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World Space Week
World Space Week
Since the first pictures arrived from the James Webb Space Telescope this July, the world has been mesmerized by the vividness, resolution, and literally otherworldly nature of the telescope"s infrared images. The JWST"s technology will revolutionize the fields of astronomy and cosmology, allowing observation of the first stars in the universe and the formation of the first galaxies. The telescope"s high infrared resolution and sensitivity may even allow it to reveal potentially habitable exoplanets.Desktop Version
New Year s Eve in Sydney, Australia
New Year s Eve in Sydney, Australia
With New Year"s Eve landing in midsummer, many Aussies choose to usher in the new year with a boat trip around beautiful Sydney Harbour to take in the annual fireworks display. With the Sydney Harbour Bridge and world-famous Sydney Opera House as a dramatic backdrop, the first fireworks show will fire off this year at 9 PM local time, followed by a second show at midnight. Australia is one of the first nations to greet the new year, and more than 1.5 million people are typically in attendance for this spectacular celebration in Sydney.Desktop Version
Happy Boxing Day!
Happy Boxing Day!
December 26 isn"t just a day for Santa to put his feet up and sleep off all those mince pies. In many British Commonwealth countries, today is known as Boxing Day, a holiday that originated in the United Kingdom. There are a few conflicting theories about its origins, but it"s generally accepted that the name derives from the giving of "boxes" to lower classes on the day after Christmas. One thing is certain—it has nothing to do with pugilism, although it has primarily become a day dedicated to sporting events and shopping, much like the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US.Desktop Version
World Otter Day
World Otter Day
Watching sea otters playing in the water is always a treat. But while they look cute, these furry critters are also the top predators in their food chain, "otterly" vital to keeping ecosystems in balance. Sea otters eat sea urchins and without them, sea urchins spread across the sea floor, destroying crucial kelp forests which provide food and shelter for many other aquatic animals. Unfortunately, sea otters are one of five otter species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Five others are listed as near-threatened and two as vulnerable. Of the 13 otter species worldwide, only the North American river otter’s population is considered to be stable. On the last Wednesday in May, World Otter Day seeks to raise awareness about the threats to otters, and how to protect them.Desktop Version
The Old City of Bern
The Old City of Bern
Welcome to a wintry wonderland in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We"re in Bern"s medieval center—the Old City—which looks much as it did when many of these buildings were constructed between the 12th and 15th centuries.Desktop Version
Beyond Walls for World Refugee Day
Beyond Walls for World Refugee Day
For World Refugee Day, we"re featuring an aerial view of "Beyond Walls," an art installation by the French artist Saype. In the span of five years, he aims to create the longest symbolic human chain around the world by constructing outdoor designs of interlaced hands just like this in over 20 cities. The first four were completed in 2019 in Paris, Andorra, Berlin and Geneva, Switzerland, shown here.Desktop Version
Málaga, Spain
Málaga, Spain
Today we"re visiting a city with over 2,800 years of history—it"s one of the oldest in Europe. Málaga is said to have been founded by the Phoenicians in 770 BCE and today its year-round exceptional weather has made it a center of tourism in Spain. Situated perfectly along the Costa Del Sol, this culturally rich mecca is visited by around 6 million tourists in an average year. If you can pull yourself away from the beautiful beaches, you"ll find yourself in a city abounding in historical architecture, museums, and restaurants featuring outstanding local seafood.Desktop Version
The artists come to Venice
The artists come to Venice
Our photo today shows a small part of artist Claudia Fontes’ sculpture called "El Problema del Caballo" (The Horse Problem). The Argentinian artist exhibited the large installation work with smashed pieces of stone surrounding the larger-than-life white horse, as if it had crashed into the exhibition space. The installation was shown in 2017 at the Venice Biennale, where artists from around the globe bring their work to show off at this every-other-year arts and culture festival in the Italian city of Venice. The Biennale is just starting up again this month, and many of the programs and exhibits will be going on through the summer and into fall.Desktop Version
Celebrate Mandela Day
Celebrate Mandela Day
Today we’re in Howick, a town near the east coast of South Africa, where this monument honors the anti-apartheid activist and South African president Nelson Mandela, who would have turned 100 today. Like Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US, Mandela Day—celebrated on Mandela’s birthday—is intended not as a holiday exactly but as a day to answer the ‘global call to action’ by finding ways to engage in service to your local community. The best part about Mandela Day? You don’t need to be from South Africa to observe the event.Desktop Version
