Friday, July 31, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 30th of 2015
The ISS and a Colorful Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Dylan O'Donnell
Explanation: Tonight's Full Moon, the second Full Moon in July, could be called a blue moon according to modern folklore. But this sharp and detailed mosaic, recorded with telescope and digital camera just before July's first Full Moon, actually does show a colorful lunar surface. The colors have been enhanced in the processed image but are real nonetheless, corresponding to real differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface. Also easy to see especially when the Moon is near full phase, bright rays from 85 kilometer wide Tycho crater at the upper right extend far across the lunar surface. Against the southern lunar highlands above and right of Tycho is an amazingly detailed silhouette of the International Space Station. Seen from Byron Bay, NSW Australia on June 30, the ISS lunar transit lasted about 1/3 of a second, captured with a fast shutter speed in burst mode.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 30th of 2015
July 31, 2015
Elephants on Parade
Photograph by Daniel Pinheiro, National Geographic Your Shot
In the first morning light, female elephants and their young cross the plains of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park to feed in the marshes, says Your Shot member Daniel Pinheiro. Mount Kilimanjaro and its famed mantle of snow looms behind.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 30th of 2015
Milky Way over Uluru
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)
Explanation: The central regions of our Milky Way Galaxy rise above Uluru/Ayers Rock in this striking night skyscape. Recorded on July 13, a faint airglow along the horizon shows off central Australia's most recognizable landform in silhouette. Of course the Milky Way's own cosmic dust clouds appear in silhouette too, dark rifts along the galaxy's faint congeries of stars. Above the central bulge, rivers of cosmic dust converge on a bright yellowish supergiant star Antares. Left of Antares, wandering Saturn shines in the night.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 30th of 2015
July 30, 2015
Passing By
Photograph by Peter Svoboda, National Geographic Your Shot
Passionate ski mountaineer and Your Shot member Peter Svoboda loves minimalist compositions in his winter-themed mountain photography. Svoboda saw this scene unfold from about a mile away on the summit of Kreuzkogel in the Austrian Alps. “The angle of [the] slope ... and [the] afternoon sun created rather attractive shapes at first sight,” he writes. “I was waiting on the top of the mountain and took some pictures with the lonely tree. But it was not enough for me.” After he’d photographed a group of skiers who were enjoying the deep powder, this lone figure “was like icing on the cake,” he writes. “The mood was there.”
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 29th of 2015
The Deep Lagoon
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, Univ. Arizona
Explanation: Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, The bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant. But it still makes for a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dominated by the telltale red emission of ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with stripped electrons, this stunning, deep view of the Lagoon's central reaches is about 40 light-years across. Near the center of the frame, the bright hourglass shape is gas ionized and sculpted by energetic radiation and extreme stellar winds from a massive young star.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 29th of 2015
July 29, 2015
Painting With Land
Photograph by Tuan Guitare, National Geographic Your Shot
Terraced rice fields are seen from above in Lao Cai Province in northern Vietnam. Rice is one of the country’s key exports.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 28th of 2015
Rainbows and Rays over Bryce Canyon
Image Credit & Copyright: John Rummel
Explanation: What's happening over Bryce Canyon? Two different optical effects that were captured in one image taken earlier this month. Both effects needed to have the Sun situated directly behind the photographer. The nearest apparition was the common rainbow, created by sunlight streaming from the setting sun over the head of the photographer, and scattering from raindrops in front of the canyon. If you look closely, even a second rainbow appears above the first. More rare, and perhaps more striking, are the rays of light that emanate out from the horizon above the canyon. These are known as anticrepuscular rays and result from sunlight streaming though breaks in the clouds, around the sky, and converging at the point 180 degrees around from the Sun. Geometrically, this antisolar point must coincide with the exact center of the rainbows. Located in Utah, USA, Bryce Canyon itself contains a picturesque array of ancient sedimentary rock spires known as hoodoos.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 28th of 2015
