark shadows they create on the image left. Saturn's fountain moon Enceladus, only about 500 kilometers across, is seen as the bump in the plane of the rings. The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear partly blue for the same reason that Earth's skies can appear blue -- molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet's atmospheres are better at scattering blue light than red. When looking deep into Saturn's clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn's clouds becomes dominant. It is not known why southern Saturn does not show the same blue hue -- one hypothesis holds that clouds are higher there. It is also not known why Saturn's clouds are colored gold.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 12th of 2014

2014 April 12

Clouds and Crosses over Haleakala
Image Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (TWAN) Explanation: Aloha and welcome to a breathtaking skyscape. The dreamlike panoramic view from March 27 looks out over the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawai'i. A cloud layer seeps over the volcanic caldera's edge with the Milky Way and starry night sky above. Head of the Northern Cross asterism, supergiant star Deneb lurks within the Milky Way's dust clouds and nebulae at the left. From there you can follow the arc of the Milky Way all the way to the stars of the more compact Southern Cross, just above the horizon at the far right. A yellowish Mars is right of center, near the top of the frame, with rival red giant Antares below it, closer to the Milky Way's central bulge. Need some help identifying the stars? Just slide your cursor over the picture, or download this labeled panorama.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 11th of 2014

2014 April 11

Mars near Opposition
Image Credit & Copyright: Fabio Carvalho and Gabriela Carvalho Explanation: Tonight Mars is between opposition (April 8) and closest approach (April 14) looping through the constellation Virgo opposite the Sun in the night sky. That makes it prime season for telescopic views of the the Red Planet, like this one from April 3rd. The clear, sharp image was captured with a high-speed digital camera and 16-inch diameter telescope from Assis, Brazil, Planet Earth. Mars' north polar cap is at the top left. Also visible are whitish orographic clouds - water vapor clouds condensing in the cold atmosphere above the peaks of Mars' towering volcanos. The exact dates of closest approach and opposition are slightly different because of the planet's elliptical orbit. Still, get your telescope out on the night of closest approach (April 14/15) and you can view both Mars and a total eclipse of the Moon. Mars will be about 1/100th the angular size of the Moon.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 10th of 2014

2014 April 10

Mars, Ceres, Vesta
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN) Explanation: That bright, ruddy star you've recently noticed rising just after sunset isn't a star at all. That's Mars, the Red Planet. Mars is now near its 2014 opposition (April 8) and closest approach (April 14), looping through the constellation Virgo opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Clearly outshining bluish Spica, alpha star of Virgo, Mars is centered in this labeled skyview from early April, that includes two other solar system worlds approaching their opposition. On the left, small and faint asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres are seen near star Tau Virginis. But you'll just have to imagine NASA's Dawn spacecraft cruising between the small worlds. Having left Vesta in September of 2012, Dawn's ion engine has been steadily driving it to match orbits with Ceres, scheduled to arrive there in February 2015. Of course, you can also look near Mars for the Moon opposite the Sun in Earth's sky on the night of April 14/15 ... and see a total lunar eclipse.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 9th of 2014

Two Rings for Asteroid Chariklo
Video Illustration Credit: Lucie Maquet, Observatoire de Paris, LESIA
Explanation: Asteroids can have rings. In a surprising discovery announced two weeks ago, the distant asteroid 10199 Chariklo was found to have at least two orbiting rings. Chariklo's diameter of about 250 kilometers makes it the largest of the measured centaur asteroids, but now the smallest known object to have rings. The centaur-class minor planet orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. The above video gives an artist's illustration of how the rings were discovered. As Chariklo passed in 2013 in front of a faint star, unexpected but symmetric dips in the brightness of the star revealed the rings. Planetary astronomers are now running computer simulations designed to investigate how Chariklo's unexpected ring system might have formed, how it survives, and given the asteroid's low mass and close passes of other small asteroids and the planet Uranus, how long it may last.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 8th of 2014

2014 April 8

M42: Inside the Orion Nebula
Image Credit: R. Villaverde, Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image composite in assigned colors taken by the Hubble Space Telescope wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 7th of 2014

