National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 8th of 2014

The Square

March 8, 2014

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March 8, 2014

The Square

Photograph by Jeff Oftedahl, National Geographic Your Shot

“The largest square in North Korea, the giant Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang is an expansive urban space used for massive collective exercises, including mass dances, parades, and demonstrations of loyalty to the leaders of the country whose portraits watch over the space,” says Jeff Oftedahl, a member our Your Shot community.
“Everything is highly structured in North Korea—one can only go where the guides allow. On this particular day we were visiting a monument overlooking the square, which was a sight to behold. Everything is built to be impressive and to position the leadership over the people, and the people walking under the illuminated photographs really emphasized this point. I zoomed in to fill the frame with the square, showing how tiny the people truly are in comparison.”
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 8h of 2014

2014 March 8

Mount Sharp on the Horizon
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSL, Navcam Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses (red for the left eye) and look out over this expansive martian landscape. The panoramic stereo view is composed of images from the roving Curiosity's Navcam taken at a rest stop during a 100 meter drive on Sol 548 (February 19). The 5.5 kilometer high peak of Mount Sharp, also known as Aeolis Mons, is on the horizon, its base a destination for Curiosity. In the foreground are rows of striated rocks along the Junda outcrop. Centered toward the south-southeast the scene spans 160 degrees. (Another Navcam image here looks back along Curiosity's route at the end of the Sol's drive on Mars.)

PIXIES - GREENS AND BLUES

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 7th of 2014

Royal Crest

March 7, 2014

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March 7, 2014

Royal Crest

Photograph by Andrew Snyder, National Geographic Your Shot

“For the last three years, I have spent my summers conducting biodiversity surveys with a team of other biologists and research assistants in the rain forests of Guyana,” says Your Shot contributor Andrew Snyder, whose picture was featured in the Daily Dozen. “For our bird surveys, we set up a series of mist nets through the understory, and this Amazonian royal flycatcher was one of the birds caught [over the] summer. From previous experience, I knew that this species typically puts on its remarkable crest displays when handled, so while the team was taking their necessary measurements, I was able to make this photograph.”
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 7th of 2014

2014 March 7

A View from the Zone
Image Credit & Copyright: Jack Fusco Explanation: Brilliant Venus and the central Milky Way rise in the early morning hours of March 1 in this sea and skyscape. The scene looks out from a beach at Sea Isle City, New Jersey, USA, planet Earth. Of course, Earth orbits well within the solar system's habitable zone, that Goldilocks region not too close and not too far from the Sun where surface temperatures can support liquid water. Similar in size to Earth, Venus lies just beyond the inner boundary of the habitable zone. The watery reflection of light from our inhospitable sister planet is seen along a calm, cold ocean and low cloud bank.

First Look At Andre Benjamin as Jimi Hendrix in 'All is By My Side' clip

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 6th of 2014

Holy Water

March 6, 2014

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March 6, 2014

Holy Water

Photograph by Giancarlo Zuccarone, National Geographic Your Shot

“Pushkar Lake is situated in the heart of town,” says Your Shot member Giancarlo Zuccarone, who submitted this photo to the I Heart My City assignment. “The waters of this lake possess a spiritual quality for Hindu people. Many Hindu pilgrims come here from every part of India every day.” Zuccarone had been spending the day shooting portraits of sadhus and decided to capture the atmosphere around the sacred lake. “I remember the sky was clear and the sun shone on everything—a moment of a lifetime.”
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 6th of 2014

2014 March 6

NGC 1333 Stardust
Image Credit & Copyright: Al Howard Explanation: NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. This striking close-up view spans about two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with hints of contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago.

Rush: Between the Sun and Moon

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 5th of 2014

La Payunia

March 5, 2014

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March 5, 2014

La Payunia

Photograph by Albert Claveria, National Geographic Your Shot

"La Payunia is a vast region located in the department of Malargüe, south of the province of Mendoza in Argentina,” says Albert Claveria, a member of National Geographic Your Shot. “This place is considered one of the most extensive volcanic fields in South America. The volcanological diversity makes the region a paradise for experts.”
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 5th of 2014

2014 March 5

Globules in the Running Chicken Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Vanderhaven Explanation: The eggs from this chicken may form into stars. The above pictured emission nebula, cataloged as IC 2944, is called the Running Chicken Nebula for the shape of its greater appearance. The image was taken recently from Siding Spring Observatory in Australia and presented in scientifically assigned colors. Seen near the center of the image are small, dark molecular clouds rich in obscuring cosmic dust. Called Thackeray's Globules for their discoverer, these "eggs" are potential sites for the gravitational condensation of new stars, although their fates are uncertain as they are also being rapidly eroded away by the intense radiation from nearby young stars. Together with patchy glowing gas and complex regions of reflecting dust, these massive and energetic stars form the open cluster Collinder 249. This gorgeous skyscape spans about 70 light-years at the nebula's estimated 6,000 light-year distance.