July 28, 2015
The People’s Pope
Photograph by Dave Yoder
At a general audience in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Pope Francis rides in a popemobile without the protection of bulletproof glass. The pontiff wandered freely when he was a cardinal in Buenos Aires but cannot do so in Rome for his own safety.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 27th of 2015
Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
Image Credit & Copyright: LI Hang
Explanation: It has been one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica, not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China's Zhongshan Station, people sometimes venture out into the cold to photograph a spectacular night sky. The featured image from one such outing was taken in mid-July, just before the end of this polar night. Pointing up, the wide angle lens captured not only the ground at the bottom, but at the top as well. In the foreground is a colleague also taking pictures. In the distance, a spherical satellite receiver and several windmills are visible. Numerous stars dot the night sky, including Sirius and Canopus. Far in the background, stretching overhead from horizon to horizon, is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Even further in the distance, visible as extended smudges near the top, are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies near our huge Milky Way Galaxy.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 27th of 2015
July 27, 2015
Bioluminous Larak
Photograph by Pooyan Shadpoor, National Geographic Your Shot
While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran—an island in the Persian Gulf—Your Shot member Pooyan Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of [the] plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot,” he writes.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 26th of 2015
The Sombrero Galaxy from Hubble
Image Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI /NASA)
Explanation: Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero's unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above photograph shows many points of light that are actually globular clusters. M104's spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars, and show intricate details astronomers don't yet fully understand. The very center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, and is thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light from the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of Virgo.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 26th of 2015
July 26, 2015
Audience Unmasked
Photograph by Austin Beahm, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Austin Beahm, a Latin American geography lecturer, uses photography to connect students to the beauty of the region he loves. Here, young folk dancers are juxtaposed with older onlookers at the four-day Señor de Choquekillca festival in the Andean town of Ollantaytambo, Peru. “While they are separated by two generations or even more, they still share the cohesive bond of tradition so common to villages in the Andes,” Beahm writes.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 25th of 2015
Infrared Trifid
Image Credit: J. Rho (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA
Explanation: The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. As seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500 light-years away.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 25th of 2015
July 25, 2015
Black-Hat Dancer
Photograph by Vincent Roazzi Jr., National Geographic Your Shot
A monk pauses for a breath before dancing out into the crowd at the annual Black-Necked Crane Festival in central Bhutan. The festival celebrates “the auspicious migration of the endangered black-necked crane from Tibet to Bhutan in the winter months,” writes Your Shot member Vincent Roazzi, who captured the monk before the traditional black-hat dance at the Gangtey Monastery. “I tried to find a unique perspective on the festival dances by going behind the scenes and venturing inside Gangtey Monastery, where I found monks preparing intricate costumes for masked dances,” he writes.
