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Feb 10, 2020This park is Superkilen

The half-mile-long linear urban park called Superkilen was designed to inspire residents and visitors to congregate together in Nørrebro, one of Copenhagen"s most culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. What was once a public space battling gang activity, graffiti, and vandalism, is now an example of "extreme public participation." The people who live around Superkilen helped design it, adding cultural objects that represent their homelands—more than 60 countries.Desktop Version

Feb 12, 2023Blue-footed booby, Galápagos Islands

Today we"re celebrating Darwin Day with this blue-footed booby on the shores of the Galápagos Islands, where the famous naturalist observed wildlife and collected specimens that would inform his theory of evolution.Desktop Version

Jul 21, 2019A peek behind the royal curtain

In today"s image, we"re featuring a view of the East Front of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial to highlight a seasonal event and a historic one. On Friday Buckingham Palace began its official summer tourist season, offering visitors a chance to tour the magnificent state rooms used for official and ceremonial events in this working royal residence. This year, to mark the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria"s birth, visitors can also see artifacts from her reign and artwork depicting her life at Buckingham Palace in a special collection called Queen Victoria"s Palace.Desktop Version

Oct 12, 2020Indigenous Peoples Day

With this image of totem poles, carved and erected by Haida people in British Columbia, Canada, we"re touching on two important events in North America today, one in the United States and the other in Canada. In the US, an increasing number of Americans observe the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day, a celebration of Native American peoples and an implicit (and sometimes explicit) critique of the Columbus Day holiday. Observations of Indigenous Peoples Day reflect an effort to honor the tribes, nations, and cultures that existed in North America before the arrival of European settlers and have endured since then.Desktop Version

Mar 18, 2023Gamboa Crater, Mars

It would be pretty tough to live on Mars. It"s cold, dry, and the conditions are harsh. The planet"s average temperature is about –81 degrees Fahrenheit, but it can get as low as –243 at the poles. But with many canyons, extinct volcanoes, and ice caps, it"s beautiful to look at from afar. Most photos of the red planet highlight its rusty color, caused by high levels of iron oxide.Desktop Version

Feb 13, 2023El Valle de la Luna, Chile

El Valle de la Luna (the Valley of the Moon) is located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The Achaches Lookout, seen here, offers breathtaking views of volcanoes in the distance. In 1982, El Valle de la Luna was declared a nature sanctuary for its stunning, untouched habitat and its peculiar lunar-like terrain.Desktop Version

Aug 17, 2021Wanderin Wawayanda

Preserving more than 35,000 acres of prime New Jersey highland wilderness, Wawayanda State Park brushes up against the state"s border with New York. The park"s name comes from a transliteration of the Indigenous Lenape people"s word for the area, said to mean "winding water" or "water on the mountain." A lake and a mountain within the park are also called Wawayanda—perhaps because it"s so fun to say?Desktop Version

Jul 25, 2021Illuminated Uluru

This landmark of the Land Down Under is usually pictured in sweltering desert sunlight. Now a 21st-century addition near the ancient rock of Uluru has people flocking here even at night.Desktop Version

Jun 16, 2020In the footsteps of Leopold Bloom

Today we"re looking down at St. Stephen"s Green in Dublin in honor of Bloomsday, a day when people celebrate Irish author James Joyce and his famous 1922 novel "Ulysses." But why today, you ask? That"s because the novel follows the meanderings and thoughts (and meandering thoughts) of the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, and a host of other characters—real and fictional—from 8 AM on June 16, 1904, through the early hours of the next morning.Desktop Version

Mar 15, 2022Beware the Ides of March

We"re at the Roman Forum for the Ides of March, a date made famous as the time of Julius Caesar"s assassination. According to the ancient historian Plutarch, Caesar had been warned by a seer that his life would be in danger no later than the Ides of March, something that William Shakespeare dramatizes in his famous tragedy of Caesar’s life and assassination. While historical fact and fiction can diverge, we do know that before March 15, 44 BCE was over, a group of senators had intercepted Caesar here in the Forum as Caesar was on his way to the Senate House. They stabbed him 23 times, killing him. Afterward, Rome descended into civil war, ending the Roman Republic, and leading to the rise of the Roman Empire.Desktop Version

