Even in museums, guests aren’t typically allowed to get too close to paintings, especially famous ones, like Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Hirox Europe, a company specializing in high resolution 3D scans, decided to use their 3D digital microscope to create an interactive 10-billion pixel panorama image of this famed artwork. Simply put, it consists of 9,000 images that were stitched together to produce the final image. Read more for a video, additional pictures and a link to explore yourself.
In addition to the Galaxy S21 series, Samsung also unveiled a new function in One UI 3, the Object Eraser tool. Simply put, it lets you easily remove people from the background of just about any photo. After capturing the image, just tap on the people you want to remove, and then AI takes over to remove the objects. Think of this as Adobe Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill tool, but on a smartphone. Read more for a short video demonstration.
Photo credit: NASA
Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano is one of the country’s most active volcanoes and has been erupting since January 2005, with low-intensity emissions of gas, steam, and ash daily. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this amazing image of a plume rising from the volcano on January 2, 2021. A few days later, the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) observed a volcanic ash plume that rose to 21,000 feet above the volcano. Read more for a video and additional information.
Valles Marineris is currently the largest known canyon in the Solar System and it cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. This grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. For comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona spans 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. It is unknown how Valles Marineris formed, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Read more to see two new images captured by NASA’s HiRise camera and for additional information.
NASA closed out 2020 by showcasing the 20 best Earth images captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They include many natural wonders, bustling cities, and even natural disasters, like wildfires as well as extreme weather events. In the image above, we see Cuba and the Bahamas taken with a Nikon D5 DSLR and a 16mm lens. Other amazing shots include the Great Lakes photographed during the snowy winter and Paris at night with its many lights. Read more for the video and additional information.
Photo credit: Anza-Borrego DRC
An extremely rare lunar rainbow, also known as a moonbow, was spotted by a researcher at the Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center in California. This phenomenon occurs due to the refraction of light in many water droplets, like from a rain shower, and is always positioned in the opposite part of the sky from the moon relative to the observer. Why does it look dimmer than a traditional solar rainbow? It’s because of the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon. Read more for a video and additional information.
Photo credit: Jason De Freitas via Peta Pixel
For those who haven’t seen The Great Conjunction, or when Jupiter and Saturn appear closest together in the sky, there’s still time. However, catching the International Space Station passing between these two planets is another rarity altogether. Photographer Jason De Freitas managed to do just that, since he figured out the path of the International Space Station after quite a bit of planning. He drove an hour to find the perfect spot to where everything would be aligned for this shot. Read more for a video and additional information.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured yet another breathtaking image, this time of GAL-CLUS-022058s, a curved galaxy located in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (the Furnace). This molten-ring-like galaxy is the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered in our universe. It received this nickname from astronomers studying this Einstein ring due to its appearance and host constellation. Read more for a video about Hubble’s servicing mission and additional information.
AUKEY’s DR02 Dual Dash Cam now comes with upgraded Sony IMX307 sensors for even clearer footage, and you can get one for $88.39 shipped after clipping the on-page 12% off coupon and entering coupon code: XPIV2P8Q during final checkout, today only, originally $129.99. The wide-angle lenses capture every detail in sharp clear 1080p resolution, day or night. You’ll have solid video proof to back you up should there be any driving disputes or incidents, making it very important in insurance claims. Product page – be sure to both clip the on-page 12% off coupon and enter coupon code: XPIV2P8Q during final checkout. Read more for a video review and additional information.
Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Piotto
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope turned 30 this year, and they just released a batch of new images to celebrate. Best of all, every single one of them can be seen through backyard telescopes, some can also be spotted with binoculars or even the naked eye. Above, we have Caldwell 78 (or NGC 6541), a globular star cluster located about 22,000 light-years from Earth. It’s bright enough that backyard stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere can easily spot it with binoculars. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.