Friday, July 24, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 24th of 2015
Ultraviolet Rings of M31
Image Credit: GALEX, JPL-Caltech, NASA
Explanation: A mere 2.5 million light-years away the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. So close and spanning some 260,000 light-years, it took 11 different image fields from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite's telescope to produce this gorgeous portrait of the spiral galaxy in ultraviolet light. While its spiral arms stand out in visible light images of Andromeda, the arms look more like rings in the GALEX ultraviolet view, a view dominated by the energetic light from hot, young, massive stars. As sites of intense star formation, the rings have been interpreted as evidence Andromeda collided with its smaller neighboring elliptical galaxy M32 more than 200 million years ago. The large Andromeda galaxy and our own Milky Way are the most massive members of the local galaxy group.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 24th of 2015
July 24, 2015
Over Yellowstone
Photograph by Eric Smith, National Geographic Your Shot
The day Your Shot member Eric Smith first walked the path around Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring, he made an addition to his bucket list: photographing the spring from the air. “I made that dream a reality as I took off in a helicopter from Bozeman, Montana, and flew to the Midway Geyser Basin [where Grand Prismatic is located] to get the 50-megapixel shots I had always seen in my mind,” he writes. “It was even more spectacular than I could have imagined ... The final composition juxtaposes humanity with one of America's most incredible natural treasures.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 23rd of 2015
Comet PanSTARRS, Moon, and Venus
Image Credit & Copyright: Amit Kamble (Auckland Astronomical Society); Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: It is the object to the left of the big tree that's generating much recent excitement. If you look closely, there you can see Comet PanSTARRS, complete with two tails. During July, this comet has increased markedly in brightness and has just passed its closest approach to Earth. The statuesque tree in the center is a Norfolk Island Pine, and to either side of this tree are New Zealand Pohutukaw trees. Over the trees, far in the distance, are bright Venus and an even brighter crescent Moon. If you look even more closely, you can find Jupiter hidden in the branches of the pine. The featured image was taken a few days ago in Fergusson Park, New Zealand, looking over Tauranga Harbour Inlet. In the coming days and weeks, Comet C/2014 Q1 (PANSTARRS) will slowly move away from the Sun and the Earth, drift deep into southern skies, and fade.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July23rd of 2015
July 23, 2015
The Boatman
Photograph by Sirsendu Gayen, National Geographic Your Shot
“It was just before the autumn in Bengal, when I was searching for kash flower[s] here and there,” writes Sirsendu Gayen, a member of our Your Shot community. “On receiving positive news from my friend ... I managed to travel by a country boat through the Ganges beside Mayapur in [the] Nadia district of West Bengal. To my utter surprise it was a rainy day. The sky was fully covered with dark cloud[s]. Naturally, I was not at all happy with it. So I thought to capture something different, and ultimately I shot this picture, where I have tried to demonstrate the breaking of [a] scene down into graphic shapes and lines.”
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 22nd of 2015
Gamma-ray Rain from 3C 279
Video Credit: NASA, DOE, International Fermi LAT Collaboration
Explanation: If gamma-rays were raindrops a flare from a supermassive black hole might look like this. Not so gently falling on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope from June 14 to June 16 the gamma-ray photons, with energies up to 50 billion electron volts, originated in active galaxy 3C 279 some 5 billion light-years away. Each gamma-ray "drop" is an expanding circle in the timelapse visualization, the color and maximum size determined by the gamma-ray's measured energy. Starting with a background drizzle, the sudden downpour that then trails off is the intense, high energy flare. The creative and calming presentation of the historically bright flare covers a 5 degree wide region of the gamma-ray sky centered on 3C 279.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 22nd of 2015
July 22, 2015
The Show at Crater Lake
Photograph by Keith Marsh, National Geographic Your Shot
Specializing for the past four years in what he calls astrophotographic landscapes, Your Shot member Keith Marsh has captured the Milky Way in locations from Alaska to Cuba. He photographed Oregon’s Crater Lake looking south from the north rim, where the Milky Way is brightest. “I also wanted to have something in the foreground for additional interest and spent several hours during the day searching for just the right spot,” he writes. “As it turned out, this old dead tree is very popular with photographers, and over a period of several hours there were as many as 20 photographers huddled in this same spot.” The lights on the horizon are from Klamath Falls, Oregon, about 60 miles away.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 21st of 2015
July 21, 2015
Step Sellers
Photograph by Quang Tran, National Geographic Your Shot
In the mountain city of Dalat in southern Vietnam, women work on market steps—adapted to the sloped terrain—after a heavy shower. Your Shot member Quang Tran was walking through the city “observing people do different things to earn [a] living ... and that way I caught this moment in front of an old market.”
