Astronomy Picture of the Day - August 29th, 2020 - Martian Chiaroscuro (Narrated by Emma) Deep shadows create dramatic contrasts between light and dark in this high-resolution close-up of the martian surface. Recorded on January 24, 2014 by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the scene spans about 1.5 kilometers. From 250 kilometers above the Red Planet the camera is looking down at a sand dune field in a southern highlands crater. Captured when the Sun was about 5 degrees above the local horizon, only the dune crests were caught in full sunlight. A long, cold winter was coming to the southern hemisphere and bright ridges of seasonal frost line the martian dunes. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of the oldest operating spacecraft at the Red Planet, celebrated the 15th anniversary of its launch from planet Earth on August 12. Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200829.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xfe6OKW3zU

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - August 1st, 2021 - Seal of Tennessee (Narrated by Emma) This historical depiction of the coat of arms of Tennessee was illustrated by the American engraver Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. The coat of arms includes the Roman numeral "XVI", referring to Tennessee being the 16th state to join the Union. The plough, wheat sheaf, and cotton plant in the top half of the shield illustrate the importance of agriculture to the state's economy, while the flat-bottomed riverboat in the bottom half represents the importance of commerce. This design also appears on the Tennessee state seal. Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-08-01 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Syv5K9jKFQ

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - April 10th, 2023 - Project Mercury (Narrated by Brian) Project Mercury was the first human-spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. It was one of the first projects of NASA, which was created as a response to the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first satellite in Earth orbit. The program's goals were to orbit a crewed spacecraft around Earth, investigate the pilot's ability to function in space, and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely. The Soviet Union won the race to put the first human into orbit when Yuri Gagarin traveled in Vostok 1 in 1961, while the US launched its first astronaut on a suborbital flight in the same year, and achieved crewed orbital flight in 1962 when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. The Mercury project's missions were followed by millions on radio and television around the world, and it laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program, announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight. This NASA illustration compares the relative sizes and launch positions of the spacecraft and rockets of Project Mercury (small) with those of Gemini (medium) and Apollo (large). Illustration credit: Davis Paul Meltzer Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2023-04-10 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPT71xjm6Jg

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - December 4th, 2019 - Creaking Pagoda (Narrated by Matthew) The Creaking Pagoda or Chinese Summer-House is located in Tsarskoye Selo, outside Saint Petersburg, Russia, between two ponds on the boundary separating the Catherine Park of the Baroque Catherine Palace and the New Garden of the neoclassical Alexander Palace's Alexander Park. The pagoda, designed by Georg von Veldten, is a folly that resulted from the 18th-century taste for Chinoiserie. The walls are decorated with figures of dragons and other stylized Chinese motifs. Construction lasted from 1778 to 1786, and the structure was restored from 1954 to 1956. The name of the structure refers to a characteristic sound produced by a metal weathervane, shaped like a banner, on the top of the structure, which creaks when it is turned by the wind. Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2019-12-04 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKksIvDrOQA