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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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