Arches National Park, Utah
Arches National Park, Utah
This stunning structure is Delicate Arch, the most famous of 2,000 stone arches scattered around Arches National Park in Utah. It is made up of Entrada Sandstone, the grains of which once formed a massive desert. They were cemented together by minerals, forming sandstone riddled with tiny holes. Over millennia, the rain seeped in and slowly dissolved the rock from the inside, forming these eye-catching sculptures. Most of the arches in the national park are formed from Entrada Sandstone and were once buried by other rock layers. They won"t last forever, but over time, new shapes will emerge from the layers of rock below to replace them. Every year, close to 1.4 million people visit the park to see Delicate Arch and this slowly shifting landscape for themselves.Desktop Version
The lemurs of Madagascar
The lemurs of Madagascar
What better place to ring in World Lemur Day than Madagascar? The island, about the size of Texas off the coast of southeastern Africa, is the native home to lemurs. Today you"ll find over 100 species and subspecies of the critters here. Most are small, with a pointed nose, large eyes, and a tail. They mainly live in trees and can be highly social, like the ring-tailed lemurs on our homepage, or live a solo existence like the elusive aye-aye. Lemurs have opposable thumbs and five fingers with fingernails on each hand, characteristics that help secure their spot as members of the primate order of mammals. About 65 million years ago, scientists believe, lemurs drifted on rafts of vegetation from the African continent to the shores of Madagascar. Safe from competition and most predators, lemurs evolved into many highly specialized varieties and now can be found in almost all habitats on the island.Desktop Version
Dancing in The Nutcracker
Dancing in The Nutcracker
If it"s December, then countless dance companies are likely performing "The Nutcracker." The ballet has become an iconic holiday entertainment staple, produced around the world. This photo captures a scene from the 2016 production by the English National Ballet at the London Coliseum. The company has been performing "The Nutcracker" during the Christmas season since 1950.Desktop Version
It s aboat time for the Barcolana
It s aboat time for the Barcolana
Today we"re featuring an image of the Barcolana regatta, which is happening this weekend off the shore of Trieste, Italy. What makes this race so unusual—and so popular—is that it"s open to both professional and amateur sailors. Its beginning was fairly inauspicious—in 1969 only 51 boats sailed in the inaugural race. But it"s been drawing increasing numbers of sailors and spectators to Trieste each year. Last year, for the 50th anniversary of the Barcolana, 2,689 yachts raced the course and set the official record for largest sailing race in the world. Featuring a youth sailing race, an open-water swimming race, a night sailing race, music concerts, food and wine tastings, and many other events, the Barcolana offers opportunities for landlubbers and sea dogs alike to enjoy themselves during the regatta.Desktop Version
An impactful day
An impactful day
We"ll be the ones to drop the news on you: It"s Asteroid Day! Today you"re invited to explore a realm of science usually encountered only through white-knuckle action flicks: asteroid impact avoidance, or the study of what the heck we do if we spot a big chunk of space junk hurtling right at Earth. That"s right, don"t worry: People somewhere are coming up with plans for this.Desktop Version
An icy extravaganza
An icy extravaganza
We’re just outside Brainerd, Minnesota, for the Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake. Each year in late January, more than 10,000 people will come out to catch as many fish as they can—mostly walleye and northern pike, but all fish species are eligible. The contest is organized and run by volunteers exclusively, and 100 percent of the proceeds—around $150,000—goes to local charities.Desktop Version
Paleontology meets art
Paleontology meets art
Though it looks like a fresco from ancient Greece, this is the fossilized remains of a fern found in Córdoba, Spain. The fossil dates back to the Carboniferous period, roughly 350 million years ago. This is a "compression fossil"—where a small amount of the original plant material was retained with the mineral deposits that helped form the impression. Why all the paleobotany talk? It"s National Fossil Day, and we’re excited! Whether you make a trip to your local natural history museum, trek off to a national park with a fossil exhibit, or just look at fossil photos on the web, we hope you find a fun way to celebrate National Fossil Day.Desktop Version
Lunar eclipse
Lunar eclipse
If you missed the first full lunar eclipse of the year back in May, you"ll get another chance tonight as the second blood moon (as lunar eclipses are often called) of 2022 takes to the sky over the Pacific region. Tonight"s display can be seen from Asia, Australia, North America, and parts of northern Europe and South America. If you"re lucky enough to find yourself under a clear sky, the view might look something like this image, taken over Mount Crested Butte, Colorado, during the lunar eclipse of September 27, 2015.Desktop Version
San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride
