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Jun 11, 2019Installation art turns heads

If you ever encounter a giant plastic snail in the city or an army of rainbow-colored meerkats holding sentry outside a historic building, it’s likely an art installation from the Cracking Art collective. The group uses recyclable plastic to craft vivid representations of meerkats, elephants, snails, and other natural creatures for traveling art installations in unexpected locations. The collective’s use of plastic is meant to call attention to the sometimes blurry connection between natural and artificial reality, inviting viewers to reexamine the world around them. The meerkat exhibit on our homepage took place in 2015 at Le Mans Cathedral in Le Mans, France.Desktop Version

Oct 11, 2020A monastery in the mountain

Built into the side of a mountain in the Azat Valley of Armenia, the monastery of Geghard is one of the most-visited tourist destinations in the country. The location of the monastery has been inhabited for millennia and venerated by locals since the pre-Christian era due to the spring which emanates from one of the caves in the mountainside. The monastery was originally founded in the 4th century by Saint Gregory the Illuminator—the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church—though none of the original buildings survive.Desktop Version

Aug 24, 2020Go with the rainbow flow

Today"s photo brings us to the banks of Caño Cristales, the "liquid rainbow" that cuts a prismatic path through the heart of Colombia. From June through November, when the clear water is low, the abundant underwater plants that cover the riverbed show off their red, yellow, green, and blue hues. The star of the show—especially in this photo—is Macarenia clavigera, a riverweed that ranges from bright red to deep crimson or purple depending on its intake of sun rays. In August and September, when the florid flora is at its peak, the river"s a coveted nature excursion: Because the ecosystem is so fragile, visits are limited to guided tours.Desktop Version

Jun 10, 2020The Millennium at 20

The view you"re seeing was first made possible exactly 20 years ago, but a photo from the same spot on June 10, 2000, might"ve come out a tad blurry. That"s because when the London Millennium Bridge opened to flocks of pedestrians on that date, it wobbled so much it was closed after just two days. But the bridge reopened with improvements in 2002, and today it"s stable in terms of not only lateral g-force but also photo-op popularity.Desktop Version

Aug 30, 2020Hay, what s up?

Whenever summer turns to autumn, the hay harvest is at the front of farmers" minds. To mark the change of season, we"re ambling through a hayfield full of beautifully rolled bales. This particular pastoral patch is in Jutland, the agrarian mainland of Denmark that "juts" into the North Sea. But if you could—hay presto—snap your fingers and teleport to any hayfield at sunset, you"d surely see similar neat rows of dry, amber-tinted grass.Desktop Version

Mar 4, 2021The most wonderful day of the year. Period.

Er, comma—at least it seems like that"s what we"re seeing. And just like a comma breaks up a sentence, this structure called a breakwater interrupts the Pacific Ocean, punctuating waves with a crash before they can disturb this Bali beach. Whether its resemblance to a comma (or is that an apostrophe?) was intentional or not, it"s a fine visual for today"s syntactical celebration. That"s correct: It"s Grammar Day! (Note to hardline grammarians: We know punctuation—like a comma—isn"t exactly grammar, but we"re loosening the linguistical reins a bit in the generous spirit of Grammar Day. So put that red pen down, smarty-pants.)Desktop Version

Sep 23, 2020A tree of many memories

As autumn takes hold in China, a blanket of fan-shaped golden leaves—like this one at Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing—becomes a familiar sight. And it"s been that way for longer than anyone can remember, thanks to a native tree with a lineage going back eons, the ginkgo.Desktop Version

Jun 15, 2019Pasadena Chalk Festival supports local arts education

Since 1993, the Pasadena-based nonprofit Light Bringer Project has supported arts education in the Los Angeles area by helping produce the annual Pasadena Chalk Festival. Hundreds of artists spend the weekend creating unique chalk artworks on the sidewalks of historic downtown Pasadena for this free event. Funds are raised through donations from festival attendees and proceeds from sales of artwork and a silent auction.Desktop Version

Sep 20, 2019Fall comes to Pando

All is not as it appears to be here at Pando, in Utah"s Fishlake National Forest. At first glance, visitors likely see a massive grove of quaking aspen trees, their leaves dancing in the wind. But Pando is not many trees; instead, it"s a single organism. Like many aspen groves, the 40,000 trees in Pando are genetically identical cloned stems that sprouted from the same root system. First discovered in 1968, Pando made waves in the scientific world. It"s become recognized as one of the heaviest known organisms—weighing 6,000 metric tons—and one of the oldest known living organisms. Scientists estimate its root system is upwards of 80,000 years old, having endured the last ice age and countless forest fires. It got to be so old partly because most of the organism is protected underground. So, while an individual stem can die, the organism as a whole survives.Desktop Version