Monday, July 20, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 21st of 2015
Comet Tails and Star Trails
Image Credit & Copyright: Kevin Parker
Explanation: After grazing the western horizon on northern summer evenings Comet PanSTARRS (also known as C/2014 Q1) climbed higher in southern winter skies. A visitor to the inner Solar System discovered in August 2014 by the prolific panSTARRS survey, the comet was captured here on July 17. Comet and colorful tails were imaged from Home Observatory in Mackay, Queensland, Australia. The field of view spans just over 1 degree. Sweeping quickly across a the sky this comet PanSTARRS was closest to planet Earth about 2 days later. Still, the faint stars of the constellation Cancer left short trails in the telescopic image aligned to track the comet's rapid motion. PanSTARRS' bluish ion tails stream away from the Sun, buffetted by the solar wind. Driven by the pressure of sunlight, its more diffuse yellowish dust tail is pushed outward and lags behind the comet's orbit. A good target for binoculars from southern latitudes, in the next few days the comet will sweep through skies near Venus, Jupiter, and bright star Regulus.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 20th of 2015
Comet PanSTARRS and a Crescent Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)
Explanation: A comet has brightened quickly and unexpectedly. Discovered last year, Comet C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS) is expected to be visible now for a few days to the unaided eye, just after sunset, from some locations. The comet rounded the Sun on July 6 and apparently has shed quite a bit of gas and dust. Today it is now as close as it will ever get to the Earth, which is another factor in its recent great apparent brightness and the large angular extent of its tails. In the featured image taken two days ago, Comet PanSTARRS is seen sporting a short white dust tail fading to the right, and a long blue ion tail pointing away from the recently set Sun. A crescent moon dominates the image center. Tomorrow, Comet PannSTARRS will pass only 7 degrees away from a bright Jupiter, with even brighter Venus nearby. Due to its proximity to the Sun, the comet and its tails may best be seen in the sunset din with binoculars or cameras using long-duration exposures.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 20th of 2015
July 20, 2015
River of Ten Thousand Souls
Photograph by Thierry Bornier, National Geographic Your Shot
Dwellings housing Tibetan Buddhist nuns flank Yaqing Temple in China’s Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Your Shot member Thierry Bornier traveled here after learning about it from a friend. Relatively undiscovered, the place’s beauty remains untouched by modernism and tourism, he says. He spent four days near the temple to capture this image with a blue sky and big white clouds in order to give the landscape a 3-D quality.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 19th of 2015
The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral
Image Credit: GRIN, NASA
Explanation: A new chapter in space flight began this week in 1950 July with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida: the Bumper V-2. Shown above, the Bumper V-2 was an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a WAC Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 400 kilometers, higher than even Space Shuttles once flew. Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, the Bumper V-2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. Bumper V-2 rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts. Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first satellites into Earth orbit. In response in 1958, the US created NASA.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 19th of 2015
July 19, 2015
Mirrored Gazes
Photograph by Randy Olson
Lake Turkana, the world’s largest permanent desert lake, sustains the tribes in Kenya’s remote north—but projects upstream threaten its lifeblood. Here, a man sells mirrors in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. Located a hundred miles from Lake Turkana, the UN camp holds 180,000 refugees who fled conflicts in Sudan, Somalia, and other nations.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 18th of 2015
Fly Over Pluto
Video Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: It took 9.5 years to get this close, but you can now take a virtual flight over Pluto in this animation of image data from the New Horizons spacecraft. The Plutonian terrain unfolding 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) below is identified as Norgay Montes, followed by Sputnik Planum. The icy mountains, informally named for one of the first two Mount Everest climbers Tenzing Norgay, reach up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface. The frozen, young, craterless plains are informally named for the Earth's first artificial satellite. Sputnik Planum is north of Norgay Montes, within Pluto's expansive, bright, heart-shaped feature provisionally known as Tombaugh Regio for Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 18th of 2015
July 18, 2015
Warring Weather
