Saturday, March 28, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 25th of 2015
Naked Eye Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2
Image Credit & Copyright: Ajay Talwar (The World at Night)
Explanation: It quickly went from obscurity to one of the brighter stars in Sagittarius -- but it's fading. Named Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2, the stellar explosion is the brightest nova visible from Earth in over a year. The featured image was captured four days ago from Ranikhet in the Indian Himalayas. Several stars in western Sagittarius make an asterism known as the Teapot, and the nova, indicated by the arrow, now appears like a new emblem on the side of the pot. As of last night, Nova Sag has faded from brighter than visual magnitude 5 to the edge of unaided visibility. Even so, the nova should still be easily findable with binoculars in dark skies before sunrise over the next week.
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National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 25th of 2015
March 25, 2015
Against the Wind
Photograph by Dominic Roy, National Geographic Your Shot
A snowy owl appears to fight against the elements during extreme weather conditions near Quebec City, Canada. “I knew that many snowy owls were in the area,” writes Your Shot member Dominic Roy, “but it’s not always easy to find them.”
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 24th of 2015
Powers of Ten
Video Credit & Copyright: Charles & Ray Eames (Eames Office)
Explanation: How different does the universe look on small, medium, and large scales? The most famous short science film of its generation gives breathtaking comparisons. That film, Powers of Ten, originally created in the 1960s, has now been officially posted to YouTube and embedded above. Please click the above arrow to see the nine minute movie for yourself. From a picnic blanket near Chicago out past the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, every ten seconds the film zooms out to show a square a factor of ten times larger on each side. The video then reverses, zooming back in a factor of ten every two seconds and ends up inside a single proton. The Powers of Ten sequence is actually based on the book Cosmic View by Kees Boeke in 1957, as is a similar but mostly animated film Cosmic Zoom that was also created in the late 1960s. The changing perspectives are so enthralling and educational that sections have been recreated using more modern computerized techniques, including the first few minutes of the movie Contact, and in a short digital video called The Known Universe created in 2010 for the American Museum of Natural History. Ray and husband Charles Eames, the film's creators, were known as quite visionary spirits and even invented their own popular chair.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 24th of 2015
March 24, 2015
Character Development
Photograph by Patrick Quinn, National Geographic Your Shot
Amateur opera singers transform themselves into their characters before a performance in China. “They all have day jobs and are extremely busy, but they have a passion for Hainan Opera,” writes Patrick Quinn, who submitted this picture to the recent Your Shot assignment Transitions: As the World Turns. “[This is] where they paint on masks and become someone else.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 23rd of 2015
Atlas V Launches MMS
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper (Launch Photography)
Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured above, an Atlas V rocket lifts off carrying NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission into Earth orbit 10 days ago to study the workings of the magnetosphere that surrounds and protects the Earth. From a standing start, the 300,000 kilogram rocket ship left to circle the Earth where the outside air is too thin to breathe. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth about once a week.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 23rd of 2015
March 23, 2015
Lines in the Sand
Photograph by Cezary Filew, National Geographic Your Shot
The Pan American Highway cuts a modern path past some of Peru’s ancient Nasca lines, here captured from a Cessna by Your Shot member Cezary Filew. For Filew, the mysterious lines and figures—called geoglyphs—have been a draw since childhood. “I am scared of flying, but this time ... I had to overcome it to see what I came for.”
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 22nd of 2015
A Double Eclipse of the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault
Explanation: Can the Sun be eclipsed twice at the same time? Last Friday was noteworthy because part of the Earth was treated to a rare total eclipse of the Sun. But also on Friday, from a part of the Earth that only saw part of the Sun eclipsed, a second object appeared simultaneously in front of the Sun: the Earth-orbiting International Space Station. Although space station eclipses are very quick -- in this case only 0.6 seconds, they are not so rare. Capturing this composite image took a lot of planning and a little luck, as the photographer had to dodge a series of third objects that kept, annoyingly, also lining up in front of the Sun: clouds. The above superposed time-lapse sequence was taken from Fregenal de la Sierra in southern Spain. The dark disk of the Moon dominates the lower right, while the Sun's textured surface shows several filaments and, over an edge, a prominence.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 22nd of 2015
March 22, 2015
Sacred Feathers
Photograph by Marco Vernaschi
In Argentina’s Jujuy Province, the Suris, also known as Samilantes, are a cultural group within the Quechua community. This woman is Belén Cruz. Her feathered costume represents the nandu, or rhea, sacred bird of the Suris. Photographer Marco Vernaschi’s Biophilia Foundation looks to help indigenous groups preserve their cultural heritage by developing their own local economy through native products.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 21st of 2015
Northern Equinox Eclipse
Image Credit & Copyright: Stan Honda
Explanation: Snowy and cold is weather you might expect at the start of spring for Longyearbyen on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway. But that turned out to be good weather for watching the Moon's umbral shadow race across northern planet Earth. The region was plunged into darkness for 3 minutes during the March 20 total solar eclipse while insulated eclipse chasers witnessed the dark Sun in the cold clear sky. In this well-timed snapshot captured near the end of totality, the Moon's shadow sweeps away from the horizon and the solar corona fades as the lunar disk just begins to uncover the Sun. Streaming past the Moon's edge, direct rays of sunlight create the fleeting appearance of a glistening diamond ring.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 21st of 2015
March 21, 2015
Bushfire Season
Photograph by Pierre Destribats, National Geographic Your Shot
Lightning on a stormy evening near Port Hedland, Western Australia, ignites bushfires that send up an orange glow. A common threat to safety in the province during summer months, bushfires can start without warning and move quickly through vast areas.
