Sunday, May 31, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: MAy 31st of 2015
Supernova 1994D and the Unexpected Universe
Image Credit: High-Z Supernova Search Team, HST, NASA
Explanation: Long ago, far away, a star exploded. Supernova 1994D, visible as the bright spot on the lower left, occurred in the outskirts of disk galaxy NGC 4526. Supernova 1994D was not of interest for how different it was, but rather for how similar it was to other supernovae. In fact, the light emitted during the weeks after its explosion caused it to be given the familiar designation of a Type Ia supernova. If all Type 1a supernovae have the same intrinsic brightness, then the dimmer a supernova appears, the farther away it must be. By calibrating a precise brightness-distance relation, astronomers are able to estimate not only the expansion rate of the universe (parameterized by the Hubble Constant), but also the geometry of the universe we live in (parameterized by Omega and Lambda). The large number and great distances to supernovae measured over the past few years, when combined with other observations, are interpreted as indicating that we live in a previously unexpected universe.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 31st of 2015
May 31, 2015
The Power of Few
Photograph by Stefane Berube, National Geographic Your Shot
“The night before this photo, we tried all day to get a good photo of the endangered white rhino,” writes Your Shot member Stefane Berube, who captured this shot at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Uganda. “Skulking through the grass carefully, trying to stay 30 feet away to be safe, didn't provide me the photo I was hoping for. In the morning, however, I woke up to all three rhinos grazing in front of me.” Berube used a 50mm lens rather than a wide-angle lens or telephoto “because of its sharpness and similarity to how our eyes perceive depth in real life.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 30rh of 2015
Messier Craters in Stereo
Image Credit: Apollo 11, NASA; Stereo Image by Patrick Vantuyne
Explanation: Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier, from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by an extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by the impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 30th 2015
May 30, 2015
Model Behavior
Photograph by Justin Anantawan, National Geographic Your Shot
“I was in Kingston, Jamaica, volunteering at an HIV ward at Missionaries of the Poor and trying to learn how to do fashion photography,” writes Your Shot member Justin Anantawan. Working with amateur models, Anantawan spent the day near an abandoned fort at a beach in Port Royal, capturing this shot at sunset. “The shoot was very simple—I just bought some striped fabric and chiffon from a store in downtown Kingston, wrapped it around the men, and then let the scenery and ocean breeze do the rest of the work. The man on the right held up the chiffon, and I took around ten shots before I captured the fabric at the just the perfect moment.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 29th of 2015
Saturn at Opposition
Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Go
Explanation: Telescopic observers on Earth have been treated to spectacular views of Saturn lately as the ringed planet reached its 2015 opposition on May 23 at 0200 UT. Of course opposition means opposite the Sun in Earth's sky. So near opposition Saturn is up all night, at its closest and brightest for the year. These sharp images taken within hours of the Sun-Earth-Saturn alignment also show the strong brightening of Saturn's rings known as the opposition surge or the Seeliger Effect. Directly illuminated, the ring's icy particles cast no shadows and strongly backscatter sunlight toward planet Earth, creating the dramatic surge in brightness. Saturn currently stands in the sky not far from bright Antares, alpha star of the constellation Scorpius.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 29th of 2015
May 29, 2015
Bird Feeders
Photograph by Abderazak Tissoukai, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Abderazak Tissoukai was near Xingping in China’s Guanxi region when he captured this picture of a cormorant fisherman at sunset. “Xingping is definitely one the most beautiful places in China, with its scenic karst landscapes [and] traditional and genuine people,” he writes. Curious to learn more about the local practice of cormorant fishing—in which trained birds with snared throats capture fish they’re unable to swallow—Tissoukai took a high-speed train from Zhuhai to Xingping to shoot fishermen on the Li River. “I wanted a complete, iconic definition of cormorant fishing,” he writes.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
AStronomy Picture of the Day: May 28th of 2015
Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 4945
Image Credit & Copyright: Petri Kehusmaa, Harlingten Atacama Observatory
Explanation: Large spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this cosmic galaxy portrait. In fact, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Its own dusty disk, young blue star clusters, and pink star forming regions standout in the sharp, colorful telescopic image. About 13 million light-years distant toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus, NGC 4945 is only about six times farther away than Andromeda, the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. Though the galaxy's central region is largely hidden from view for optical telescopes, X-ray and infrared observations indicate significant high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. Its obscured but active nucleus qualifies the gorgeous island universe as a Seyfert galaxy and home to a central supermassive black hole.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 28th of 2015
May 28, 2015
Light in the Dark
Photograph by Mel Kevin Jumangit, National Geographic Your Shot
Dancers pause during the Sinulog Festival in Cebu City, the capital of the Philippine province of Cebu. The large festival of cultural and religious pageantry honors the Santo Niño, or child Jesus, whose statue is held aloft here by a colorfully costumed “queen.”
