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Dec 15, 2021The Hermitage of Santa Justa

Today"s image brings us to Cantabria, a rugged region on the north coast of Spain. To reach this isolated stone hut, you"ll need to wait until the frothing waters of the Bay of Biscay hit low tide, then traverse a silty path to the structure"s façade. Peering in the windows, you"ll see a cavernous room adorned with shrines—the long-abandoned living quarters of a religious hermit who dwelt here in the 8th century. Not your typical waterfront condo, but hey, it"s cozy.Desktop Version

Dec 14, 2021American robin

Season"s tweetings! Today is the first day of the 122nd annual Christmas Bird Count, said to be the longest-running citizen science project in the world. Between December 14 and January 5, tens of thousands of volunteer birdwatchers will participate in counts across the US, Canada, and many other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Organized by the National Audubon Society, each local count takes place in a 15-mile-diameter circle, where volunteers follow a specific route to record and often photograph every bird they see.Desktop Version

Dec 13, 2021Old Town Quito

If Ecuador"s capital city, Quito, isn"t high enough for you at 9,350 feet above sea level, you can elevate your experience even further with a journey up El Panecillo. Translated from Spanish, "El Panecillo" means "The Dinner Roll." Rising 650 feet above the old city center, seen in the foreground, this rotund volcanic hill offers perhaps the best possible panorama of Quito. Though our viewpoint here, looking south through Quito"s vast valley, makes for a nice twilight shot, too.Desktop Version

Dec 12, 2021Wicker fields in Cañamares, Spain

The summer swaths of green in this field have transformed by wintertime to a harvest-ready red—but it"s not a harvest you can eat. Just what"s being grown here?Desktop Version

Dec 11, 2021Everest s shadow on the Himalayas

In honor of International Mountain Day, breathe as much of that sweet, crisp mountain air as you can. See the shadow stretching past the Himalayas" craggy skyline? It"s cast by Mount Everest, the tallest peak of them all, rising to 29,032 feet above sea level.Desktop Version

Dec 10, 2021Arctic fox in Norway

We"re visiting Norway"s Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park, where this small but mighty Arctic fox is undergoing changes to prepare for the cold, Nordic winter. While animals have many ways to adapt to winter weather, such as migrating, hibernating, and growing thick fur, the Arctic fox does none of these. Instead, its coat transitions from brown and gray to a snowy white every autumn. The fox"s pelt acts as camouflage, allowing it to blend in among the rocks and tundra for half of the year and, after turning white, hide in the snow and ice the other half.Desktop Version

Dec 9, 2021Glowworm caves in Australia

Down under the land in the Land Down Under, cave explorers may find these subterranean spaces illuminated by an unlikely light source. Fungus gnat larvae—more affectionately known as glowworms—speckle the walls and ceilings of caverns here in Australia during the warm season, from December to March.Desktop Version

Dec 8, 2021Petrified Forest National Park

The burliest lumberjack with the best-oiled chainsaw couldn"t slice the massive "timbers" found in Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona. So why are these giant stone logs segmented in such symmetrical rounds, as if they"re ready to be split into firewood?Desktop Version

Dec 7, 2021Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Today we"re in Hawaii to mark the 80th anniversary of the surprise attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The strike by Japan cost 2,403 service members and civilians their lives, injured 1,178 others, and thrust the US into WWII. The sailors you see here are standing on the deck of the USS Bowfin, a US Navy submarine that is now a memorial and museum moored in Pearl Harbor next to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.Desktop Version

Dec 6, 2021Computer Science EDU Week

In the decidedly pre-digital 19th century, English polymath Charles Babbage developed his design for an Analytical Engine, a machine that incorporates many of the functional ideas of modern computers. The diagram in our photo today shows the plans for the inner workings of Babbage"s mechanical computer. Construction was difficult and expensive, given the precision required for the crafted metal parts, so Babbage tinkered on his own but died before he saw his vision realized. Engineers have since built working models of Babbage"s machine.Desktop Version

Dec 5, 2021Salzburg, Austria

If you know of Salzburg, Austria, it"s probably because of Mozart and not monsters. But if your holiday wish is to be chased by an unseemly seasonal demon, the narrow, medieval streets of this city are the place to be tonight. Or this *would* have been the place to be if a different ghoul hadn"t raised its unwelcome, spiky head—the coronavirus continues to unleash its real-world horrors, canceling tonight"s scheduled Krampus runs, just as it did last year. Allow us to explain.Desktop Version

Dec 4, 2021Cheetah mother and cub

Today we"re in Kenya"s Masai Mara National Reserve to celebrate Wildlife Conservation Day, which also happens to be International Cheetah Day—two reasons to extend our appreciation for this elegant mother and cub. These lithe and lightweight cats are built for speed, with compact heads, thin torsos, and long legs that help them accelerate up to 70 mph when hunting gazelles or antelopes on the savannah. Because cheetahs have uniquely flexible spines, they"re able to make sharp, sudden turns, even during a high-speed chase. Individual cheetahs tend to avoid one another, but a cub like this one will stay with its mother for about 18 months, and a female cub may stick with mom into adulthood. Some males are territorial and will form small groups, called coalitions, to defend a prized area.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