Feb 13, 2020Midwinter freeze

Abiqua Falls in Oregon is a beautiful example of a basalt column amphitheater. Over 90 percent of all volcanic rock is basalt, but only a small fraction of it forms into the hexagonal columns that you see here. When molten lava hits the atmosphere, rapid cooling causes it to contract into these characteristic columns. It"s just part of what makes Abiqua Falls so spectacular.Desktop Version

Aug 13, 2020Life in the slow lane

The first humans to settle in this area of what is now southern Italy took up residence in natural caves along the walls of the ravine formed by the Gravina River. Beginning around 9,000 years ago and continuing into the 20th century, the caves were further carved and expanded by these human occupants into an elaborate settlement. It"s now called the Sassi di Matera, a pair of districts in the city of Matera, Italy.Desktop Version

Dec 25, 2021Merry Christmas

For Christmas Day, we"re taking in the winter views on Mount Khomyak in Ukraine"s Carpathian Mountains. The bright green moss and the red of the fallen leaves pop against the snowy white, as though the forest were transforming into a magical band of Christmas elves. While much of the Christian world celebrates Christmas on December 25, for those who follow Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions—including many Ukrainians—Christmas is still a couple weeks away. Eastern Orthodox Christmas celebrations are tied to the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the more universal Gregorian calendar, so Christmas Day in Ukraine will be celebrated on January 7.Desktop Version

Nov 7, 2021Mack Arch Rock

Much of the Oregon coast is characterized by colossal rock formations, known as sea stacks, jutting dramatically out of the Pacific. The sea stacks you see here run next to a grassy promontory in the southern part of the state that overlooks a mostly inaccessible stretch of coastline.Desktop Version

Nov 6, 2023Lake Pehoé, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Turquoise waters surrounded by jagged peaks and lush forests—that"s Lake Pehoé for you. Nestled in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, this glacial lake reflects the towering peaks of the Cuernos del Paine, pictured here bathed in the sun"s rays. The lake gets its color from finely ground rock particles and minerals, known as glacial flour, suspended in the water. The word "paine," pronounced pie-neh, in the park’s name is believed to have its roots in a Tehuelche word meaning "blue" while "torres" means towers. The park is named after three striking granite peaks that reach up to 8,200 feet above sea level but boasts many other spectacular mountains. At 700 square miles, Torres del Paine is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with a huge amount to offer visitors, from hiking and kayaking to stargazing. So, pack your sense of adventure and head south to beat the blues.Desktop Version

Sep 24, 2018Mooncake time

In ancient China, moon worship was tied closely to fertility and the harvest. So the full moon that happened closest to the fall equinox became the holiday now called Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Moon Festival by some. Originally a celebration of the harvest and a plea to the gods for rains to ensure a good harvest next year, the festival has become a more secular bit of autumn fun, with children and adults alike eating sweet mooncakes, lighting lanterns, and giving thanks for all they have. Really, they had us at ‘mooncake.’Desktop Version

Jun 1, 2020The largest living organism on Earth

Today marks the second-ever World Reef Day, an observance created to help focus global attention on the deteriorating health of our planet"s vital reef systems, and also to help marshal efforts to help them recover. Why should we care about the health of ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef, seen in this photo? Because reefs are an easy indicator of how healthy our oceans are. And right now, reefs aren"t doing too well. What can we do? Learn about reefs—not just the dangers that put healthy reefs at risk, but why reefs are such a critical part of Earth"s greater ecosystems.Desktop Version

Dec 3, 2021Frost on autumn leaves

You can almost hear frost-coated autumn leaves crunching under your shoes as you walk through the woods. Though the calendar says it"s still autumn, scenes like this highlight the colder temperatures as winter arrives in the Northern Hemisphere.Desktop Version

Nov 8, 2018Manatees rebound

We’re in Florida’s Blue Spring State Park for Manatee Awareness Month. As winter approaches, Blue Spring becomes a safe harbor for manatees, aka sea cows, looking for warmer inland waters. It’s also a protected area for the manatees, where they can eat and swim without fear of injury from boats. In fact, researchers identify many of the manatees in Blue Spring by the scars they bear from accidental boat collisions and motor blade cuts. Identifying individual manatees has been crucial to tracking the population rebound of this once endangered species. A 2016 census of manatees in Florida’s springs counted 6,250 of the large, surprisingly graceful beasts.Desktop Version

Oct 28, 2018Do spirits haunt the Gardens of Versailles?