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 20th of 2015
Sunshine, Earthshine
Image Credit: Dylan O'Donnell
Explanation: Today's date marks an Equinox and a New Moon. Remarkably, while the exact timing of both geocentric events occur within a span of only 13 hours, the moon also reaches its new phase only 14 hours after perigee, the closest point in its orbit. That makes the Equinox New Moon the largest New Moon of 2015, though hard to see since that lunar phase presents the Moon's dark, night side to planet Earth. Still, in this well composed image of a young lunar phase from late January you can glimpse both night and day on the lunar surface, the night side faintly illuminated by Earthshine next to the day side's brightly sunlit crescent. But some will see today's Equinox New Moon in silhouette! The Equinox Solar Eclipse will be total across stretches of the Arctic Ocean, visible in partial phases from Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 20th of 2015
March 20, 2015
Fearless Symmetry
Photograph by Souvik Kundu, National Geographic Your Shot
It’s a rare and privileged experience to witness the interaction of tiger cubs in the wild, says Souvik Kundu, a member of our Your Shot photo community. After learning that a tigress had given birth to cubs in India’s Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Kundu visited the sanctuary a number of times to photograph the family. On this day his group was treated to an “unforgettable display of tender bonding,” with “the cubs engaged in several bouts of play-fighting under the watchful eyes of the mother.”
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 19th of 2015
Aurora in the Backyard
Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)
Explanation: On the night of March 17/18 this umbrella of northern lights unfolded over backyards in Vallentuna, Sweden about 30 kilometers north of Stockholm. A result of the strongest geomagnetic storm of this solar cycle, auroral displays were captured on that night from back and front yards at even lower latitudes, including sightings in the midwestern United States. A boon for aurora hunting skywatchers, the space storm began building when a coronal mass ejection, launched by solar activity some two days earlier, struck planet Earth's magnetosphere. So what's the name of the backyard observatory on the right of the wide field view? That's Carpe Noctem Observatory, of course.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March19th of 2015
March 19, 2015
Pandarama
Photograph by Marco Mattiussi, National Geographic Your Shot
In China to photograph the life of the giant panda and its environment, Your Shot member Marco Mattiussi obtained special permission to visit areas with captive-raised pandas that had been released into the wild. “For this shot I was ... [in] the right place at the right time: It was rainy and foggy, very wet weather, and the panda decided to climb a beautiful tree in front of me.”
Astronomy Picture of the Day: March 18th of 2015
Earth During a Total Eclipse of the Sun
Image Credit: Expedition 12 Crew, NASA
Explanation: What does the Earth look like during a total solar eclipse? It appears dark in the region where people see the eclipse, because that's where the shadow of the Moon falls. The shadow spot actually shoots across the Earth at nearly 2,000 kilometers per hour, darkening locations in its path for only a few minutes before moving on. The featured image shows the Earth during the total solar eclipse of 2006 March, as seen from the International Space Station. On Friday the Moon will move in front of the Sun once again, casting another distorted circular shadow that, this time, will zip over part of the north Atlantic Ocean.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: March 18th of 2015
March 18, 2015
Crabbing a Ride
Photograph by Nancy Leigh, National Geographic Your Shot
"The setting was very eerie,” writes Your Shot member Nancy Leigh. “In the darkness [of] an overcast early morning, there was a large gathering of black juvenile iguanas on the rocks of Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island in the Galápagos.” While completely surrounded by iguanas, Leigh spotted a bright-red Sally Lightfoot crab climbing onto one of the lizards. “It was a delicate balance ... acting fast to capture the moment while respecting their space and not disturbing either animal," she says.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
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