2021-02-08
Hikers on alpine glacier, Mont Blanc, Chamonix, France (© agustavop/Getty Images)
勃朗峰高山冰川上的徒步者，法国夏慕尼 (© agustavop/Getty Images)
Chamonix is a winter sports resort town and one of the oldest ski resorts in France. As the highest European mountain west of Russia, Mont Blanc attracts mountain climbers. There is a cable car up to the 3,842 m (12,605 ft) Aiguille du Midi. Constructed in 1955, it was then the highest cable car in the world and remains the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world.
Hikers on alpine glacier, Mont Blanc, Chamonix, France (© agustavop/Getty Images)
勃朗峰高山冰川上的徒步者，法国夏慕尼 (© agustavop/Getty Images)
Chamonix is a winter sports resort town and one of the oldest ski resorts in France. As the highest European mountain west of Russia, Mont Blanc attracts mountain climbers. There is a cable car up to the 3,842 m (12,605 ft) Aiguille du Midi. Constructed in 1955, it was then the highest cable car in the world and remains the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world.
2021-02-09
Moon dog photographed at Hug Point Falls on the Oregon coast (© Ben Coffman/Tandem Stills + Motion)
拍摄于俄勒冈州海岸拥抱点瀑布的幻月 (© Ben Coffman/Tandem Stills + Motion)
When the sky is clear, and the moon hangs low in the horizon, you can sometimes spot a halo around it, like the one captured in this image from Hug Point Falls on the Oregon coast. And sometimes within that halo, you may also see a bright spot that appears to be a second moon. No, it's not the moon's long-lost twin, but an optical phenomenon called a paraselene, more commonly referred to as a moon dog or mock moon. This 'false' moon can appear when the real moon is at least a quarter visible and is bright enough for its light to refract off hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals floating in the atmosphere. Moon dogs are more commonly seen in winter months, when the ice crystals are more prevalent in the clouds.
Moon dog photographed at Hug Point Falls on the Oregon coast (© Ben Coffman/Tandem Stills + Motion)
拍摄于俄勒冈州海岸拥抱点瀑布的幻月 (© Ben Coffman/Tandem Stills + Motion)
When the sky is clear, and the moon hangs low in the horizon, you can sometimes spot a halo around it, like the one captured in this image from Hug Point Falls on the Oregon coast. And sometimes within that halo, you may also see a bright spot that appears to be a second moon. No, it's not the moon's long-lost twin, but an optical phenomenon called a paraselene, more commonly referred to as a moon dog or mock moon. This 'false' moon can appear when the real moon is at least a quarter visible and is bright enough for its light to refract off hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals floating in the atmosphere. Moon dogs are more commonly seen in winter months, when the ice crystals are more prevalent in the clouds.
2021-02-10
Nieve penitente ice formations seen on Agua Negra Pass in the Coquimbo Region of the Andes, Chile (© Art Wolfe/Danita Delimont)
阿瓜内格拉山口上的融凝冰柱，智利科金博 (© Art Wolfe/Danita Delimont)
If these frozen formations were named by more literal minds, we might know them as simply 'reverse icicles.' But the Andes, including this mountain pass rising above Chile's Atacama Desert, were mapped by poetically inclined Spanish explorers. They likened formations like these to countless kneeling figures reverently facing the sun, as a congregation of penitent parishioners kneeling at mass: hence the common name 'penitentes' for such packed-snow pinnacles.
Nieve penitente ice formations seen on Agua Negra Pass in the Coquimbo Region of the Andes, Chile (© Art Wolfe/Danita Delimont)
阿瓜内格拉山口上的融凝冰柱，智利科金博 (© Art Wolfe/Danita Delimont)
If these frozen formations were named by more literal minds, we might know them as simply 'reverse icicles.' But the Andes, including this mountain pass rising above Chile's Atacama Desert, were mapped by poetically inclined Spanish explorers. They likened formations like these to countless kneeling figures reverently facing the sun, as a congregation of penitent parishioners kneeling at mass: hence the common name 'penitentes' for such packed-snow pinnacles.