That’s not a ghost in our homepage picture; it’s just a statue (at least, we think it is). But it’s easy to imagine ghosts wandering the vast gardens here at the Palace of Versailles, about 12 miles outside of Paris. One ghost in particular has a reputation for showing herself. In 1901, on a sultry August afternoon, two visitors to the Gardens of Versailles claimed to have witnessed the gardens magically transform to their 18-century grandeur. Then, they said, they encountered the ghost of Marie Antoinette, whom they spotted calmly lounging and drawing in her sketchbook. The queen of course had been guillotined a century earlier. The story was later adapted as an opera, which debuted in 1991.Desktop Version

Dec 26, 2020Happy Boxing Day!

That "Boxing Day (UK)" printed on your calendar"s December 26 square has nothing to do with the sport of boxing—although for many modern Brits, Aussies, and other denizens of the Commonwealth, the holiday"s full slate of TV sporting events is the main observance. Folks with enough post-holiday energy might even slide down the hills on the grounds of this historic estate-turned public park, Barnett Demesne, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.Desktop Version

Sep 28, 2018Southern right whales sail home to South Africa

Each year during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter and early spring months (June through November), southern right whales migrate from the far Southern Ocean near Antarctica to the coast of South Africa to mate and calve. Their tendency to swim in shallow waters near the shore—and their curiosity around boats—delight tourists here, and has made the town of Hermanus, South Africa, an international whale-watching hot spot. The town even employs its own ‘whale crier,‘ who sounds a horn when a sighting is made. Today marks the start of the Hermanus Whale Festival, a celebration of these mighty migrants.Desktop Version

Jul 7, 2020Mercury in retrograde

Today we"re traveling to outer space to catch a glimpse of the Caloris Basin on the planet Mercury. This small planet—about the size of Earth"s moon—is riddled with craters, but none as spectacular as the Caloris Basin. One of the largest impact craters in the solar system, Caloris is about 950 miles across and ringed by mile-high mountains.Desktop Version

Oct 13, 2020Where can you find a red fox?

The biggest of all fox species, the red fox lives in many different habitats around the world, including forests, grasslands, deserts, and mountains. This fox is in the Netherlands, but red foxes can be found throughout most of Europe, as well as in temperate Asia, North Africa, and North America. A male fox is called a dog, and the female a vixen. A young fox is a kit, cub, or pup. Foxes live in groups called skulks. The red fox"s tail accounts for about a third of its length, and it can serve as a blanket, as well as a flag the fox raises to communicate with other foxes.Desktop Version

Jan 24, 2021These patterns tell a story

Is it possible for an article of clothing to express the essence of an entire people? Well, not usually, but for the Indigenous Guna people of Panama, the colorful handwoven textiles seen here may be an exception. Molas, which means "clothing" in the Guna language, are traditionally displayed on both the front and back of women"s blouses. Even today, many Guna women prefer to wear them instead of modern attire. The textiles often feature abstract geometric patterns, as well as images from nature such as turtles, flowers, birds, and fish. Guna women of yesteryear were known to paint their bodies with those same geometric patterns and designs, and by the late 1800s they had begun weaving them onto cloth instead of painting themselves. Today, the production of molas is still generally done by women, who use an intricate process called reverse appliqué, where as many as seven layers of fabric are sewn together to form a panel, which is then hand-cut to create the vibrant designs.Desktop Version

Nov 11, 2018Poppies for Armistice Day

This is part of ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,’ an art installation created by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of World War I. Crafted of thousands of ceramic poppies, the touring exhibit has been seen by more than 4 million people in 16 locations around the United Kingdom. One large section of the installation, ‘Wave,’ is currently at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England, which is where our image was photographed. We’re showing it today to honor Armistice Day, the day exactly 100 years ago when the Allied Forces and Germany signed an armistice that ended the war. The US renamed the holiday Veterans Day in 1954 to honor veterans of all its wars. To the roughly 20 million veterans in the US today–thank you.Desktop Version

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