2014 April 7

A Solar Eclipse from the Moon
Video Credit: NASA, Surveyor 3; Acknowledgement: R. D. Sampson (ECSU) Explanation: Has a solar eclipse ever been seen from the Moon? Yes, first in 1967 -- but it may happen again next week. The robotic Surveyor 3 mission took thousands of wide angle television images of the Earth in 1967, a few of which captured the Earth moving in front of the Sun. Several of these images have been retrieved from the NASA archives and compiled into the above time-lapse video. Although the images are grainy, the Earth's atmosphere clearly refracted sunlight around it and showed a beading effect when some paths were blocked by clouds. Two years later, in 1969, the Apollo 12 crew saw firsthand a different eclipse of the Sun by the Earth on the way back from the Moon. In 2009, Japan's robotic Kaguya spacecraft took higher resolution images of a similar eclipse while orbiting the Moon. Next week, however, China's Chang'e 3 mission, including its Yutu rover, might witness a new total eclipse of the Sun by the Earth from surface of the Moon. Simultaneously, from lunar orbit, NASA's LADEE mission might also capture the unusual April 15 event. Another angle of this same event will surely be visible to people on Earth -- a total lunar eclipse.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 6th of 2014

2014 April 6

Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA Explanation: Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. Pictured above, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual surface features dubbed tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size, appears quite dead. Most recently, an analysis of slight gravity deviations has given an independent indication of underground oceans. Such research is particularly interesting since such oceans would be candidates to contain life.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 5th of 2014

2014 April 5

Lunar Farside
Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. The likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form the smooth maria.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 4th of 2014

2014 April 4

Along the Western Veil
Image Processing: Oliver Czernetz - Data: Digitized Sky Survey (POSS-II) Explanation: Delicate in appearance, these filaments of shocked, glowing gas, draped in planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus, make up the western part of the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago. Blasted out in the cataclysmic event, the interstellar shock wave plows through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. The glowing filaments are really more like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into atomic hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue-green) gas. Also known as the Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula now spans nearly 3 degrees or about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. While that translates to over 70 light-years at its estimated distance of 1,500 light-years, this wide image of the western portion spans about half that distance. Brighter parts of the western Veil are recognized as separate nebulae, including The Witch's Broom (NGC 6960) along the top of this view and Pickering's Triangle (NGC 6979) below and right of center.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 3rd of 2014

2014 April 3

At the Edge of NGC 2174
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Explanation: This fantastic skyscape lies near the edge of NGC 2174 a star forming region about 6,400 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Orion. It follows mountainous clouds of gas and dust carved by winds and radiation from the region's newborn stars, now found scattered in open star clusters embedded around the center of NGC 2174, off the top of the frame. Though star formation continues within these dusty cosmic clouds they will likely be dispersed by the energetic newborn stars within a few million years. Recorded at infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope, the interstellar scene spans about 6 light-years. The image celebrates the upcoming 24th anniversary of Hubble's launch onboard the space shuttle orbiter Discovery on April 24, 1990.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 2nd of 2014

2014 April 2

Mars Red and Spica Blue
Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN) Explanation: A bright pair of sky objects will be visible together during the next few months. Mars will shine brightly in its familiar rusty hue as it reaches its brightest of 2014 next week. The reason that Mars appears so bright is that Earth and Mars are close to each other in their long orbits around the Sun. Spica, on the other hand, shines constantly as one of the brightest blue stars in the night sky. Pronounced "spy-kah", the blue-hued star has been visible throughout human history and the sounds that identify it today date back to ancient times. Pictured above, the planet and the star were photographed rising together toward the southeast after sunset last week through old oak trees in Sweden.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: April 1st of 2014

2014 April 1

Space Station Robot Forgets Key Again
Image Credit: Expedition 38 Crew, International Space Station, NASA Explanation: Space station robot AFJ013 has forgotten her space lock key again. The frustrated robot was reduced to tapping on a space station window and asking for a human to let her back in -- for the third time this week. "Yes, she did a great job adjusting the tolerances on the new science module, but why she can't remember to take her key is beyond me," said incredulous station commander Koichi Wakata (Japan). "We would keep the entry unlocked but we are afraid that space aliens will come in and raid our refrigerator", the astronaut lamented. Happy April Fools' Day from the folks at APOD. In reality, International Space Station astronaut Wakata poses in front of a Cupola window while the Latching End Effector, attached to Canadarm2, is visible just outside.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 31st of 2014