GEORGE CLINTON And FUNKADELIC at Montreux Part 2

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 4th of 2014

Breaking the Ice

March 4, 2014

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March 4, 2014

Breaking the Ice

Photograph by Wesley Thomas Wong, National Geographic Your Shot

“I was looking for people pulling ice out of the frozen Songhua River, and I walked for about five miles alone on the river before I spotted this team working the ice,” says Your Shot contributor Wesley Thomas Wong, who has been working on a project about ice workers in Harbin, China, for four years.
“I made several trips to various ice festival sites under construction in and around Harbin. I wanted to find out where these guys were getting these huge blocks of ice for construction material, and I learned that all of it came from one place—the river.”
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 4th of 2014

2014 March 4

Sun and Prominence
Image Credit & Copyright: jp-Brahic Explanation: Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. Such was the case last week as a large prominence, visible above, highlighted a highly active recent Sun. A waving sea of hot gas is visible in the foreground chromosphere in great detail as it was imaged in one specific color of light emitted by hydrogen. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun's magnetic field. The Earth, illustrated in the inset, is smaller than the prominence. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the photosphere below them. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System, some of which may strike the Earth and trigger auroras.

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Arctic Monkeys - Arabella (Official Video)

National Geographic Photo of the Day: MArch 3rd of 2014

Pursued

March 3, 2014

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March 3, 2014

Pursued

Photograph by Brian Skerry, National Geographic

A voracious predator, the bluefin tuna feeds mainly on small fish, crustaceans, and squid. But it too is pursued relentlessly as the human appetite for its flesh continues to grow.
See more pictures from the March 2014 feature story “Quicksilver.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: MArch 3rd of 2014

2014 March 3

Habitable Worlds
Image Credit & Licence: Planetary Habitability Laboratory (UPR Arecibo) Explanation: Is Earth the only known world that can support life? In an effort to find life-habitable worlds outside our Solar System, stars similar to our Sun are being monitored for slight light decreases that indicate eclipsing planets. Many previously-unknown planets are being found, including over 700 worlds recently uncovered by NASA's Kepler satellite. Depicted above in artist's illustrations are twelve extrasolar planets that orbit in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These exoplanets have the right temperature for water to be a liquid on their surfaces, and so water-based life on Earth might be able to survive on them. Although technology cannot yet detect resident life, finding habitable exoplanets is a step that helps humanity to better understand its place in the cosmos.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: Marchv 2nd of 2014

Native Stand

March 2, 2014

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March 2, 2014

Native Stand

Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic

In the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage area, stands of rimu trees, a type of conifer found only in New Zealand, are a signature of Gondwana, the supercontinent that fragmented into the landmasses of today’s Southern Hemisphere.
See more pictures from the March 2014 feature story “Where Greenstone Grows.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 2nd of 2014

2014 March 2

Martian Sunset
Image Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Texas A&M, Cornell, JPL, NASA Explanation: What would it be like to see a sunset on Mars? To help find out, the robotic rover Spirit was deployed in 2005 to park and watch the Sun dip serenely below the distant lip of Gusev crater. Colors in the above image have been slightly exaggerated but would likely be apparent to a human explorer's eye. Fine martian dust particles suspended in the thin atmosphere lend the sky a reddish color, but the dust also scatters blue light in the forward direction, creating a bluish sky glow near the setting Sun. Because Mars is farther away, the Sun is less bright and only about two thirds the diameter it appears from Earth. Images like this help atmospheric scientists understand not only the atmosphere of Mars, but atmospheres across the Solar System, including our home Earth.

Beach Boys Play Their Classics

National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 1st of 2014

Shadow Figure

March 1, 2014

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March 1, 2014

Shadow Figure

Photograph by Cristian Munteanu, National Geographic Your Shot

A man's shadow is cast on a wall in Bucharest, Romania. Your Shot contributor Cristian Munteanu had already had the photo in mind after seeing the graffiti, the shadow of the pole, and the road signs, and was convinced that a looming human shadow on the wall would complete the composition. "It was the golden hour on a February afternoon, when the light was very silky but not as warm as it is in summer," writes Munteanu. "I looked for an angle [then] waited for the right subject … After 15 to 20 minutes, my patience was rewarded when the man with the hat came walking on the sidewalk—I knew his shadow was the one I was looking for."
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 1st of 2014

2014 March 1

NGC 7331 and Beyond
Image Credit & Copyright: Dietmar Hager, Torsten Grossmann Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. The effect is further enhanced in this sharp image by galaxies that lie beyond the gorgeous island universe. The background galaxies are about one tenth the apparent size of NGC 7331 and so lie roughly ten times farther away. Their close alignment on the sky with NGC 7331 occurs just by chance. Seen here through faint foreground dust clouds lingering above the plane of Milky Way, this visual grouping of galaxies is also known as the Deer Lick Group.