Phone Wallpaper - Bing Wallpaper Gallery

Oct 18, 2018Fall comes to the Last Frontier

Join us in celebrating Alaska Day here at beautiful Mendenhall Lake, just a stone’s throw from the state capital of Juneau. It seems a timeless sight, but the lake actually began to form in the early 1900s as Mendenhall Glacier receded, leaving a deeply carved valley in its wake that was soon filled with glacial melt. Today, the glacier still feeds the lake, much to the delight of the many visitors who arrive in Juneau each summer on cruise ships.Desktop Version

Mar 23, 2018Happy World Meteorological Day

On this World Meteorological Day, celebrated each year on March 23, we climb far above the Earth for a view of the southern Peruvian coast courtesy of the Landsat 8 satellite. Below the clouds, at the bottom of those canyons, are the Yauca and Acarí Rivers, which drain into the Pacific. As any good meteorologist taking a break from today’s celebrations will tell you, warm air from the equator forms a layer over the cool coastal air here, pushing the clouds into the deep river canyons and covering the Pacific Ocean shore.Desktop Version

May 21, 2018Is that a face in the sand?

Though the coastal Namib Desert begins in the southwest of Angola, and creeps into South Africa, the largest stretch of the Namib makes up the coastline of Namibia. Parts of the Namib rise in steep elevation, while the northern portion is often shrouded in thick fog rolling off the Atlantic. The fog over the region called the Skeleton Coast is responsible for numerous shipwrecks, but the moisture it brings into the harsh desert landscape is crucial to the flora and fauna that thrive here.Desktop Version

Jan 16, 2022Hot and Spicy Food Day

The super-spicy curries of Bangladeshi cuisine start out here in the chili fields, where workers harvest and sort red chili peppers by hand. Once picked, the peppers are sun-dried and used whole or ground into powder. The chilis not only add a flavorful kick to foods but help kill bacteria as well. Plus, spicy foods help diners cool down: One natural reaction to capsaicin, the active chemical in chilis, is sweating, which can help chill the skin amid tropical heat.Desktop Version

Jul 6, 2019Racers pushing past sunflowers in the 2018 Tour de France

Cyclists have been competing in this prestigious, multi-stage race since 1903. The route is changed every year but always includes a mix of terrains and elevations, mostly in France. Originally conceived as a promotion for a newspaper, the Tour is now a worldwide sporting event that draws billions of viewers each year, making it more popular than the Super Bowl. Here, competitors are biking alongside the summertime sunflowers of southern France that are in full bloom during the race. This scenic image is a foil to the grueling duration of the race, which covers more than 2,000 miles over a 23-day span. Although athletes are organized into teams, the individual who completes the strenuous course in the overall shortest amount of time wins and gets a cash prize often shared with teammates. This year’s race starts in Belgium and will pedal past the iconic sunflowers around stage 16 before coming to a stop in Paris.Desktop Version

Feb 16, 2021Mardi Gras flower power

While the purple flowers and green ironwork may not look overly festive to the untrained eye, residents of New Orleans will no doubt spot the significance of both, especially today, on Mardi Gras, the final day of Carnival. Purple and green are two of the three official colors of Mardi Gras, together with gold, and in a normal year the streets would be full of revelers decked out in all three colors as they dance and parade down the streets of the city. Due to COVID-19, there won"t be any parades this year, but the colors will still be on full display in the city"s famous French Quarter and elsewhere, including as colorful icing atop king cakes, a beloved treat that"s associated with the Carnival season.Desktop Version

Oct 26, 2020Corfe gets creepy

Spying the crooked silhouette of Corfe Castle above the rolling, foggy hills of Dorset, England, you might not guess at the ruin"s former palatial beauty—you"ll more likely sense its long history of intrigue, and maybe feel a chill down your spine.Desktop Version

Oct 16, 2018Hey, who’s in charge here?

On Boss’s Day, we’re showcasing a working relationship with unusual power dynamics. The oxpecker bird and the African buffalo, while of starkly different sizes, make a good team. The oxpecker feeds exclusively while perched on the buffalo’s body, removing bothersome parasites and bugs while getting a steady supply of food for itself. Some scientists believe this to be an example of a symbiotic relationship, but others think the oxpecker behaves more like a parasite. Ah, office politics.Desktop Version

Jul 5, 2019Peel Castle on St. Patrick’s Isle with the Isle of Man in the background

The Isle of Man has a long and complicated history of invasions, conquests, and systems of government. Pictured on today’s homepage are the ruins of the cathedral on the grounds of Peel Castle, on St. Patrick’s Isle (which is connected by a causeway to the rest of the island). Vikings built the original wooden fortification during the 11th century on a location that had older Celtic monastic structures made of stone, which were incorporated into the castle. Over the next eight centuries, the various Norse, Scottish, and English rulers of the area added battlements, towers, and the cathedral to the grounds.Desktop Version

Feb 29, 2020It s leap day!

