Astronomy Picture of the Day: October 30th of 2016

Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Image Credit: Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris) et al., ESA, NASA Explanation: Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs tomorrow, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this view of the Ghost Head Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Similar to the icon of a fictional ghost, NGC 2080 is actually a star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Ghost Head Nebula spans about 50 light-years and is shown in representative colors.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: October 29th of 2016

October 29, 2016Cloak of ColorA thick fog rolls over Sofia and appears to glow as it takes on the city’s light. Beneath the cloak of color, visitors to Bulgaria’s capital will find a lively collection of museums, galleries, restaurants, and recently excavated Roman ruins from about 2,000 years ago.
Photograph By Ivan Dimitrov, National Geographic Your Shot

Astronomy Picture of the Day: October 29th of 2016

Moonset at Whitby Abbey
Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos (GreekSky)
Explanation: October's Hunters Moon shines near the horizon, setting beyond the arches of Whitby Abbey in this eerie night scene. The moonlight partly illuminates the ruined Benedictine abbey's grounds and walls on a cliff overlooking the North Sea from England's Yorkshire coast. Fans of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula will recognize the abbey and town of Whitby as the location of the Transylvanian count's shipwrecked landing on English shores. There fiction's most famous vampire transformed into an immense dog, jumped ashore and ran up the cliff to the ruined abbey. A 360 degree panorama, the dramatic fisheye view was created from 23 digitally stitched photos.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: August 3rd of 2016

August 3, 2016

Lifting the Veil

Photograph by Jonathan Nyik Fui Tai, National Geographic Your Shot

A lacy veil of cigarette smoke encircles a man in Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. “I embarked on photography trips to inland Sarawak to seek out the native people [who] preserve their way of life,” Your Shot member Jonathan Nyik Fui Tai says. ”Many of the tribes have slowly [been] assimilated into modern society.”

Astronopmy Picture of the Day: August 3rd of 2016

Behold the Universe
Image Credit & Copyright: A. Garrett Evans; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt Explanation: What if you climbed up on a rock and discovered the Universe? You can. Although others have noted much of it before, you can locate for yourself stars, planets, and even the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. All you need is a dark clear sky -- the rock is optional. If you have a camera, you can further image faint nebulas, galaxies, and long filaments of interstellar dust. If you can process digital images, you can bring out faint features, highlight specific colors, and merge foreground and background images. In fact, an industrious astrophotographer has done all of these to create the presented picture. All of the component images were taken early last month on the same night within a few meters of each other. The picturesque setting was Sand Beach in Stonington, Maine, USA with the camera pointed south over Penobscot Bay.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 29th of 2016

July 29, 2016

Old Guard

Photograph by Javier Eduardo Alvarez, National Geographic Your Shot

“Hundreds of old cypresses guard the perimeter of Lake Camécuaro and its turquoise-colored, crystal clear water,” Javier Eduardo Alvarez writes of this photo he made of the small Mexican lake, popular for its picturesque beauty. “This place is magical.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 29th of 2016

Blue Danube Analemma
Image Credit & Copyright: György Soponyai Explanation: The Sun's annual waltz through planet Earth's sky forms a graceful curve known as an analemma. The analemma's figure 8 shape is tipped vertically at far right in this well-composed fisheye view from Budapest, Hungary. Captured at a chosen spot on the western bank of the Danube river, the Sun's position was recorded at 11:44 Central European Time on individual exposures over days spanning 2015 July 23 to 2016 July 4. Of course, on the northern summer solstice the Sun is at the top of the curve, but at the midpoints for the autumn and spring equinoxes. With snow on the ground, the photographer's shadow and equipment bag also appear in the base picture used for the composite panorama, taken on 2016 January 7. On that date, just after the winter solstice, the Sun was leaving the bottom of the beautiful curve over the blue Danube.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 12th of 2016

July 12, 2016

By a Thread

Photograph by Kieron Nelson, National Geographic Your Shot

In northern Pakistan’s Hunza region, travelers cross what’s often called the most dangerous bridge in the world: the Hussaini Hanging Bridge, which looks almost as unforgiving as the landscape around it. “[The bridge] is extremely old and very narrow,” photographer Kieron Nelson writes. “Situated high above [Borit Lake], it is missing many of the original wooden planks.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 12th of 2016

Chasing Juno
Image Credit & Copyright: Melissa Christine Kendall Explanation: Wait for me! In 2011, NASA's robotic mission Juno launched for Jupiter from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. Last week, Juno reached Jupiter and fired internal rockets to become only the second spacecraft to orbit our Solar System's largest planet. Juno, tasked with studying the jovian giant over the next two years, is in a highly elliptical orbit that will next bringing it near Jupiter's cloud tops in late August. Of course, the three-year-old pictured was not able to catch up to the launching rocket. Today, however, five years later, he is eight-years-old and still chasing rockets -- in that now he wants to be an astronaut.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 11th of 2016