2014 March 31

2012 VP113: A New Furthest Known Orbit in the Solar System
Image Credit: S. S. Sheppard (CIS) & C. Trujillo (Gemini Obs.), NOAO Explanation: What object has the furthest known orbit in our Solar System? In terms of how close it will ever get to the Sun, the new answer is 2012 VP113, an object currently over twice the distance of Pluto from the Sun. Pictured above is a series of discovery images taken with the Dark Energy Camera attached to the NOAO's Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile in 2012 and released last week. The distant object, seen moving on the lower right, is thought to be a dwarf planet like Pluto. Previously, the furthest known dwarf planet was Sedna, discovered in 2003. Given how little of the sky was searched, it is likely that as many as 1,000 more objects like 2012 VP113 exist in the outer Solar System. 2012 VP113 is currently near its closest approach to the Sun, in about 2,000 years it will be over five times further. Some scientists hypothesize that the reason why objects like Sedna and 2012 VP113 have their present orbits is because they were gravitationally scattered there by a much larger object -- possibly a very distant undiscovered planet.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 30th of 2014

2014 March 30

Io in True Color
Image Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. This picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active volcanoes. The intense tidal gravity of Jupiter stretches Io and damps wobbles caused by Jupiter's other Galilean moons. The resulting friction greatly heats Io's interior, causing molten rock to explode through the surface. Io's volcanoes are so active that they are effectively turning the whole moon inside out. Some of Io's volcanic lava is so hot it glows in the dark.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 29th of 2014

Île Europa Atoll

March 29, 2014

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March 29, 2014

Île Europa Atoll

Photograph by Thomas Peschak, National Geographic

Few divers ever explore the reefs around the Île Europa atoll, which lies in a stretch of the Mozambique Channel known for its massive eddies, productive nutrient upwellings, meandering currents—and spectacular surf.
See more pictures from the April 2014 feature story “A Tale of Two Atolls.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 29th of 2014

2014 March 29

A Milky Way Dawn
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN), ESO Ultra HD Expedition Explanation: As dawn broke on March 27, the center of the Milky Way Galaxy stood almost directly above the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. In the dry, clear sky of Chile's Atacama desert, our galaxy's dusty central bulge is flanked by Paranal's four 8 meter Very Large Telescope units in this astronomical fisheye view. Along the top, Venus is close to the eastern horizon. The brilliant morning star shines very near a waning crescent Moon just at the edge of one of the telescope structures. Despite the bright pairing in the east, the Milky Way dominates the scene though. Cut by dust lanes and charged with clouds of stars and glowing nebulae, the center of our galaxy sprawls across the darker zenith even as the deep blue sky grows brighter and buildings still glint in moonlight.

National Geographoc Photo of the Day: March 28th of 2014

Break Time

March 28, 2014

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March 28, 2014

Break Time

Photograph by Karine Gabrielian, National Geographic Your Shot

"This photo was taken at the break wall at Marina del Rey in southern California," says Your Shot member Karine Gabrielian. "It's a hot spot for brown pelicans, seagulls, and other birds. The excretion patterns that cover the rocks of the break wall create the impression of artwork. The scenery changes every minute: You see birds landing, taking off, thinking, relaxing, and talking to each other."
Gabrielian, whose picture was a recent Daily Dozen selection, says one can spend hours watching the birds. "It's impossible to resist the temptation to take hundreds of photos, even if you're not a professional photographer. Since I'm not a professional, I didn't use any specific technique knowingly. I just put into it lots of emotions and feelings."
This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 28th of 2014

2014 March 28

Stripping ESO 137-001
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC Explanation: Spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 hurtles through massive galaxy cluster Abell 3627 some 220 million light years away. The distant galaxy is seen in this colorful Hubble/Chandra composite image through a foreground of the Milky Way's stars toward the southern constellation Triangulum Australe. As the spiral speeds along at nearly 7 million kilometers per hour, its gas and dust are stripped away when ram pressure with the cluster's own hot, tenuous intracluster medium overcomes the galaxy's gravity. Evident in Hubble's near visible light data, bright star clusters have formed in the stripped material along the short, trailing blue streaks. Chandra's X-ray data shows off the enormous extent of the heated, stripped gas as diffuse, darker blue trails stretching over 400,000 light-years toward the bottom right. The significant loss of dust and gas will make new star formation difficult for this galaxy. A yellowish elliptical galaxy, lacking in star forming dust and gas, is just to the right of ESO 137-001 in the frame.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: MArch 27th of 2014

