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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 (2024-07-24)

French battleship Justice

Justice was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. She was the second member of the Liberté class, which included three other vessels and was a derivative of the preceding République class. Justice carried a main battery of four 305 mm (12 in) guns, with ten 194 mm (7.6 in) guns for her secondary armament. On entering service, Justice became the flagship of the 2nd Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, participating in the training routine of squadron and fleet maneuvers and cruises, as well as several naval reviews. During World War I, Justice was used to escort troopship convoys carrying elements of the French Army from North Africa to face the Germans invading northern France and also steamed to contain the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, taking part in the minor Battle of Antivari. She was sent to the Black Sea after the war to oversee the surrender of German-occupied Russian warships, and then briefly became a training ship, before being decommissioned in the early 1920s. This photograph shows Justice in 1909 near New York City.

Photograph credit: Detroit Publishing Company; restored by Adam Cuerden

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Today (2024-07-25)

Pisaura mirabilis

Pisaura mirabilis is a species of arachnid in the family Pisauridae, the nursery web spiders. It has a palearctic distribution, being found all over Europe, and also inhabits the Canary Islands and Madeira, the Asian part of Russia, China and North Africa. It lives in all habitats but prefers wet environments, and inhabits all strata from the ground to the top of trees, at altitudes up to 1,100 metres (3,600 feet), but is not found under rocks or in caves. The spider has relatively long legs, the fourth pair being the longest, and a slender opisthosoma. Males are 10 to 13 millimetres (0.39 to 0.51 in) in length, while females are 12 to 15 millimetres (0.47 to 0.59 in). This photograph shows a female P. mirabilis spider carrying an egg sac, photographed at a lake near Wolvercote in Oxfordshire, England.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Tomorrow (2024-07-26)

Apollo 15

Apollo 15 (July 26 – August 7, 1971) was the fourth crewed mission to land on the Moon. It was the first of three J missions, with a longer stay on the Moon, a greater focus on science, and the use of the first Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). David Scott and James Irwin landed near Hadley Rille and spent 18 and a half hours on extravehicular activity (EVA), collecting 170 pounds (77 kg) of surface material. During the return trip, Alfred Worden performed the first spacewalk in deep space. The mission included the collection of the Genesis Rock, thought to be part of the Moon's early crust, and Scott used a hammer and a feather to demonstrate Galileo's theory that, absent air resistance, objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass. The mission was later marred when it was found that the crew had carried unauthorized postal covers to the lunar surface, some of which were sold by a West German stamp dealer. The crew was reprimanded for poor judgment, and none flew in space again. This photograph, taken by Scott during an EVA on August 2, shows Irwin giving a military salute beside the U.S. flag. The Lunar Module Falcon is in the center, with the LRV on the right.

Photograph credit: David Scott; restored by Bammesk and Basile Morin