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 27th of 2015
Approaching Pluto
Video Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins U. Applied Physics Lab., Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Here comes Pluto. NASA's robotic New Horizons spacecraft is now beyond the orbit of Neptune and closing fast on the Solar System's most famous unexplored world. The featured time lapse video shows Pluto and Pluto's largest moon, Charon, orbiting their common center of mass in 13 frames taken from April 12 to April 18. Although blurry, images in the video now rival even the best images of Pluto yet taken from Earth. New Horizons remains on schedule to zoom past the distant dwarf planet on July 14.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 27th of 2015
May 27, 2015
Cow-Eyed
Photograph by Jawed Alam, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Jawed Alam was passing through a village near the Purulia district of West Bengal, India, when he saw a boy and his calf standing in a field of wildflowers. Alam saw the perfect frame in the background of colorful flowers, the boy’s yellow T-shirt, and the black calf. “I quickly adjusted my camera setting and started clicking pictures,” he writes.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 26th of 2015
Starburst Galaxy M94
Image Credit & Copyright: Leonardo Orazi
Explanation: What could cause the center of M94 to be so bright? Spiral galaxy M94 has a ring of newly formed stars surrounding its nucleus, giving it not only an unusual appearance but also a strong interior glow. A leading progenitor hypothesis holds that an elongated knot of stars known as a bar rotates in M94 and has generated a burst of star formation in the inner ring. Recent observations have revealed the outer, fainter ring is not closed and relatively complex. M94, pictured here spans about 30,000 light years, lies about 15 million light years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici).
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 26th of 2015
May 26, 2015
Staring at the Sun
Photograph by Clemens Capek, National Geographic Your Shot
A meerkat family warms up at sunrise in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. “Shortly after waking up, a meerkat family—also called a gang or mob—will warm in the sun to harvest energy for the day,” writes Your Shot member Clemens Capek. The animals are normally shy, but one family in the area became accustomed to humans in close proximity, allowing Capek to capture them in their natural surroundings.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: MAy 25th of 2015
The Galaxy Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: César Vega Toledano ; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak. From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree. Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame earlier this month and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 25th of 2015
May 25, 2015
Pure Life
Photograph by Shibasish Saha, National Geographic Your Shot
Laborers work among the dust and debris at a brick field in Kolkata, India. “Men and women work together every day to earn some money for their family,” writes Shibasish Saha, a member of our Your Shot community.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 24th of 2015
Space Shuttle Rising
Image Credit: NASA
Explanation: What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. Sometimes, if you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time, you could have seen something very unusual -- a space shuttle launching to orbit. Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after Endeavour's final launch in 2011 May. The above image was taken from a shuttle training aircraft by NASA and is not copyrighted. Taken well above the clouds, the image can be matched with similar images of the same shuttle plume taken below the clouds. Hot glowing gasses expelled by the engines are visible near the rising shuttle, as well as a long smoke plume. A shadow of the plume appears on the cloud deck, indicating the direction of the Sun. The US Space Shuttle program concluded in 2011, and Endeavour can now be visited at the California Science Center.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 24th of 2015
May 24, 2015
Cracking the Surface
Photograph by Alexey Trofimov, National Geographic Your Shot
“Ice on Lake Baikal is a very interesting phenomenon,” writes Your Shot member Alexey Trofimov. “Ice ridges, cracks, tears, hugging. All this creates unique and fantastic stories.” Trofimov spends a few months a year photographing landscapes at the lake—the world’s deepest and oldest—in southeastern Siberia. On this trip, he hoped to make an unusual picture of the ice, showing elements not normally visible. When one morning brought a strong frost and wind, which created unusual patterns in the cracks, Trofimov “had only to wait for sunrise to make this picture.”
