Wikipedia Picture of the Day - November 6th, 2019 - Academy of Athens (Narrated by Salli) The Academy of Athens is Greece's national academy and the highest research establishment in the country. Established on 18 March 1926, it operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. This picture shows the main building of the Academy, a neoclassical building between Panepistimiou Street and Akadimias Street in the centre of Athens and one of the city's major landmarks. The building was designed as part of an architectural "trilogy" in 1859 by Danish architect Theophil Hansen, along with the University and the National Library. The Greek neoclassical sculptor Leonidas Drosis sculpted the principal multi-figure pediment sculpture, on the theme of the birth of Athena, based on a design by painter Carl Rahl. Two columns on either side of the portico feature statues of Athena on the left and Apollo on the right, also designed by Drosis. Photograph credit: Thomas Wolf Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2019-11-06 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZQK0wLFXU

Astronomy Picture of the Day - March 4th, 2021 - Mars in Taurus (Narrated by Joanna) You can spot Mars in the evening sky tonight. Now home to the Perseverance rover, the Red Planet is presently wandering through the constellation Taurus, close on the sky to the Seven Sisters or Pleiades star cluster. In fact this deep, widefield view of the region captures Mars near its closest conjunction to the Pleiades on March 3. Below center, Mars is the bright yellowish celestial beacon only about 3 degrees from the pretty blue star cluster. Competing with Mars in color and brightness, Aldebaran is the alpha star of Taurus. The red giant star is toward the lower left edge of the frame, a foreground star along the line-of-sight to the more distant Hyades star cluster. Otherwise too faint for your eye to see, the dark, dusty nebulae lie along the edge of the massive Perseus molecular cloud, with the striking reddish glow of NGC 1499, the California Nebula, at the upper right. Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210304.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhzmtLb10i0

Astronomy Picture of the Day - February 11th, 2020 - Launch of the Solar Orbiter (Narrated by Amy) How does weather on the Sun affect humanity? To help find out, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have just launched the Solar Orbiter. This Sun-circling robotic spaceship will monitor the Sun's changing light, solar wind, and magnetic field not only from the usual perspective of Earth but also from above and below the Sun. Pictured, a long duration exposure of the launch of the Solar Orbiter shows the graceful arc of the bright engines of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket as they lifted the satellite off the Earth. Over the next few years, the Solar Orbiter will use the gravity of Earth and Venus to veer out of the plane of the planets and closer to the Sun than Mercury. Violent weather on the Sun, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, has shown the ability to interfere with power grids on the Earth and communications satellites in Earth orbit. The Solar Orbiter is expected to coordinate observations with the also Sun-orbiting Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018. Solar Orbiter to Space: Watch the Launch Image Credit & Copyright: Derek Demeter Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200211.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKvHaJhWSS0

Astronomy Picture of the Day - January 22nd, 2022 - The Full Moon and the Dancer (Narrated by Emma) On Monday, January's Full Moon rose as the Sun set. Spotted near the eastern horizon, its warm hues are seen in this photo taken near Cagliari, capital city of the Italian island of Sardinia. Of course the familiar patterns of light and dark across the Moon's nearside are created by bright rugged highlands and dark smooth lunar maria. Traditionally the patterns are seen as pareidolia, giving the visual illusion of a human face like the Man in the Moon, or familiar animal like the Moon rabbit. But for a moment the swarming murmuration, also known as a flock of starlings, frozen in the snapshot's field of view lends another pareidolic element to the scene. Some see the graceful figure of a dancer enchanted by moonlight. Image Credit & Copyright: Elena Pinna Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220122.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lup6jOU-KU8