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.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 7th of 2015
July 7, 2015
Abrakolkata
Photograph by Rana Pandey, National Geographic Your Shot
Your Shot member Rana Pandey captured this picture of a woman and rabbit in Kolkata, India. Pandey’s intimate portraits of life in India can be found on our photo community.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 6th of 2015
Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi
Image Credit & Copyright: Markus Noller (Deep-Sky-Images)
Explanation: Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower center of the featured image. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula on the left. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible to the upper right of center. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: June 6th ot 2015
A Sister’s Care
Photograph by Ali Al-Zaidi
Losing a mother is especially painful for young children, and older children may take on the bulk of the responsibility afterward, writes photographer Ali Al-Zaidi. Here, a young woman cares for an infant sibling in Ethiopia. “But still the sadness shows on the little kid’s face, because something is missing, which is the mother,” Al-Zaidi writes
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 5th of 2015
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope
Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait. In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the left at 24 kilometers per second. Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. Around it are clouds of relatively undisturbed material. What set this star in motion? Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars in the sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust. The image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: June 5th of 2015
July 5, 2015
Between Land and Sea
Photograph by Abrar Mohsin
Though Dubai is known for its grandiose cityscapes, it also has a vast and awe-inspiring natural beauty, writes Abrar Mohsin, who captured this aerial view from a helicopter above the seaside UAE metropolis. “The serene turquoise water and the golden hues in the desert sand present an interesting contrast,” he writes.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: 4th of July 2015
Aurora Australis
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Schwarz (South Pole Station)
Explanation: Not fireworks, these intense shimmering lights still danced across Earth's night skies late last month, seen here above the planet's geographic south pole. The stunning auroral displays were triggered as a coronal mass ejection blasted from the Sun days earlier impacted the magnetosphere, beginning a widespread geomagnetic storm. The six fisheye panels were recorded with digital camera and battery in a heated box to guard against -90 degree F ambient temperatures of the long winter night. Around the horizon are south pole astronomical observatories, while beyond the Aurora Australis stretch the stars of the southern Milky Way.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: 4th of July 2015
July 4, 2015
Brick World
Photograph by Aditya Varma, National Geographic Your Shot
Bricks surround a young child in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. The country’s brick industry is particularly harsh on both its workers—who suffer dangerous conditions under much criticized labor practices—and the environment, consuming around 24 million tons of coal annually.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 3rd of 2015
Venus and Jupiter are Far
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Tomaszewski
Explanation: On June 30 Venus and Jupiter were actually far apart, but both appeared close in western skies at dusk. Near the culmination of this year's gorgeous conjunction, the two bright evening planets are captured in the same telescopic field of view in this sharp digital stack of images taken after sunset from Poznań in west-central Poland. In fact, banded gas giant Jupiter was about 910 million kilometers from Poland. That's over 11 times farther than crescent Venus, only 78 million kilometers distant at the time. But since the diameter of giant planet Jupiter is over 11 times larger than Venus both planets show about the same angular size. Of course, 16th century Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus would also have enjoyed the simultaneous telescopic view including Jupiter's four Galilean moons and a crescent Venus. Observations of Jupiter's moons and Venus' crescent phase were evidence for the Copernican or heliocentric model of the solar system.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 3rd of 2015
July 3, 2015
Fox Spring
Photograph by Fred Lemire, National Geographic Your Shot
A red fox levels a suspicious gaze on a spring day near Iqaluit on Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nanavut. The wide-ranging omnivore’s diverse habitats include grassland, desert, forest—and even the suburbs.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 2nd of 2015
Venus and Jupiter are Close
Composite Image Credit & Copyright: Wang, Letian
Explanation: On June 30, Venus and Jupiter were close in western skies at dusk. Near the culmination of this year's gorgeous conjunction, the two bright evening planets are captured in the same telescopic field of view in this image taken after sunset from Bejing, China. As the two bright planets set together in the west, a nearly Full Moon rose above the horizon to the south and east. Imaged that night with the same telescope and camera, the rising Moon from the opposite part of the sky is compared with the planetary conjunction for scale in the digitally composited image. The full lunar disk covers an angle of about 1/2 degree on the sky. Visible as well in binoculars and small telescopes are Venus' crescent and Jupiter's four Galilean moons. Of course, Venus and Jupiter are still close.
National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 2nd of 2015
July 2, 2015
Ballerina Rainbow
Photograph by Evelyn Reinson, National Geographic Your Shot
“The second I walked into the dressing room at the Mahaffey Theater holding my little girl's hand, I knew this setting was magic,” writes Your Shot member Evelyn Reinson, who captured this picture in St. Petersburg, Florida. “In a room that moments before was bustling with dozens of little ballerinas, the photography gods gave me minutes with only these seven.”
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