Photograph by Paul Brooks, National Geographic Your Shot
While trying to provide storm coverage for local affiliates, Iowa storm chaser Paul Brooks followed a cell from Albia to Mount Pleasant at sunset. He captured this scene just east of Mount Pleasant—lightning to the south and a well-defined rainbow to the east—by stacking seven separate shots on top of each other, forming a composite image of the weather events. “Truly a perfect alignment of the elements,” he writes.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 17th of 2015
Charon
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Icy world Charon is 1,200 kilometers across. That makes Pluto's largest moon only about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself. Charon is seen in unprecedented detail in this image from New Horizons. The image was captured late July 13 during the spacecraft's flight through the Plutonian system from a range of less than 500,000 kilometers. For reference, the distance separating Earth and Moon is less than 400,000 kilometers. Charonian terrain, described as surprising, youthful, and varied, includes a 1,000 kilometer swath of cliffs and troughs stretching below center, a 7 to 9 kilometer deep canyon cutting the curve of the upper right edge, and an enigmatic dark north polar region unofficially dubbed Mordor.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 17th of 2015
July 17, 2015
Perfect Ride
Photograph by Massimo Rumi, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Massimo Rumi spent a month photographing on Sydney, Australia’s Bondi, Tamarama, and Bronte beaches, “where some of the best surfers can be seen when the conditions are right,” he says. He captured this “perfect ride” on the beach at Tamarama. “My goal was to freeze the subject [while] capturing the essence of motion.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 16th of 2015
50 Miles on Pluto
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: A 50 mile (80 kilometer) trip across Pluto would cover the distance indicated by the scale bar in this startling image. The close-up of the icy world's rugged equatorial terrain was captured when the New Horizons spacecraft was about 47,800 miles (77,000 kilometers) from the surface, 1.5 hours before its closest approach. Rising to an estimated 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) the mountains are likely composed of water ice. Suggesting surprising geological activity, they are also likely young with an estimated age of 100 million years or so based on the apparent absence of craters. The region pictured is near the base of Pluto's broad, bright, heart-shaped feature.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 16th of 2015
July 16, 2015
White Hot
Photograph by Elliot Ross, National Geographic Your Shot
“On a sun-bleached afternoon cresting 100ºF at White Sands National Monument [in New Mexico], I was making my way to the only shade visible,” writes Your Shot member Elliot Ross. “As I approached, out of nowhere these travelers rounded a dune and beat me to it. My frustration melted when I saw how perfectly symmetrical their vehicles made my frame. I took a dozen steps back to highlight the immensity of this surreal landscape. After a few frames, I was on my way to find new shelter.”
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 15th of 2015
Pluto Resolved
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: New Horizons has survived its close encounter with Pluto and has resumed sending back images and data. The robotic spacecraft reported back on time, with all systems working, and with the expected volume of data stored. Featured here is the highest resolution image of Pluto taken before closest approach, an image that really brings Pluto into a satisfying focus. At first glance, Pluto is reddish and has several craters. Toward the image bottom is a surprisingly featureless light-covered region that resembles an iconic heart, and mountainous terrain appears on the lower right. This image, however, is only the beginning. As more images and data pour in today, during the coming week, and over the next year, humanity's understanding of Pluto and its moons will likely become revolutionized.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 15th of 2015
July 15, 2015
Poster Dolphins
Photograph by Erika Hart, National Geographic Your Shot
A pod of spinner dolphins swims off Makua Beach, Hawaii, in this picture captured by Your Shot member Erika Hart during a solo swim. Groups of the sociable spinners can number in the thousands.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 14th of 2015
New Horizons Passes Pluto and Charon
