Wikipedia:Picture of the day/May 2007

The Willet (Tringa semipalmata) is a large shorebird in the sandpiper family. Adults have gray legs and a long, straight, dark and stout bill. The body is dark gray above and light underneath. The tail is white with a dark band at the end. The distinctive black and white pattern of the wings is a common sight along many North American coastal beaches.

Photo credit: Mdf

Captain Joseph Kittinger steps from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet (31.3 km), or almost 20 miles on August 16, 1960, as part of Project Excelsior, a series of high-altitude parachute jumps, testing a system that would allow a safe controlled descent after a high-altitude aircraft ejection. In freefall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 625 mph (1,005 km/h) and temperatures as low as −94°F (−70°C), he opened his parachute at 17,500 feet (5.3 km). The whole descent took 13 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the current world record for the highest parachute jump and was the longest freefall until Adrian Nicholas broke the record in 1998 with a wing suit skydive lasting 4 minutes 55 seconds.

Photo credit: United States Air Force

The Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), also known as the Spiny Anteater because of its diet of ants and termites, is one of four living species of echidna. The species is found throughout Australia, where it is the most widespread native mammal, and in coastal and highland regions of southwestern New Guinea.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A female Metallic Ringtail (Austrolestes cingulatus), an Australian damselfly, eating its prey. Each abdominal segment is marked by a pale "ring"; this combined with its glossy metallic coloration give the insect its common name.

Photo credit: Fir0002

The Wright Flyer takes off on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the first successful attempt of sustained powered flight. In this photograph of the first flight, Orville Wright is at the controls lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle that operated the wing warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright running alongside, has just released his hold to balance the machine.

Photo credit: John T. Daniels

This false-color radar image taken by the Cassini orbiter provides convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid methane on Titan. Images taken during a fly-by of the moon on July 22, 2006 show more than 75 large bodies of liquid ranging in diameter from three to 70km (1.9 to 43.6 mi) in the moon's northern hemisphere. Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned. The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan. Smallest details in this image are about 500 m (1,640 ft) across. On January 3, 2007, NASA announced that scientists have "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane on Saturn's moon Titan."

Image credit: Cassini orbiter

A queen meat ant burrowing a hole after her nuptial flight, an important phase in the reproduction of most ant and some bee species. Young queens and males stay in their parent colony until conditions are right. During the flight, the queen will usually mate with several males, after which mated queens land and remove their wings. They then attempt to found a new colony.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A portrait of Thomas Edison and his early phonograph from 1878. This was the invention that made him famous, giving him the moniker "The Wizard of Menlo Park". It was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder and had poor sound quality, and the tinfoil recordings could only be replayed a few times.

Photo credit: Levin Corbin Handy

An Eastern Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus ornatus) with nesting material in its mouth. This subspecies of the Striated Pardalote, the least colourful and most common of the four pardalote species, is found in subtropical areas of Eastern Australia. They are more often heard than seen, foraging noisily for lerps and other small creatures in the treetops.

Photo credit: Fir0002

This polar map of Jupiter, taken by the Cassini orbiter as it neared Jupiter during a flyby on its way to Saturn, is the most detailed global color map of the planet ever produced. The south pole is in the center of the map and the equator is at the edge. The map shows a variety of colorful cloud features, including parallel reddish-brown and white bands, the Great Red Spot, multi-lobed chaotic regions, white ovals, and many small vortexes. Many clouds appear in streaks and waves due to continual stretching and folding by Jupiter's winds and turbulence.

Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

L'Hemisferic, an IMAX Cinema, planetarium and Laserium, on the grounds of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències ("City of Arts and Sciences"), in Valencia, Spain.

Photo credit: Diliff

An arching fountain of pāhoehoe lava, approximately 10 m (33 ft) high, issuing from a spatter cone of Pu‘u Kahaualea, Hawaii. Pāhoehoe is basaltic lava that has a smooth, billowy, undulating, or ropy surface. These surface features are due to the movement of very fluid lava under a congealing surface crust. Pāhoehoe lavas typically have a temperature of 1100°C–1200°C.

Photo credit: J.D. Griggs, USGS

A stitched panorama of the Morteratsch Glacier, the largest glacier by area in the Bernina Range, Switzerland. By volume, it is the largest glacier in the Eastern Alps. In spring, depending on the snow conditions, a 10 km (6.25 mi) long ski-run is marked on the glacier, which takes up to two hours to descend.

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen

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The translational motion of atoms and molecules gives gases their thermodynamic temperature, pressure, and the vast majority of their volume. Here, the size of helium atoms relative to their spacing is shown to scale under 1950 atmospheres of pressure. These room-temperature atoms have a certain, average speed (slowed down here two trillion–fold). Five atoms are colored red to facilitate following their motions.

Image credit: Greg L

A common hoverfly, Simosyrphus grandicornis, approximately 12 mm in size, resting on a stalk. Many hoverfly species, such as this one, mimic the appearance of bees or wasps, which is thought to protect them from falling prey to birds and other insectivores. About 6,000 species of hoverflies in 200 genera have been described.

