May 15, 2012

Saturn has many moons - 53 that have been discovered and named, nine more "provisional moons" which have been detected but only assigned a number until more is known about them. 

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is of two of Saturn’s moons. The small one is one of Enceladus, ice-covered and just 300 miles (483 kilometers) wide, and covered by ice. It is dwarfed by one of the big Saturnian moons, the 3,200 mile (5,150 kilometer) wide Titan. The streak across the middle of the photograph is one of the planet’s giant rings.

Cool photo, don’t you think? It was taken by the Cassini orbiter, an unmanned spacecraft which continues to help us learn more about this gas giant.

Photo: NASA/JPL/SSI/J. Major

An updated version of Seymour Simon’s SATURN, with the latest information from the Cassini mission, will be published for Amazon’s Kindle Fire this September.

May 1, 2012

NASA has released this photograph of a flaming meteor that unleashed a powerful sonic boom last week, rattling houses in California and Nevada. The meteor broke up as it traveled through our atmosphere, releasing the same amount of energy as if there had been a 5-kiloton explosion!

A sonic boom is an explosive sound caused by the shock wave of an object traveling faster than the speed of sound. The explosion was big enough to rattle windows, causes many Californians to think they had had an earthquake.

"An event of this size might happen about once a year," said Don Yeomans from NASA. "But most of them occur over the ocean or an uninhabited area, so getting to see one is something special."

Who can tell me why most of these meteor explosions happen over the ocean, rather than over land where we can see them? Hint: Think about the big, blue ball that is our Earth…...

Answer: Brian B., one of our readers, was onto the right idea. Most meteors explode over the ocean because oceans make up 71% of Earth’s surface. That means that most atmospheric events are likely to happen over the ocean, simply because there is so much of it.

Photo: Lisa Warren / NASA-JPL via AP

April 24, 2012

Scientists studying Orcas in the seas off eastern Russia have spotted an all-white killer whale, and have named him "Iceberg." 

Baby white orcas have been spotted in the past, including in Iceberg’s pod, but no one has ever seen one that grew to adulthood. Iceberg was photographed while he was swimming with 12 members of his pod off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

"In many ways, Iceberg is a symbol of all that is pure, wild and extraordinarily exciting about what is out there in the ocean waiting to be discovered," said Erich Hoyt, co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project. "The challenge is to keep the ocean healthy so that such surprises are always possible."

Photo: E. Lazareva/FEROP via AFP 

April 17, 2012

When we celebrate Earth Day, we are also recognizing the beauty of the plants and animals that share our planet with us.

Students often ask me how I get all my photographs of big, dangerous animals.

Sometimes, it is just as tricky to get a photo of a tiny, harmless animal like this one. The photographer who shot this was a scientist exploring life in the ocean deep, and she (wearing a wet suit to keep her warm) was also swimming in the frigid waters underneath the Arctic ice pack ice. Brrrrrrrrrrr! 

Photo: Elisabeth Calvert/NOAA

Take a digital photo showing an Earth treasure around your school or home that makes you appreciate our planet. Click on Send Us Photos/Video (in the yellow bar at the top of every page) and follow the instructions to upload it to the website. We will publish your Earth Day photos and videos on Seymour’s blog, and each person or class that uploads a photo will be entered into the drawing to win a personally autographed book from Seymour Simon!

April 3, 2012

Here’s a photograph that makes me think of the beauty and wonder of Earth. This rabbit is munching on snowdrops, which are usually one of the first flowers to appear in the spring - often even poking their heads through the snow!

A snow drop plant looks like three drops of milk hanging from a stem, which is where the flower gets its Latin name Galanthus, meaning "milk-white flowers."

Photo: Patrick Pieul/EPA

March 27, 2012

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a photograph that I took on Sunday afternoon. We were leaving our house in Columbia County, reluctantly heading back to the city, and decided to drive past Copake Lake.

As we were driving along the shore, I saw a swooping motion out of the corner of my eye, as a large bird dove into the water and came out with a fish in its beak.

I quickly pulled over, because many of my neighbors have told me that they have been seeing bald eagles this winter. Sure enough - my first close-up eagle sighting!

March 13, 2012

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is of a 3-week old baby squirrel, wearing a tiny cast on her arm after falling out of a tree. A couple in England were cutting branches off a tree in their yard, when they realized that one of the branches contained a squirrel’s nest. They saw the injured baby squirrel on the ground and called Animal Rescue.  They took her in, put a cast on her arm, and have been feeding her special milk that is similar to what her mother would have fed her.

Photo: Tim Goode / Solent News & Photo Agency

March 6, 2012

For today’s Cool Photo of the Week, we could not resist posting this adorable photograph of a Eurasian Red Squirrel. If you live in Europe or Asia, this is a common tree squirrel. Those of us who live here in North American are used to seeing its cousin, the Eastern Grey Squirrel. Our grey squirrels are bigger, and they don’t have these very cute ear-tufts!

February 28, 2012

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" shows the caretaker at a crocodile breeding center in Nepal brushing the teeth of a narrow snouted crocodile. This endangered species is bred in captivity and released into the wild once they can live on their own.

Photo: Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

February 21, 2012

Do you remember our story late last year about the rescue effort to save Blue Penguins, who were at risk after an oil spill of New Zealand? They have made great progress cleaning up the spill, but wild life rescuers are still collecting little sweaters, to have on hand for penguins who are rescued in the future. These penguins in their sweaters are so cute that we decided this qualified as our "Cool Photo of the Week"!

When they are soaked in oil, penguins need to be prevented from trying to preen themselves, so that they won’t ingest the toxic oil. And they also need help staying warm. Sweaters are the perfect solution to both of these problems, and knitters all over the world responded by making and sending penguin sweaters.

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