San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride
We’re celebrating Pride weekend with a view onto a Beaux-Arts gem that has a prominent place in the history of gay rights and culture. Even the city of San Francisco itself has played an outsized role in fostering gay pride, community, and visibility. It’s a legacy that can be traced along the timeline of the city’s many firsts. The San Francisco Bay Area held one of the first Pride parades after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, the event that sparked the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQI+ civil rights. This is just part of the heritage that will be celebrated at San Francisco’s Pride this weekend, where people will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. A big parade is planned with vibrant displays that will decorate Market Street, continuing all the way to the Golden Gate City’s Civic Center.Desktop Version
Wind horses carry wishes for a new year
Wind horses carry wishes for a new year
For the first day of Losar, or the Tibetan New Year, we"re paying a visit to these Buddhist pilgrims at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. Losar is celebrated for 15 days, but most events occur in the first three days. They include wishing family members a prosperous year, praying at monasteries or temples, exchanging gifts, burning incense, chanting, wrestling, horse racing, and more. Celebrations for the new year end with Chotrul Duchen, or the Butter Lamp Festival. The pilgrims in today"s image are releasing prayer flags called "wind horses" or lungtas, a ritual they perform for Losar and during the rest of the year as well. Upon releasing the prayer flags, the pilgrims ask the mountain deity to "increase their fortune like the galloping of a horse and expand their prosperity like the boiling over of milk."Desktop Version
Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa, Canada
Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa, Canada
Today we"re at the iconic Rideau Canal Skateway in Canada"s capital city of Ottawa. Each winter a 4.8-mile section of the canal downtown is converted into the world"s largest—and second-longest—outdoor skating rink. Rideau was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, and most years this rink section becomes a featured attraction of Winterlude, a free annual festival that usually attracts visitors from across the country for the first three weekends of February.Desktop Version
Let’s have a ball
Let’s have a ball
You know a game must be fun if it’s stuck around for eight centuries–and that’s how long folks have been playing lawn bowling (in some form or another). It was the invention of the lawn mower in 1830, allowing for smoothly cut bowling greens, that really popularized the sport. Our homepage features the balls called ‘woods,’ or ‘bowls,’ that competitors use during game play. The objective is to roll the grapefruit-sized balls toward a smaller ball called a ‘jack,’ and points are awarded to the players who come the closest. Fancy a game?Desktop Version
Bridge of Hillsborough County
Bridge of Hillsborough County
The Hancock-Greenfield Bridge (aka County Bridge) has offered a picturesque passage over the Contoocook River in southern New Hampshire since 1937. It was built to replace another covered bridge that had been destroyed in a flood. But why even build a covered bridge? In a word, longevity. The roof and walls help protect the timber supports from rot. For comparison, an uncovered wooden bridge lasts an average of 20 years, while the covered variety can reach 100 years or more.Desktop Version
Notes from an underground lake
Notes from an underground lake
The Ruskeala Mountain Park is an eerily beautiful reminder of the booming mining industry that thrived for centuries in this area of Russia near the border with Finland. Located on the site of an abandoned marble quarry, the park opened to the public in 2005. The centuries-old quarry has been flooded with groundwater since the end of World War II, although some old buildings and kilns from the mines are still intact.Desktop Version
Celebrating women in science
Celebrating women in science
For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we"re visiting the Great Barrier Reef with oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. This photo is from the 2014 documentary film "Mission Blue," which follows Earle, a legendary marine biologist, environmentalist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. The film focuses on Earle"s campaign to create a global network of protected marine sanctuaries. Sometimes called Her Deepness, Earle has made immense contributions to science over her career. From leading groundbreaking research in deep ocean science to becoming the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle is recognized as one of the world"s preeminent oceanographers.Desktop Version
International Rock Day
International Rock Day
Today is International Rock Day and we"re giving due respect to these geologic wonders. It might seem odd to sing the praises of rock, but think about it. Rocks have been with humankind since the beginning. From tools to housing to weapons, they"ve been key to our survival. A period of our history was so reliant on rocks that it will be forever known as the Stone Age. We would not be where we are today without the many minerals found on our planet, so rock on!Desktop Version