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Will the New Horizons spacecraft survive its closest approach to Pluto and return useful images and data? Humanity will know in a few hours. Regardless of how well it functions, New Horizon's rapid speed will take it whizzing past Pluto and its moons today, with the time of closest approach being at 11:50 UT (7:50 am EDT). To better take images and data, though, the robotic spacecraft was preprogrammed and taken intentionally out of contact with the Earth until about 1:00 am UT July 15, which corresponds to about 9:00 pm EDT on July 14. Therefore, much of mankind will be holding its breath through this day, hoping that the piano-sized spacecraft communicates again with ground stations on Earth. Hopefully, at that time, New Horizons will begin beaming back new and enlightening data about a world that has remained remote and mysterious since its discovery 85 years ago. Featured above is a New Horizons composite image of the moon Charon (left) and Pluto (right) taken 3 days ago, already showing both worlds in unprecedented detail.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 14th of 2015
July 14, 2015
Chhau Dancer
Photograph by Arghya Chatterjee, National Geographic Your Shot
A costumed Chhau dancer performs in Purulia in West Bengal, India. Prevalent in eastern India, the traditional martial and dramatic art comes in several forms, one of which incorporates colorful, outsize masks such as the one seen here.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 13th of 2015
Last Look at Pluto's Charon Side
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Pluto surface is strange. As the robotic New Horizons barrels toward its closest approach to Pluto and its moons tomorrow, images already coming back show Pluto's surface to be curiouser and curiouser. The featured image, taken two days ago, shows the side of Pluto that always faces Pluto's largest moon Charon. Particularly noteworthy is the dark belt near the bottom that circles Pluto's equator. It is currently unclear whether regions in this dark belt are mountainous or flat, why boundaries are so sharply defined, and why the light regions seem to be nearly evenly spaced. As New Horizons will be flying past the other side of Pluto, this should be the best image of this distant landscape that humanity sees for a long time. Assuming the robotic spacecraft operates as hoped, images taken of the other side of Pluto, taken near closest approach, will be about 300 times more detailed
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 13th of 2015
July 13, 2015
Who’s There?
Photograph by Cezary Wyszynski, National Geographic Your Shot
“Who was knocking on my door?” This is what Your Shot member Cezary Wyszynski imagines this mouse thinking as it pokes its head from a hole. A possible culprit? Wyszynski wryly hints at the departing rat that’s slightly visible in the background.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July12th of 2015
New Horizons Launch to Pluto
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper
Explanation: Destination: Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft roared off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA in 2006 toward adventures in the distant Solar System. The craft is the fastest spaceships ever launched by humans, having passed the Moon only nine hours after launch, and Jupiter only a year later. After spending almost a decade crossing the Solar System, New Horizons will fly past Pluto on Tuesday. Pluto, officially a planet when New Horizons launched, has never been visited by a spacecraft or photographed up close. After Pluto, the robot spaceship will visit one or more Kuiper Belt Objects orbiting the Sun even further out than Pluto. Pictured, the New Horizons craft launches into space atop a powerful Atlas V rocket.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July12th of 2015
July 12, 2015
Sunblocker
Photograph by Christian Schlamann
Traveler Photo Contest entrant Christian Schlamann encountered this “very friendly and curious lionfish” in the Red Sea. Native to the reefs and rocky crevices of the Indo-Pacific, lionfish have found their way to warm ocean habitats worldwide. In the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the voracious predators are considered a destructive invasive species.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 11th of 2015
Geology on Pluto
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Pluto is coming into focus. As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft bears down on this unexplored world of the distant Solar System, new features on its surface are becoming evident. In the displayed image taken last Thursday and released yesterday, an unusual polygonal structure roughly 200 kilometers wide is visible on the left, while just below it relatively complex terrain runs diagonally across the dwarf planet. New Horizon's images and data on these structures will likely be studied for years to come in an effort to better understand the geologic history of Pluto and our Solar System. After suffering a troublesome glitch last week, New Horizons will make its historic flyby of Pluto and its moons on Tuesday.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 11th of 2015
July 11, 2015
End of the Road
Photograph by Nilton Quoirin, National Geographic Your Shot
In this picture from Your Shot member Nilton Quoirin, a worker crosses a road at a hydroelectric power plant at the Itaipu Dam on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The dam is touted as the largest generator of renewable clean energy in the world.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 10th 2015
Messier 43