A Walk About Paris

March 27, 2014

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March 27, 2014

A Walk About Paris

Photograph by Oliver Kremer, National Geographic Your Shot

While preparing for a tough business week in Paris, IT professional Oliver Kremer decided to take a walk through the city for a boost of energy. "On the Pont Alexandre III, I rested for a while watching the Eiffel Tower cast this fantastic light on the foggy sky. I couldn't stop watching it." It took more than an hour to capture the photo at the precise time that the tower's lights pointed toward the sculptures on the bridge.
For Kremer, it was a life-changing moment. "I've quit my well-paid job to start all over and create a photography business, hoping that I'm able to make a living for my family and me. One of the first things I did was to pull out this very special photograph from my archives and share it with the community—it was the ignition for the move I made."
Kremer's picture was one of 19 selected for the final story in the I Heart My City assignment.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 27th of 2014

2014 March 27

Stephan's Quintet Plus One
Image Assembly & Processing: Robert Gendler and Judy Schmidt
Image Data: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Legacy Archive, R. Gendler Explanation: The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this remarkable image constructed with data drawn from Hubble Legacy Archive and the Subaru Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea. The galaxies of the quintet are gathered near the center of the field, but really only four of the five are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters taking place some 300 million light-years away. The odd man out is easy to spot, though. The interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318A, 7318B, and 7317 have a more dominant yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and tails, grown under the influence of disruptive gravitational tides. The mostly bluish galaxy, NGC 7320, is in the foreground about 40 million light-years distant, and isn't part of the interacting group. Still, captured in this field above and to the left of Stephan's Quintet is another galaxy, NGC 7320C, that is also 300 million light-years distant. Of course, including it would bring the four interacting galaxies back up to quintet status. Stephan's Quintet lies within the boundaries of the high flying constellation Pegasus. At the estimated distance of the quintet's interacting galaxies, this field of view spans over 500,000 light-years.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 26th of 2014

Deserted Palms

March 26, 2014

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March 26, 2014

Deserted Palms

Photograph by Bill Brewer, National Geographic Your Shot

"This group of palms was planted as part of a planned real estate project in Lucerne Valley, a small town in the California desert," says Your Shot member Bill Brewer. "The development failed and years later these dead palms remain. I've shot this group of palms a few times, but never at night. [The night I shot this] I was returning home after shooting along old Route 66 and had driven up on these old friends. The palms were lit by a combination of moonlight and a streetlight. The artificial lighting gives the palms a weird glamour."
Brewer's picture was recently selected for the Your Shot Daily Dozen.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 26th of 2014

2014 March 26

M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds
Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Sharp Explanation: An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78 and other bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion. The dark filamentary dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects the light of several bright blue stars that formed recently in the nebula. Of the two reflection nebulas pictured above, the more famous nebula is M78, in the image center, while NGC 2071 can be seen to its lower left. The same type of scattering that colors the daytime sky further enhances the blue color. M78 is about five light-years across and visible through a small telescope. M78 appears above only as it was 1600 years ago, however, because that is how long it takes light to go from there to here. M78 belongs to the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that contains the Great Nebula in Orion and the Horsehead Nebula.

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The One Show Part One

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 25th of 2014

See Through

March 25, 2014

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March 25, 2014

See Through

Photograph by Hugh Turvey

British artist and photographer Hugh Turvey uses x-ray technology to create what he calls Xograms, a fusion of visible light and x-ray imagery. Here, he captures a swimming goldfish.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 25th of 2014

2014 March 25

Orion Nebula in Surrounding Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Fields Explanation: What surrounds a hotbed of star formation? In the case of the Orion Nebula -- dust. The entire Orion field, located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and picturesque filaments of dust. Opaque to visible light, dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of particles. The Trapezium and other forming star clusters are embedded in the nebula. The intricate filaments of dust surrounding M42 and M43 appear gray in the above image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in brown and blue. Over the next few million years much of Orion's dust will be slowly destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the Galaxy.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 24th of 2014