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 23rd of 2015
NGC 7822 in Cepheus
Image Credit & Copyright: César Blanco González
Explanation: Hot, young stars and cosmic pillars of gas and dust seem to crowd into NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing star forming region lies about 3,000 light-years away. Within the nebula, bright edges and dark shapes are highlighted in this colorful skyscape. The image includes data from narrowband filters, mapping emission from atomic oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur into blue, green, and red hues. The atomic emission is powered by energetic radiation from the hot stars, whose powerful winds and radiation also sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse, but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from their reservoir of star stuff. This field spans around 40 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 7822.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 23nd of 2015
May 23, 2015
Friendly Reflection
Photograph by Pablo Ponti, National Geographic Your Shot
“It had been raining all day in Luanda, Angola, where we live,” writes Pablo Ponti, a member of our Your Shot community. “Just as the last raindrops fell and the sun broke through the clouds ... I took my daughter and her two best friends out for a snack, and when we approached a large puddle, the opportunity to show their silhouette in the water's reflection was formed in my mind. Since they are best friends, I wanted to show them in a different light, through their feet and their reflections. The kids enjoyed it, and I loved the end result.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 22nd of 2015
A Dark and Dusty Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Scott Rosen
Explanation: In the dusty sky toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy, this broad mosaic follows dark and faint reflection nebulae along the region's fertile molecular cloud. The six degree wide field of view starts with long dark nebula LDN 1495 stretching from the lower left, and extends beyond the (upside down) bird-like visage of the Baby Eagle Nebula, LBN 777, at lower right. Small bluish reflection nebulae surround scattered fainter Taurus stars, sights often skipped over in favor of the constellation's better known, brighter celestial spectacles. Associated with the young, variable star RY Tau, the yellowish nebula VdB 27 is toward the upper left. Only 400 light-years or so distant, the Taurus molecular cloud is one of the closest regions of low-mass star formation. At that distance this dark vista would span over 40 light-years.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 22nd of 2015
May 22, 2015
Mother of the Forest
Photograph by Marsel van Oosten, National Geographic Your Shot
“These baobab trees on Madagascar are up to 800 years old,” writes Your Shot member Marsel van Oosten. Locally known as “mother of the forest,” the baobab forms a micro-ecosystem of its own, supporting life for both animals and humans, van Oosten says. “Old hollow baobabs are a home to snakes, bats, bush babies, bees, and sometimes even humans. More importantly, the tree is an important source of water—it can store up to 4,000 liters of water in its trunk. For Africa, it is literally the tree of life.”
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 21st of 2015
NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA), A. Evans (U. Virginia / NRAO / Stony Brook U.)
Explanation: NGC 6240 offers a rare, nearby glimpse of a cosmic catastrophe in its final throes. The titanic galaxy-galaxy collision takes place a mere 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. The merging galaxies spew distorted tidal tails of stars, gas, and dust and undergo fast and furious bursts of star formation. The two supermassive black holes in the original galactic cores will also coalesce into a single, even more massive black hole and soon, only one large galaxy will remain. This dramatic image of the scene is a composite of narrowband and near-infrared to visible broadband data from Hubble's ACS and WPC3 cameras, a view that spans over 300,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 6240.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 21st of 2015
May 21, 2015
Goddess Dressing
Photograph by Stephanie Sinclair, National Geographic
In Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, young Newari girls called kumaris are worshipped as living goddesses. Like other kumaris, Dangol, pictured here, wears special makeup for festivals. But it’s more than makeup that changes on these occasions. Former kumaris have described feeling bigger and stronger and said that heat radiates from their foreheads.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 20th of 2015
A Cliff Looming on Comet 67P