Dec 2, 2021Denali National Park

Someone ought to tell these Dall sheep they don"t blend in here at Polychrome Pass. Their white coats may be great camouflage against the Alaskan snows, but the warm tones of this tundra make them stick out a bit. And they aren"t the only thing sticking out in this national park: It"s home to the tallest mountain in North America.Desktop Version

Dec 1, 2021Antarctica Day

At just over 600 miles from the tip of South America, Cuverville Island is closer to civilization than most of Antarctica. As such, this small isle off the northward-jutting Antarctic Peninsula is a hotspot for tourists to catch some cool scenery (while freezing their butts off, of course). Visitors can also chill on the rocky beach with the locals: a glut of gentoo penguins whose rookery here is the largest along the peninsula.Desktop Version

Nov 30, 2021Giving Tuesday

Social structure in elephant herds is surprisingly complex. The adults in the herd exhibit what scientists call "reciprocal altruism." That means that elephants will act in ways that give them no direct benefit—say, protecting or feeding a calf that isn"t theirs. They do that because the other elephants in their herd will do the same for them. Maybe the elephant is a good role model for Giving Tuesday?Desktop Version

Nov 29, 2021Rainbow Mountain

Even to the huge bummer that is glacial melting, there are bright sides: The radiant colors of Vinicunca (aka Rainbow Mountain) might have gone unseen had rising temps not melted the peak"s glacial caps beginning in the 1990s. Rainbow Mountain"s streaky sediment layers, multicolored like a wildflower bloom, were revealed by the 2010s. Since then, it"s become the most visited natural attraction in the lofty Peruvian Andes of the Cusco region. At more than 17,000 feet above sea level, Rainbow Mountain isn’t the tallest peak in the area—towering Ausangate is nearly 21,000 feet in elevation—but most visitors will need time to acclimatize before attempting the trek to the summit.Desktop Version

Nov 28, 2021Celebrating Panama s independence

What do you get when you cross historic feats of engineering with unmatched natural beauty? Answer: This photo of a suspension bridge in a rainforest. Or more generally: Panama, where the photo was taken.Desktop Version

Nov 27, 2021Penn Station

If this image of New York City"s Pennsylvania Station seems straight out of a classic film noir, it"s for good reason. The photo was taken in the 1950s, just a few years before the city"s beloved Beaux-Arts style masterpiece was dismantled and then demolished so that Madison Square Garden could be built atop its warren of walkways and train lines.Desktop Version

Nov 26, 2021Native American Heritage Day

While our photo today focuses on the colorful dress and jewelry of the Zuni Olla Maidens, people who"ve been lucky enough to see these women perform traditional songs and dances might have been distracted by their "ollas"—that’s the name for the large clay jars that the women balance on their heads as they dance. The unusual prop has practical origins. The Zuni people have thrived in the Zuni River Valley in New Mexico for 4,000 years, and their handmade clay ollas have long been used to store food and water. A practical—if tricky—way for a Zuni woman to carry a heavy jar of water back home was to balance it on her head. Over time, the women began incorporating this skill into their dances, thus the formation of the Zuni Olla Maidens.Desktop Version

Nov 25, 2021Happy Thanksgiving

For this food-centric holiday, we"re featuring two small but prodigious eaters, a pair of Eurasian red squirrels. These cheerful omnivores dine on the rich menu of available offerings in the forests of the UK, primarily Scotland, where our friends today were photographed noshing.Desktop Version

Nov 24, 2021Chocolate Hills

In late November, the dry season arrives in the Bohol province of the Philippines to create a magical confection: The green grass that covers these rolling, conical mounds begins to turn brown, transforming the area into what looks like endless hills of chocolate. At least 1,260 of these "Chocolate Hills" are spread across about 20 square miles. The unusual landscape has become a robust tourist attraction, leading the regional government to construct a viewing complex amidst the hills in the town of Carmen.Desktop Version

Nov 23, 2021Fibonacci Day

It"s a bit of a fib that Fibonacci, the 13th-century Italian math whiz, was the first to sketch out a number sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on forever. In fact, scholars in India described the sequence centuries before Fibonacci, and they probably weren"t the first to figure it out either. But in any case, each November 23—that is, 11/23—we celebrate the infinite series known as the Fibonacci sequence.Desktop Version

Nov 22, 2021Irohazaka road

If you"ve ever wanted to learn written Japanese, a joy ride on this undulating road offers an unexpected tutorial. The hairpin turns in our photo are just a few of the 48 curves you"ll negotiate on your way up one part of Irohazaka road and down another—together they make a scenic loop in the highlands outside the city of Nikkō. That"s one switchback for each of the 48 hiragana symbols in an ancient Japanese writing system, with each marked by a sign showing one symbol. Not a bad visual aid for the still-learning visitor!Desktop Version

Nov 21, 2021The Great Glen

Was this photo taken in a peppermint forest? This rare and delicate hoarfrost may look like a confectioner"s coating, but it"s just the ice that forms when the Scottish Highlands" fog mixes perfectly with a sharp cold snap.Desktop Version

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