Photo credit: Fir0002

The flower of a Blessed milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Originally a native of Southern Europe through to Asia, it is now found throughout the world and considered an invasive weed. Thistles can be toxic to cattle and sheep, but their extract can be used to cure amanita poisoning. A different extract can also be found in Rockstar Energy Drink.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A stitched panorama of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, California, as seen facing east. Alcatraz is most famous for its prison, which closed in 1963, but whose legacy lived on in films such as Escape from Alcatraz and The Rock. Today it is a National Recreation Area

Photo credit: David Corby

A green tent spider, approximately 15 mm in length, of the genus Cyrtophora on a blade of grass. These spiders create tent-like, highly complex non-sticky webs, sometimes considered a precursor of the simplified orb-web. These webs are aligned horizontally, with a network of supporting threads above them. These spiders often live in colonies.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A 2.38 g piece of aerogel supporting a 2.5 kg brick. Aerogels are stiff foams composed of up to 99.8% air and with a density as low as 1 mg per cubic centimetre.

Aerogels hold 15 different records for material properties, including best insulator and lowest-density solid.

Photo credit: NASA

The Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Benfold fires its five-inch 54-caliber MK45 gun during routine training operations off the coast of Southern California. The gun mount features an automatic loader with a capacity of 20 rounds. These can be fired under full automatic control taking a little over a minute to exhaust those rounds at maximum fire rate. For sustained use, a three-man crew can keep the gun supplied with ammunition.

Photo credit: Felix Garza Jr., U.S. Navy

A grasshopper nymph (Dissosteira carolina species), approximately 17 mm long. Often confused with crickets and katydids, there are about 11,000 valid species described to date in 2,400 genera, including those known as locusts. Many undescribed species exist, especially in tropical rainforests.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A group of Australian infantry wearing Small Box Respirators (SBRs) at the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. After the introduction of poison gas in World War I, countermeasures were developed. SBRs represented the pinnacle of gas mask development during the war, a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter (hanging around the wearer's neck in this picture), which in turn contained granules of chemicals that neutralised the gas. The SBR was the prized possession of the ordinary infantryman; when the British were forced to retreat during the German Spring Offensive of 1918, it was found that while some troops had discarded their rifles, hardly any had left behind their respirators.

Photo credit: Frank Hurley

A stitched panorama taken from St Jerome, the summit of Montserrat, a 1,236 m (4,055 ft) mountain near Barcelona, Spain. The mountain's name means "jagged mountain" and is used because of the peculiar aspect of the formation, which is visible from a great distance.

Photo credit: Diliff

A macro shot of the interior of an Echinopsis spachiana flower, showing both carpels (center) and stamen (forming a ring around the carpels), making it a "complete flower", a term used in describing plant sexuality. Flowers, the reproductive structures of angiosperms, are more varied than the equivalent structures of any other group of organisms, and flowering plants also have an unrivalled diversity of sexual systems.

Photo credit: Fir0002

The skyline of Toledo, Spain, at sunset, with the Alcázar on the left and Cathedral on the right. The city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and a place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and Moorish cultures.

Photo credit: Diliff

Morning mist on Lake Mapourika, a lake on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is the largest of the west coast lakes, a glacier formation from the last ice age. It is filled with fresh rain water which runs through the surrounding forest floor, collecting tannins and giving it its dark colour.

Photo credit: Richard Palmer

An Iraqi man wearing a predominantly red keffiyeh, a traditional headdress of Arab men, made of a square scarf, usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head. It is commonly found in arid climate areas to provide protection from direct sun exposure, as well as for occasional use in protecting the mouth and eyes from blown dust and sand.

Photo credit: Christiaan Briggs

A plate of Limburger cheese and pumpernickel bread. Limburger originated from Limburg, Belgium, and is known for its strong odor, which is due in part to being fermented with the same bacteria partially responsible for human body odor.

Photo credit: Jon Sullivan/Pharaoh Hound

Glacier Girl, a P-38 Lightning dug out from 268 feet (81.2 m) of ice in eastern Greenland in 1992. The P-38, with its distinctive shape, was used most successfully in the South West Pacific theater, where it was flown by the American pilots with the highest number of aerial victories in World War II.

Photo credit: Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker, USAF

The Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio ulysses) is a large Australian swallowtail with a wingspan of about 14 cm (5.5 in). The top of the butterfly’s wings are an iridescent electric blue; the underside is a more subdued black and brown coloration. When the butterfly is perched the intense blue of its wings is hidden (as seen here), helping it to blend in with its surroundings.

Photo credit: Fir0002

Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), as seen from Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia. This non-periodic comet, the brightest in over 40 years, was discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught. It was first visible in the northern hemisphere, reaching perihelion on January 12, 2007 at a distance of 0.17 AU.

Photo credit: Fir0002