May 27, 2021Listening to the sea

Two enormous horns like those of old-fashioned gramophones are pointed toward the North Sea along this stretch of the Belgian coast. At the end of one of the horns, a bronze figure of a woman sits on a bench, seemingly listening to the distant sounds of the sea, while the other horn invites a visitor to do the same. The woman"s antiquated clothing, the outsized bolts on the horns, and the fluted Victrola-like design all echo the Belle Époque style once prevalent here on the Flemish coast. (Click on the above image to see more detailed views.)Desktop Version

Aug 10, 2019Seville celebrates first world tour

Five hundred years ago today, in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville, Spain, on his quest for a western passage to the Spice Islands. He sailed five ships and a crew of more than 230 men down the Guadalquivir, the river in today"s image. Magellan wouldn’t have seen this incarnation of Seville’s Triana Bridge, though. It was built more than three centuries after the expedition"s return to the city in 1522. While successful in finding a western route to the Pacific Ocean and returning with valuable spices, the feat came at great cost. Only one ship, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano, and 17 other crew members completed the global circumnavigation, returning to Spain three years after setting off. Magellan wasn’t among them. He was killed on April 27, 1521, at the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines.Desktop Version

Jun 26, 2019Get amped for Glastonbury

Greetings from Glastonbury Tor and St. Michael"s Tower in Somerset county of South West England. The tor (a Celtic word for an isolated hill) is often mentioned in Celtic mythology, and some believe it to be the site of Avalon, a mythical island central to legends of King Arthur. Glastonbury Tor has other enduring spiritual associations as well, particularly to various neopagan beliefs. Archaeological evidence suggests that several buildings have been constructed at the top of the hill over many centuries, but all that remains today is the roofless tower of St. Michael’s Church, built in the 1300s.Desktop Version

Jul 17, 2018Is there a bug-egg emoji for this?

Nothing says ‘smile!’ like a bunch of eggs laid by a member of the Pentatomidae family of insects. Not all stink bug eggs look like they have faces, but this incident of ‘life imitates emoji’ was too good to pass up today. That’s right, it’s World Emoji Day. Those tiny, cartoonish pictures that often stand in for words and phrases in social media posts and text messages have become a system of communication all their own. But why on July 17? Early on in the (very recent) history of emoji, the calendar emoji displayed July 17. So, when the time came for emoji to get their own day of recognition, this date stood out above all others.Desktop Version

Nov 22, 2018Tom Turkey takes Manhattan

The Tom Turkey float has been in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1971, missing only one outing in 2003. The hat-wearing turkey flaps his wings and rolls out as the lead attraction in the parade, with Santa Claus bringing up the rear to bookend this holiday tradition. Long before Tom joined the lineup, and a few years before giant balloons shaped like animals and cartoon characters came along, live animals from the Central Park Zoo were a big feature in the parade. Did you watch the procession today?Desktop Version

Aug 24, 2019Get the bear facts

If you want to see a brown bear in the wild—and from a safe distance—this is a good time to head to Katmai National Park and Preserve in southern Alaska. The 4.1-million-acre park is home to about 2,200 brown bears, the largest population of protected brown bears on the continent. In summer and early fall, these normally solitary creatures congregate and wade into rivers and streams to feast on salmon returning home to spawn. One of the best spots for bear watching is Brooks Camp, which offers three platforms built just for this purpose. But it takes some effort to get there—the park is only accessible by plane or boat.Desktop Version

Jul 16, 2021Whatever floats your boat

These turquoise waters are lapping the sands of Mont Choisy Beach in Mauritius, an island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa. It"s a popular spot for locals and tourists to swim, enjoy the sun, or head out in one of these boats to catch some fish. The island has a unique cultural history. Most scholars believe it was known to Arab seafarers by the 10th century, but it remained uninhabited until Portuguese sailors established a base on the island in the early 1500s. Mauritius was later colonized in succession by the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain before gaining independence in 1968. Over the years, Mauritius has evolved from a low-income economy based mostly on sugarcane (still one of its biggest exports), to a more diverse one that includes tourism, clothing production, and technology.Desktop Version

Oct 1, 2019It s Coffee Day

These coffee cherries are from Colombia"s "Coffee Triangle," where coffee trees flourish among some of the tallest palm trees you may ever see. The cherries take several months to mature. As they ripen, they change color from bright green to dark red. The dark red cherries are perfect for picking. Once the cherries are picked, the fruit surrounding the seeds (or "beans") is removed, then the beans are cleaned and eventually roasted. Colombian coffee is regarded as some of the best in the world.Desktop Version

May 20, 2018Who doesn’t love a ‘Puppy’?