Image Credit & Licence: ESA, Rosetta, NAVCAM
Explanation: What that looming behind this gravel-strewn hill on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko? A jagged cliff. The unusual double-lobed nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko lends itself to unusual and dramatic vistas, another of which has been captured by the Rosetta spacecraft that arrived at the comet last September. The featured cometscape, taken last October and digitally enhanced, spans about 850 meters across. Meanwhile, Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko continues to sprout jets as it nears its closest approach to the Sun in August. Along the way, Rosetta will continue listening for signals from Philae, a probe that landed on the nucleus but rebounded to an unknown surface location last November. If newly exposed to sunlight, Philae might regain enough energy to again signal Rosetta.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 20th of 2015
May 20, 2015
Market Talk
Photograph by Brian Hammonds, National Geographic Your Shot
While at the Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul, South Korea, Your Shot member Brian Hammonds was drawn to the contrast of the blues in the displays and the reds and pinks worn by the women seen here. An elevated walkway at the front of the market allowed Hammond to capture the scene from above.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 19th of 2015
Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA) Acknowledgment: J. Mack (STScI) and G. Piotto (U. Padova)
Explanation: Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel box of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104, it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with over 150 other globular star clusters. The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri) as seen from planet Earth, 47 Tuc lies about 17,000 light-years away and can be spotted naked-eye near the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan. The dense cluster is made up of hundreds of thousands of stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across. Recent observations have shown that 47 Tuc's white dwarf stars are in the process of being gravitationally expelled to the outer parts of the cluster due to their relatively low mass. Other colorful low mass stars including yellowish red giant stars are easy to pick out on the outskirts of the cluster in this recently released sharp telescopic portrait by the Hubble Space Telescope.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: MAy 19th of 2015
May 19, 2015
Dome Light
Photograph by Matthew Saville, National Geographic Your Shot
“As technology shrinks the world around us, it becomes more and more difficult to find ourselves truly lost in the outdoors,” writes Your Shot member Matthew Saville. “This makes those particular moments and scenes that much more special.” Saville captured this shot of a tent on Half Dome’s Diving Board while camping in Yosemite National Park. “Getting to the Diving Board was quite a challenge, as there is no official trail,” he writes. “For anybody who is prepared, careful, and respectful of nature, the reward is one of the most breathtaking views in all of Yosemite, in my opinion.”
Monday, May 18, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 18th of 2015
Auroras and Star Trails over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Vincent Brady
Explanation: It was one of the quietest nights of aurora in weeks. Even so, in northern- Iceland during last November, faint auroras lit up the sky every clear night. The featured 360-degree panorama is the digital fusion of four wide-angle cameras each simultaneously taking 101 shots over 42 minutes. In the foreground is serene Lake Myvatn dotted with picturesque rock formations left over from ancient lava flows. Low green auroras sweep across the sky above showing impressive complexity near the horizon. Stars far in the distance appear to show unusual trails -- as the Earth turned -- because early exposures were artificially faded.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 18th of 2015
May 18, 2015
Double Trouble
Photograph by Danielle Mussman, National Geographic Your Shot
Ethel the Great Dane attempts the impossible on a spring day in northern Kentucky. “I am constantly drawn to her eternal optimism in attempting to catch balls thrown her way, only to be defeated by her gangly legs” and just-a-beat-off timing, writes Your Shot member Danielle Mussman. “Ultimately, the photos of her missing the ball are always more amusing than those of her finally succeeding in catching it.” Mussman’s husband thought he might improve the odds by slowly tossing two balls in Ethel’s direction. “The result?” writes Mussman. “Double the confusion, double the frustration, and double the treats for our sweet girl who never gives up.”