En Fuego

March 24, 2014

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March 24, 2014

En Fuego

Photograph by Diego Fabriccio Diaz Palomo, National Geographic Your Shot

"I was standing at the top of Guatemala's Acatenango Volcano watching the stars and the city lights from almost 4,000 meters above sea level," says Your Shot contributor Diego Fabriccio Diaz Palomo, a native of Guatemala who climbs the volcano every year. "That was when the Fuego Volcano literally exploded. I start running with a friend for probably half a mile to get to the right spot to shoot the lava. I almost fell down the cliff because I had to be in a really complicated spot to get the right composition."
Diaz Palomo took two long-exposure photos at 90 seconds each. At second 87 of the second shot, lightning appeared in a far cloud on the horizon. "I was without words," he says. "It was indescribable."
Diaz Palomo's picture was published in the recent Moment assignment on Your Shot.
This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 24th of 2014

2014 March 24

Orion and Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Þorvarður Árnason Explanation: If you see a sky like this -- photograph it. A month ago in Iceland, an adventurous photographer chanced across a sky full of aurora and did just that. In the foreground lies the stratovolcano Öræfajökull. In the background, among other sky delights, lies the constellation of Orion, visible to the aurora's left. Auroras are sparked by energetic particles from the Sun impacting the magnetic environment around the Earth. Resultant energetic particles such as electrons and protons rain down near the Earth's poles and impact the air. The impacted air molecules obtain excited electrons, and when electrons in oxygen molecules fall back to their ground state, they emit green light. Auroras are known to have many shapes and colors.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 23rd of 2014

The Other Underground

March 23, 2014

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March 23, 2014

The Other Underground

Photograph by Mike Deere, National Geographic Your Shot

"I've long held a fascination with unseen spaces, and when I first heard about the vast number of lost rivers in London, it really piqued my interest," says Your Shot contributor Mike Deere, whose photo was selected for the Daily Dozen. "While researching, I came across a very small subculture with similar interests to my own, a small band of curious individuals excited to see the hidden depths that exist so close to our everyday lives but remain all but forgotten."
Deere captured this photo at the junction between the River Westbourne, which was assimilated into the London sewer network during its construction in the 19th century, and the Ranelagh Storm Relief Sewer.
"With lighting options very limited in the narrow, pitch-black tunnels, I opted for backlighting to highlight the shape of the space and the texture of the Victorian brickwork," Deere says.
This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 23rd of 2014

2014 March 23

The View Near a Black Hole
Illustration Credit: April Hobart, CXC Explanation: In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole. Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely attributes. The gas surrounding GRO J1655-40, for example, has been found to display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second. Given a previous mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our Sun, the rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating very rapidly. What physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) -- in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 22nd of 2014

Atoll Tale

March 22, 2014

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March 22, 2014

Atoll Tale

Photograph by Thomas Peschak, National Geographic

Young Galápagos sharks—found around tropical oceanic reefs worldwide—nose the camera in the lagoon of the Bassas da India atoll. A protected home for the sharks, Bassas is one of two tiny French territories tucked between Madagascar and southern Africa. The other, Île Europa, is a vital breeding area for endangered green turtles.
See more pictures from the April 2014 feature story “A Tale of Two Atolls.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 22nd of 2014

2014 March 22

Martian Chiaroscuro
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA Explanation: Deep shadows create dramatic contrasts between light and dark in this high-resolution close-up of the martian surface. Recorded on January 24 by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the scene spans about 1.5 kilometers across a sand dune field in a southern highlands crater. Captured when the Sun was just 5 degrees above the local horizon, only the dune crests are caught in full sunlight. With the long, cold winter approaching the red planet's southern hemisphere, bright ridges of seasonal frost line the martian dunes.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 21st of 2014

Row Up

March 21, 2014

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March 21, 2014

Row Up

Photograph by Maqsood Bhat, National Geographic Your Shot

"On the first day of snowfall in the Kashmir valley this year, I decided to survey life on the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar early in the morning," says Your Shot contributor Maqsood Bhat. "While rowing my boat in the backwaters of the lake, I suddenly saw a little shop toward which a man was rowing his boat for some purchases. It was the only shop around, and it seemed to me that everyone was dependent on that little market for their supplies."
This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.