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Jul 12, 2015
Sunset Point offers some of most famous and breathtaking vistas of #BryceCanyon #NationalPark in Utah. Below the point, the Silent City rises from the canyon floor, a maze of #hoodoos and fins packed in tight formation. This photo from Sunset Point was taken as a #rainbow appeared above the canyon after a storm. Photo by Jeremy Stevens (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl). 🌈 by usinterior
Pluto is coming into focus. As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft bears down on this unexplored world of the distant Solar System, new features on its surface are becoming evident. In the displayed image taken last Thursday and released yesterday, an unusual polygonal structure roughly 200 kilometers wide is visible on the left, while just below it relatively complex terrain runs diagonally across the dwarf planet. New Horizon's images and data on these structures will likely be studied for years to come in an effort to better understand the geologic history of Pluto and our Solar System. After suffering a troublesome glitch last week, New Horizons will make its historic flyby of Pluto and its moons on Tuesday. via NASA http://ift.tt/1IQA4i6
Jul 11, 2015
#Sunrise at #GrandTeton National Park looks something like this: Beautiful! Juliet Schwab (@julietschwab) captured this image a few years ago as the sun’s rays illuminated the top of @grandtetonnps’s #MountMoran and turned the sky pink. Photo courtesy of @julietschwab. Want to be featured on @USInterior? Share your amazing pics of America’s #publiclands at http://ift.tt/1QwF2TB by usinterior
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Messier 43 Messier 43
Often imaged but rarely mentioned, Messier 43 is a large star forming region in its own right. It's just part of the star forming complex of gas and dust that includes the larger, more famous neighboring Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula. In fact, the Great Orion Nebula itself lies off the lower edge of this scene. The close-up of Messier 43 was made while testing the capabilities of a near-infrared instrument with one of the twin 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The composite image shifts the otherwise invisible infrared wavelengths to blue, green, and red colors. Peering into caverns of interstellar dust hidden from visible light, the near-infrared view can also be used to study cool, brown dwarf stars in the complex region. Along with its celebrity neighbor, Messier 43 lies about 1,500 light-years away, at the edge of Orion's giant molecular cloud. At that distance, this field of view spans about 5 light-years. via NASA http://ift.tt/1J7ut2C
Jul 10, 2015
Here’s a stunning shot of one of America’s newest national monuments: #BerryessaSnowMountain in #California. The new 330,780-acre #nationalmonument is in the heart of northern California’s Inner Coast Range, and rises from near sea level in the south to over 7,000 feet in the mountainous north. Miles of hiking, horseback riding, and designated off-road vehicle trails offer visitors views of the Sacramento Valley and #SierraNevada Mountains to the east and the #CoastalMountains to the west, as well as panoramic vistas overlooking Clear Lake, #LakeBerryessa, and the steep canyon of Cache Creek. Berryessa Snow Mountain is one of three new national monuments that President Obama designated today, protecting more than 1 million acres for future generations. The other new monuments are Basin and Range in #Nevada -- an iconic American landscape that includes rock art dating back 4,000 years and serves as an irreplaceable resource for archaeologists, historians, and ecologists -- and #WacoMammoth in #Texas -- a significant paleontological site featuring well-preserved remains of 24 Columbian Mammoths. #FindYourPark Photo by @mypubliclands. by usinterior
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5 Million Miles from Pluto 5 Million Miles from Pluto
An image snapped on July 7 by the New Horizons spacecraft while just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) from Pluto is combined with color data in this most detailed view yet of the Solar System's most famous world about to be explored. The region imaged includes the tip of an elongated dark area along Pluto's equator already dubbed "the whale". A bright heart-shaped region on the right is about 1,200 miles (2,000) kilometers across, possibly covered with a frost of frozen methane, nitrogen, and/or carbon monoxide. The view is centered near the area that will be seen during New Horizons much anticipated July 14 closest approach to a distance of about 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers). via NASA http://ift.tt/1J5DsBq
Jul 9, 2015
A trip to #Yellowstone #NationalPark isn’t complete without seeing Midway Geyser Basin. A boardwalk leads you to the colorful #GrandPrismaticSpring. At 370 feet in diameter and over 121 feet deep, Grand Prismatic is @yellowstonenps’s largest hot spring. This jaw-dropping multi-image panorama shows Grand Prismatic Spring at night with the #MilkyWay sparkling above it and the stars reflected in the water below. Image courtesy of David Lane. 🌟🌟 by usinterior
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Formed from water running through sandstone, #AntelopeCanyon is both a sacred site for the Navajo and a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world. The #slotcanyon walls rise 120 feet tall and streams of sunlight radiate down from the opening in the top of the canyon, creating a stunning scene for photographs. Antelope Canyon is located near Page, #Arizona, and is a Navajo Tribal Park. Today, more than 800 #NativeYouth are participating in the first-ever White House Tribal Youth Gathering, an event designed to help remove the barriers to success for young Native Americans. Photo by Michael Buikus (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl). by usinterior
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That is not our Moon. It's Dione, and it’s a moon of Saturn. The robotic Cassini spacecraft took the featured image during a flyby of Saturn's cratered Moon last month. Perhaps what makes this image so interesting, though, is the background. First, the large orb looming behind Dione is Saturn itself, faintly lit by sunlight first reflected from the rings. Next, the thin lines running diagonally across the image are the rings of Saturn themselves. The millions of icy rocks that compose Saturn's spectacular rings all orbit Saturn in the same plane, and so appear surprisingly thin when seen nearly edge-on. Front and center, Dione appears in crescent phase, partially lit by the Sun that is off to the lower left. A careful inspection of the ring plane should also locate the moon Enceladus on the upper right. via NASA http://ift.tt/1RjAHGg
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