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 17th of 2015
NGC 2440: Pearl of a New White Dwarf
Image Credit: H. Bond (STScI), R. Ciardullo (PSU), WFPC2, HST, NASA; Processing: Forrest Hamilton
Explanation: Like a pearl, a white dwarf star shines best after being freed from its shell. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a mollusk and its discarded hull would shine prettiest of all! In the above shell of gas and dust, the planetary nebula designated NGC 2440, contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars known. The glowing stellar pearl can be seen as the bright dot near the image center. The portion of NGC 2440 shown spans about one light year. The center of our Sun will eventually become a white dwarf, but not for another five billion years. The above false color image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. NGC 2440 lies about 4,000 light years distant toward the southern constellation Puppis.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 17th of 2015
May 17, 2015
Eye Sight
Photograph by Martin Oeggerli, National Geographic
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) captures the intricacies of a fruit fly’s eye. The compound eye is a tightly packed collection of single lenses that gives the fly a gridlike view of the world. Scientists suspect the bristles may help protect the lenses, which have no eyelids, from dirt and debris. Photographer Martin Oeggerli specializes in shooting very small things using an SEM at the School of Life Sciences in Muttenz, Switzerland. His images appear in the story “Bug-Eyed” in the June 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 16th of 2015
Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA
Explanation: This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the scifi novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale Watney's 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May 16th of 2015
May 15, 2015
New Bee
Photograph by Anand Varma, National Geographic
A new honeybee emerges from a brood cell. In her six-week life span, this worker bee will forage for food, make honey—and raise the next generation. Photographer Anand Varma shares the story behind creating a stunning time-lapse of developing bees on Proof.
AStronomy Picture of the Day: May 15th of 2015
Jupiter, Ganymede, Great Red Spot
Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach/SEN
Explanation: In this sharp snapshot, the Solar System's largest moon Ganymede poses next to Jupiter, the largest planet. Captured on March 10 with a small telescope from our fair planet Earth, the scene also includes Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm. In fact, Ganymede is about 5,260 kilometers in diameter. That beats out all three of its other fellow Galilean satellites, along with Saturn's Moon Titan at 5,150 kilometers and Earth's own Moon at 3,480 kilometers. Though its been shrinking lately, the Great Red Spot's diameter is still around 16,500 kilometers. Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant, is about 143,000 kilometers in diameter at its equator. That's nearly 10 percent the diameter of the Sun.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: May15th of 2015
May 16, 2015
Piercing Faith
Photograph by Avishek Das, National Geographic Your Shot
A believer pierces his face during the Hindu festival of Charak Puja in West Bengal, India. “The rituals of Charak Puja, a way to show the miracle of God, are unique and, at times, a little risky,” writes Avishek Das, who shared this photo on Your Shot. For Das, getting such a shot had its difficulties. “People are in a hurry to complete the exercise soon, and huge mass gatherings are there,” he writes.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 14th of 2015
Dwarf Planet, Bright Spot
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS/DLR/IDA
Explanation: Now at Ceres, Dawn's camera recorded this closer view of the dwarf planet's northern hemisphere and one of its mysterious bright spots on May 4. A sunlit portrait of a small, dark world about 950 kilometers in diameter, the image is part of a planned sequence taken from the solar-powered spacecraft's 15-day long RC3 mapping orbit at a distance of 13,600 kilometers (8,400 miles). The animated sequence shows Ceres' rotation, its north pole at the top of the frame. Imaged by Hubble in 2004 and then by Dawn as it approached Ceres in 2015, the bright spot itself is revealed to be made up of smaller spots of reflective material that could be exposed ice glinting in the sunlight. On Saturday, Dawn's ion propulsion system was turned on to spiral the spacecraft into a closer 4,350-kilometer orbit by June 6. Of course another unexplored dwarf planet, Pluto, is expecting the arrival of a visitor from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft, by mid-July.
National Geographic Picture of the Day: May 14th of 2015
May 14, 2015
Tale out of School
Photograph by Siddhartha Banerjee, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Siddhartha Banerjee captured this picture during recess at a secondary school in Kolkata, India. “They had their midday meals and went to play,” he writes. Suddenly, a student emerged from a classroom and leaned over to look below. “It seemed he was invisible to the rest of the students already playing, but it seemed the boy was intently watching them, as if his soul [were] already there with the boys out there.”
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: May 13th of 2015
The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Data: Giuseppe Carmine Iaffaldano; Processing: Roberto Colombari
Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex. About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous featured image combines both narrowband and broadband images.
National Geographic Picture of the Day: May 13th of 2015
May 13, 2015
Spring Powered
Photograph by Mike Frosberg
A powerful spring pushes up through the ice of a Platte River backwater in Nebraska. Photographer Mike Forsberg’s project, the “Platte Basin Timelapse," attempts to capture a watershed in motion from the mountains to the plains.
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