The Guggenheim Foundation has opened three major museums around the world—in New York City; in Venice, Italy; and here in Bilbao, Spain. A fourth museum is currently being developed in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is home to a modern art collection and large, site-specific pieces, such as ‘Puppy’ by Jeff Koons, seen here. Koons combined the plants and planting style of 18th-century European gardens with a very 20th-century pop-art aesthetic when he created the giant dog sculpture. Where are we off to next?Desktop Version

Aug 11, 2021Everyone s watching the Perseids

These dinosaurs are (nervously?) looking at the annual Perseid meteor shower, photographed at the Dinosaur Museum of Erenhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Known as Dinosaur City, Erenhot gained attention in the 1920s when dino fossils were found there. It"s believed that more than 20 kinds of dinosaurs lived in the area during the Cretaceous Period around 70 million years ago.Desktop Version

Apr 4, 2022Norway s Kjeragbolten boulder

If you have nerves of steel, you"d enjoy the precarious, one-of-a-kind photo op that is the Kjeragbolten boulder. Visitors climb up Kjerag, a mountain on the southwest coast of Norway, for the chance to clamber onto the stranded rock and have their daredevil pic snapped for posterity. Indeed, Kjeragbolten is so popular that you might have to wait up to an hour for your turn—plenty of time for second thoughts and jitters.Desktop Version

Aug 16, 2019Shining like Klondike gold

On August 16, 1896, two prospectors had their hopes literally pan out when they found a huge deposit of gold along the banks of the Yukon River in Canada’s Klondike region. And with that, Skookum Jim Mason (aka Keish) and his American brother-in-law George Carmack set in motion the Klondike Gold Rush—the richest gold strike in North American history. Because of the remoteness of the find, it would be over 11 months before the rest of the world found out. And it did so in the most dramatic fashion, when the steamers Portland and Excelsior pulled into the harbors of Seattle and San Francisco respectively carrying over one ton of gold (worth more than $1 billion in today"s dollars).Desktop Version

Nov 15, 2019Mesmerizing murmuration

Around this time of year, as temperatures dip in the Northern Hemisphere, European or common starlings put on a dazzling show. Most of the time, these noisy birds are scorned for their bullying behavior at the bird feeder. But in autumn months, they gather to roost in huge flocks, as they’re doing here in Blackpool, England. At dusk, the starlings take flight en masse and flock together in a hypnotizing, swirling cloud of fluttering wings. These flocks are called mumurations. They"re thought to help keep the birds warm while also acting as a defensive tactic to confuse predators like hawks and falcons. But maybe the raptors are rendered harmless simply because they’re awestruck by the starlings" synchronized spectacle.Desktop Version

Mar 23, 2021Uncommon clouds are gathering

A satellite view of the Mania River in Madagascar allows us to see a curious cloud pattern. It"s common for cool, moist marine air to rise and form dense clouds over bodies of water, then for the clouds to evaporate as they drift over warmer, drier land. The opposite is happening here: Puffs of clouds are forming over land, but not over water. That"s because Madagascar"s tropical rainforests are warm and wet enough that evaporating moisture rises as the day heats up. When it rises high enough, the moisture encounters cooler air, which condenses the water into clouds. Generally speaking, clouds will form where the air is rising, which in this case is only over the land. Above the river, the air is cooler and descending, so no clouds are forming there.Desktop Version

Jun 23, 2022Stari Most in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

For 427 years the Mostar Bridge stood strong, despite the belief that its original mortar was composed of egg whites. Truth is, not much is known about the 16th-century construction of this bridge in what is now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina. All that remains in historical records are memories and legends and the name of the bridge"s builder, Mimar Hayruddin. He was charged by Suleiman the Magnificent to build an unprecedentedly wide arch, and threatened with death if the structure failed. Hayruddin is said to have been so unsure of his creation that he made funeral preparations before the scaffolding was removed.Desktop Version

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