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Obs.), Igor Chilingarian (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
Explanation: Often imaged but rarely mentioned, Messier 43 is a large star forming region in its own right. It's just part of the star forming complex of gas and dust that includes the larger, more famous neighboring Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula. In fact, the Great Orion Nebula itself lies off the lower edge of this scene. The close-up of Messier 43 was made while testing the capabilities of a near-infrared instrument with one of the twin 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The composite image shifts the otherwise invisible infrared wavelengths to blue, green, and red colors. Peering into caverns of interstellar dust hidden from visible light, the near-infrared view can also be used to study cool, brown dwarf stars in the complex region. Along with its celebrity neighbor, Messier 43 lies about 1,500 light-years away, at the edge of Orion's giant molecular cloud. At that distance, this field of view spans about 5 light-years.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 10th of 2015
July 10, 2015
Planet Iceland
Photograph by Sophie Carr
“This [was] taken at the volcanic beach at Stokksnes in southeastern Iceland in February 2015,” writes photographer Sophie Carr. “I used a two-second exposure to capture the water trails as the waves receded over rocks at the edge of the beach, just as the sun was setting behind me, illuminating the mighty Vestrahorn mountain and some peaks in the far distance.”
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 9th of 2015
5 Million Miles from Pluto
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: An image snapped on July 7 by the New Horizons spacecraft while just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) from Pluto is combined with color data in this most detailed view yet of the Solar System's most famous world about to be explored. The region imaged includes the tip of an elongated dark area along Pluto's equator already dubbed "the whale". A bright heart-shaped region on the right is about 1,200 miles (2,000) kilometers across, possibly covered with a frost of frozen methane, nitrogen, and/or carbon monoxide. The view is centered near the area that will be seen during New Horizons much anticipated July 14 closest approach to a distance of about 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers).
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 9th of 2015
July 9, 2015
Golden Eye
Photograph by Florence Bennett, National Geographic Your Shot
A chameleon heads for a heat lamp in Chester, England, “at an incredibly slow pace, with robotic movements,” writes Your Shot member Florence Bennett. As seen here, chameleons have two finger-like appendages on each foot, and each foot has five claws—two on one "toe" and three on the other.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 8th of 2015
In the Company of Dione
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Explanation: That is not our Moon. It's Dione, and it’s a moon of Saturn. The robotic Cassini spacecraft took the featured image during a flyby of Saturn's cratered Moon last month. Perhaps what makes this image so interesting, though, is the background. First, the large orb looming behind Dione is Saturn itself, faintly lit by sunlight first reflected from the rings. Next, the thin lines running diagonally across the image are the rings of Saturn themselves. The millions of icy rocks that compose Saturn's spectacular rings all orbit Saturn in the same plane, and so appear surprisingly thin when seen nearly edge-on. Front and center, Dione appears in crescent phase, partially lit by the Sun that is off to the lower left. A careful inspection of the ring plane should also locate the moon Enceladus on the upper right.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 8th of 2015
July 8, 2015
Skies Below
Photograph by SK JaYed, National Geographic Your Shot
With teeming skies above and below, a fisherman rows out to make his catch during the rainy season in Bangladesh. Your Shot member SK JaYed captured the shot from the top of a bridge.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 7th of 2015
The Milky Way from a Malibu Sea Cave
Image Credit & Copyright: Jack Fusco
Explanation: What’s happening outside this cave? Nothing unexpected – it’s just the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy passing by. As the Earth turns, the band of our Galaxy appears to rotate and shift along the horizon. The featured image was taken by a photographer who professes a passion for locating sea caves, and who found this spectacular grotto in Leo Carrillo State Park near Malibu, California, USA. After some planning, he timed this single shot image through the 10-meter high cave entrance to show the Milky Way far in the distance. In the foreground, several rocks about one meter across are visible. Visible in the background starscape are millions of stars including the relatively bright and orange Antares, situated just to the right of the image center.
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