July 11, 2016

Different Light

Photograph by Bin Yu, National Geographic Your Shot

Sunlight beams through a stained glass window in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, spotlighting orbs of color onto an adjacent wall. This unique building in Spain is an important archaeological example of both Christian and Muslim influences: It was a mosque in the eighth century, during the period of Moorish conquest, but claimed as a Christian cathedral in the 13th century.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 11th of 2016

Aurorae on Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Explanation: Jupiter has aurorae. Like Earth, the magnetic field of the gas giant funnels charged particles released from the Sun onto the poles. As these particles strike the atmosphere, electrons are temporarily knocked away from existing gas molecules. Electric force attracts these electrons back. As the electrons recombine to remake neutral molecules, auroral light is emitted. In the featured recently released composite image by the Hubble Space Telescope taken in ultraviolet light, the aurorae appear as annular sheets around the pole. Unlike Earth's aurorae, Jupiter's aurorae include several bright streaks and dots. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is visible on the lower right. Recent aurorae on Jupiter have been particularly strong -- a fortunate coincide with the arrival of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter last week. Juno was able to monitor the Solar Wind as it approached Jupiter, enabling a better understanding of aurorae in general, including on Earth.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: July 2nd of 2016

July 2, 2016

Timeless Temple

Photograph by Vincent J. Musi, Archaeological Site of the Acropolis, Athens

People mill around the Erechtheion, a temple to Athena erected in 421–406 B.C., which occupies the most sacred ground on Athens’s Acropolis. Ancient Greeks held festivals, sacrifices, games, and religious processions at the site; today it’s a magnet for tourists.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: July 2nd of 2016

Firefly Trails and the Summer Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Park (North York Astronomical Association) Explanation: A camera fixed low to a tripod on a northern summer's eve captured the series of images used in this serene, southern Ontario skyscape. The lakeside view frames our fair galaxy above calm water and the night's quintessential luminous apparitions. But the trails of light are neither satellite glint, nor meteor flash, nor auroral glow. In the wide-field composite constructed with four consecutive 15 second exposures, a pulsing firefly enters at the right, first wandering toward the camera, then left and back toward the lake, the central Milky Way rising in the background.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: June 14th of 2016

June 14, 2016

A Maze of Grass

Photograph by Gaston Piccinetti, National Geographic Your Shot

A herd of elephants makes its way through Botswana’s Okavango Delta. “These animals move through the shallow waters of the delta easily, leaving behind water channels which, seen from the air, form a large mosaic of green mazes,” writes photographer Gaston Piccinetti, who submitted this image to Your Shot.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 14th of 2016

The North America and Pelican Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Ezequiel Etcheverry Explanation: Here lie familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations. On the left is an emission nebula cataloged as NGC 7000, famous partly because it resembles our fair planet's continent of North America. The emission region to the right of the North America Nebula is IC 5070, also known for its suggestive outlines as the Pelican Nebula. Separated by a dark cloud of obscuring dust, the two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, the 4 degree wide field of view spans 100 light-years. This spectacular cosmic portrait combines narrow band images to highlight bright ionization fronts with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette. Emission from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen is captured in the narrow band image in scientifically assigned colors. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location.

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National Geographic Photo of the Day: June 13th of 2016

June 13, 2016

Crackling Cold

Photograph by Anton Petrus, National Geographic Your Shot

The icy surface of Russia’s Lake Baikal cracks around the rocky outcropping of Elenka Island. Photographer Anton Petrus braved winter temperatures to capture this sunset image.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 13th of 2016

Unexplained Dimmings in KIC 8462852
Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech
Explanation: Why does star KIC 8462852 keep wavering? Nobody knows. A star somewhat similar to our Sun, KIC 8462852 was one of many distant stars being monitored by NASA's robotic Kepler satellite to see if it had planets. Citizen scientists voluntarily co-inspecting the data along with computers found this unusual case where a star's brightness dropped at unexpected times by as much as 20 percent for as long as months -- but then recovered. Common reasons for dimming -- such as eclipses by orbiting planets or stellar companions -- don't match the non-repetitive nature of the dimmings. A currently debated theory is dimming by a cloud of comets or the remnants of a shattered planet, but these would not explain data indicating that the star itself has become slightly dimmer over the past 125 years. Nevertheless, featured here is an artist's illustration of a planet breaking up, drawn to depict NGC 2547-ID8, a different system that shows infrared evidence of such a collision. Recent observations of KIC 8462852 did not detect the infrared glow of a closely orbiting dust disk, but gave a hint that the system might have such a disk farther out. Future observations are encouraged and creative origin speculations are sure to continue.