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This page shows the pictures of the day for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If multiple pictures are featured as a random selection, all of the options are shown here. If the dates shown below are not current, please null edit the page.

Yesterday (2024-06-12)

Green kingfisher

The green kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana) is a species of bird in the kingfisher family, Alcedinidae. It is found from the southern United States, south through Central America, and in every mainland South American country except Chile. The green kingfisher is about 20 cm (7.9 in) long and weighs about 35 to 40 g (1.2 to 1.4 oz), with females being larger and heavier than males. It has various vocalisations, including one described as resembling "the striking of two pebbles together" and another as "a harsh, buzzy scold". This male green kingfisher, a member of the subspecies C. a. americana, was spotted close to the Cristalino River in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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Today (2024-06-13)

Heart Nebula

The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7500 light years from Earth, located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. Spanning almost 2 degrees in the sky, its shape is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes, and is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, which cause rich blue and orange colours to be seen in narrowband images. This photograph of the Heart Nebula, with the Fish Head Nebula also visible in the top right corner, is a narrowband image captured on a 70mm scope with a capture period of around 44 hours.

Photograph credit: Ram Samudrala

Tomorrow (2024-06-14)

Al-Hajj

Al-Hajj is the 22nd chapter (surah) of the Quran, describing the pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj. This Chinese scroll in ink, watercolour and gold on paper was produced in the second half of the 19th century, contains the full text of the chapter in Arabic, and is now part of the Khalili Collection of the Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage. Almost five metres (16 feet) in length, the scroll's illustrations include a map entitled "Routes of the Hajj", a view of the Great Wall of China, and views of Mecca and Medina, as well as diagrammatic depictions of the stations of pilgrimage and Jerusalem, including the Kaaba. The illustrations are captioned in Chinese.

Calligraphy credit: 'Abdallah; photographed by the Khalili Collections