Astronomy Picture of the Day - April 20th, 2022 - Planet Line over New York Bridge (Narrated by Salli)
There's an interesting sky to see if you wake up before the Sun. Lined up on toward the eastern horizon are four planets in a row. The planets are so bright they can even be seen from the bright sky inside a city. In fact, the featured image was taken from New York City, USA, with the foreground highlighted by the RFK (Triborough) Bridge. Pictured, the planets are, left to right, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. The planets all appear in a row because they all orbit the Sun in the same plane. This plane, called the ecliptic plane, was created in the early days of our Solar System and includes all planets, including Earth. The morning planet parade will continue throughout April and May, and will even be joined by Mercury in June. APOD volunteer programming opportunity: Discord
Image Credit & Copyright: Stan Honda
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220420.html
This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnElEOHKanE
Wikipedia Picture of the Day - June 7th, 2021 - Sexual dimorphism (Narrated by Brian)
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, or markings, as well as behavioral and cognitive differences. In the butterfly species Colias dimera (also known as the Dimera sulphur), seen here mating in Venezuela, the male on the right is a brighter shade of yellow than the female.
Photograph credit: Paolo Costa Baldi
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-06-07
This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsbZUelu4Cw
Astronomy Picture of the Day - October 20th, 2023 - Galaxies and a Comet (Narrated by Brian)
Galaxies abound in this sharp telescopic image recorded on October 12 in dark skies over June Lake, California. The celestial scene spans nearly 2 degrees within the boundaries of the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. Prominent at the upper left 23.5 million light-years distant is big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 4258, known to some as Messier 106. Eye-catching edge-on spiral NGC 4217 is above and right of center about 60 million light-years away. Just passing through the pretty field of view is comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, discovered last April in image data from the Mount Lemmon Survey. Here the comet sports more of a lime green coma though, along with a faint, narrow ion tail stretching toward the top of the frame. This visitor to the inner Solar System is presently less than 7 light-minutes away and still difficult to spot with binoculars, but it's growing brighter. Comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on October 29 and perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on November 10 as it transitions from morning to evening northern skies.
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231020.html
This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa7xsNu9_yc
Wikipedia Picture of the Day - March 26th, 2022 - Palace of Fine Arts (Narrated by Amy)
The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure in the Marina District of San Francisco, California. It was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to 1974, it is the only structure from the exposition that survives on site. The most prominent building of the complex, a 162-foot-high (49-meter) open rotunda, is enclosed by a lagoon on one side, and adjoins a large, curved exhibition center on the other side, separated from the lagoon by colonnades.
Photograph credit: Rhododendrites
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2022-03-26
This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usKIbKUgeFI
Wikipedia Picture of the Day - July 31st, 2021 - Coprinellus micaceus (Narrated by Amy)
Coprinellus micaceus is a common species of fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is a saprotrophic species, deriving nutrients from dead and decomposing wood. The fruiting body grows in clusters and is commonly known as the mica cap or shiny cap because of the fine layer of reflective mica-like cells on the cap surface. The fungus is edible soon after collection, but after a few hours, the gills begin to slowly dissolve into a black, inky, spore-laden liquid. These C. micaceus mushrooms were photographed near Erbach an der Donau, Germany.
Photograph credit: Holger Krisp
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-07-31
This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqu9GNtY_Uk
Wikipedia Picture of the Day - April 8th, 2024 - Nithya Menen (Narrated by Brian)
Nithya Menen (born 8 April 1990) is an Indian actress and singer who works primarily in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films. After appearing in roles in 1998 and 2006 as a child actress, her first lead role was in the Malayalam film Aakasha Gopuram, which was released in 2008. Her debut in leading roles in Telugu and Tamil films were Ala Modalaindi (2011) and Nootrenbadhu (2011). Her Hindi debut was Mission Mangal (2019). As of 2024, Menen has appeared in more than 50 films and has appeared in several lists of top actresses compiled by Rediff.com and Forbes India. This portrait photograph of Menen was taken in 2023.
Photograph credit: Augustus Binu
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2024-04-08
This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3B7uffTtTM
Astronomy Picture of the Day - October 20th, 2019 - Pluto at Night (Narrated by Brian)
The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene, a stunning spacebased view with the Sun 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by far flung New Horizons in July of 2015. The spacecraft was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. The crescent twilight landscape near the top of the frame includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191020.html
This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcSwJZv_JSE
Wikipedia Picture of the Day - April 15th, 2022 - Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (Narrated by Brian)
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary, also known as Lo Spasimo or Il Spasimo di Sicilia, is an oil painting by the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael, originally painted on panel around 1514 to 1516 but later transferred to canvas in the 19th century. It depicts Christ carrying the cross to his crucifixion, specifically the moment when he falls and his mother Mary suffers a spasm of agony, known as the Swoon of the Virgin. The painting's emotion is densely crammed into the foreground, and the background is similar to that of a stage set with distant groups of people and crosses. The work was commissioned by the Sicilian monastery of Santa Maria dello Spasimo in Palermo and now hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Painting credit: Raphael
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2022-04-15
This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ9k3UQcudM
Astronomy Picture of the Day - July 2nd, 2020 - The Galaxy, the Planet, and the Apple Tree (Narrated by Joanna)
The Old Astronomer's Milky Way arcs through this peaceful northern sky. Against faint, diffuse starlight you can follow dark rifts of interstellar dust clouds stretching from the galaxy's core. They lead toward bright star Antares at the right, almost due south above the horizon. The brightest beacon in the twilight is Jupiter, though. From the camera's perspective it seems to hang from the limb of a tree framing the foreground, an apple tree of course. The serene maritime nightscape was recorded in tracked and untracked exposures on June 16 from Dover, Nova Scotia, planet Earth.
Image Credit & Copyright: Kristine Richer
Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200702.html
This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJV3u535D_8