For leap day (the extra day added to February every four years), we"re looking at a Wallace"s flying frog. Also known as parachute frogs, these critters live in the tropical jungles of Malaysia and Borneo. They spend most of their time in trees, gliding down to the ground to mate and lay eggs. They "fly" by leaping and using their webbed fingers and toes to glide as far as 50 feet.Desktop Version

Dec 6, 2021Computer Science EDU Week

In the decidedly pre-digital 19th century, English polymath Charles Babbage developed his design for an Analytical Engine, a machine that incorporates many of the functional ideas of modern computers. The diagram in our photo today shows the plans for the inner workings of Babbage"s mechanical computer. Construction was difficult and expensive, given the precision required for the crafted metal parts, so Babbage tinkered on his own but died before he saw his vision realized. Engineers have since built working models of Babbage"s machine.Desktop Version

Mar 16, 2022Panda Day

There"s just something comforting about giant pandas. They"re stoic but look cuddly, and their unusual black and white markings make them distinctive. Pandas are one of the animals we recognize from an early age. But while we may take them for granted, they"ve been under threat from shrinking habitats and food supply as people harvest bamboo and build roads and train tracks through their forests. National Panda Day on March 16 spreads awareness about these beloved bears and encourages us to safeguard their future.Desktop Version

Jul 7, 2018The Grand Départ: Tour de France begins

All eyes are on France today as 22 teams begin the 105th Tour de France, the prestigious cycling race that takes competitors more than 2,000 miles through the countryside. Our image show the peloton (the main pack of riders) racing down a tree-lined road from Montélimar to the Parc des Oiseaux in Villars-les-Dombes during Stage 14 of the Tour de France in 2016. If you’re new to the competition, here’s what you need to know: The race includes 21 stages that span 22 days. Competitors will climb at grades of up to 11 percent through the Alps and Pyrenees, and pedal over miles of cobblestone and dirt roads, country lanes and highways, at last coming to a finish at the Champs-Élysées in Paris. When you see the peloton, keep an eye out for the yellow jersey–at each stage it’s worn by the cyclist with the overall leading time and is ultimately awarded to the winner. Bonne chance, riders!Desktop Version

Jul 14, 2018Does this shark have an Irish accent?

Our Shark Awareness Day celebrity is a blue shark swimming in the cold waters off Cork, Ireland. The inspiration for its name comes from the blue shark’s back color, not its mood. It’s currently listed as ‘near threatened’—a status all too common for sharks today. Why celebrate an apex predator that most humans associate with horror movies? Because without sharks acting as population control on other marine life, the world’s oceans would be a very different place. Blue sharks eat a lot of squid and fish, and like land predators, help to keep their prey from overpopulation. Mother Nature keeps us in a delicate balance, so it’s important that we don’t accidentally remove a vital member of that system… even if that creature seems scary to most of us.Desktop Version

Oct 17, 2020Fog above the forest

Today we"re looking out over Pisgah National Forest, which was established on this day in 1916. One of the first national forests established in the eastern United States, it comprises more than 500,000 acres of mountainous peaks, cascading waterfalls, and heavily forested slopes. With hundreds of miles of trails, Pisgah is a popular place for hiking, backpacking, road biking, mountain biking, fishing, and rock climbing.Desktop Version

Sep 30, 2018Aw shucks, it’s oyster season in Galway

When you think of Ireland, do you think of oysters? The proud oyster farmers here in Galway Bay think you should. This weekend, fans of the bivalve have poured into the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival, an event that claims to be the oldest oyster festival in the world--and the most recognized Irish festival outside of St. Patrick’s Day. Visit Galway yourself and you can sample the native oysters, which have been harvested here for centuries, and also try the Pacific varieties that were brought in during the 1970s. Fans of native Galway oysters tout their meaty texture and subtle flavor. They pair well with Guinness, we presume.Desktop Version

Jul 21, 2018And you thought moths were boring

National Moth Week shines the porch light on an unlikely hero. Unlike their showier cousins, butterflies, moths get a bad rap from time to time, and that’s fair, as caterpillars of some moth species are agricultural pests. But before you break out the mothballs, take a gander at winged wonders like the comet moth, shown here. Scientists estimate that there are some 160,000 species of moths worldwide, many just as stunning as our comet moth, and tracking their health often helps us gauge the health of entire ecosystems.Desktop Version

Aug 8, 2021Bridge to infinity

Infinity Day has us visiting Perth, Australia, and the Elizabeth Quay Bridge. From this aerial view, the bridge closely resembles a tilted ∞, the common symbol for infinity first popularized in a 17th-century mathematical text. We recognize this unofficial holiday every August 8, because the number 8 resembles the infinity symbol—at least when tipped on its side—and the eighth day of the eighth month is an infinitely superior day to celebrate the infinite.Desktop Version

Oct 6, 2019Land ho in New Zealand 250 years ago

On October 6, 1769—250 years ago today—Captain James Cook reached New Zealand on his first voyage to the Pacific. He would eventually map the entire New Zealand coastline, including the area here at Marlborough Sounds, a network of ancient sunken river valleys on New Zealand"s South Island. The main purpose of Cook"s voyage to the Pacific was to sail to Tahiti and observe the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Only after completing this task did Cook unseal the rest of his orders and learn he was to search the South Pacific for signs of a fabled great southern continent, Terra Australis Incognito. European Renaissance geographers believed this hypothetical southern landmass must exist in order to counterbalance the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.Desktop Version

Jul 11, 2021Why, aloe there

Aloe isn"t just that itch-relief ooze you buy at the supermarket. Aloes are some of the most splendid succulent plants in nature, coming in many shapes and colors. While the rubbery, gel-filled leaves of most aloe plants are long and spear-shaped, those of the pictured Aloe polyphylla species are stout and tightly set—one of many examples in nature of a near-perfect spiral. Commonly called spiral aloe, it"s a coveted garden plant with specific growing conditions that make it hard to keep alive. Even in nature it"s rare and native only to the chilly mountains of Lesotho, a tiny kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa.Desktop Version

Oct 7, 2019From the mind of Frank Gehry

Today"s image features the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and his firm, Gehry Partners, in 2005. The building consists of three different elements: a medical building with spaces for patient care and research; the Life Activity Center, a for-hire event space which helps fund the center"s research; and a breezeway connecting the two spaces. Some have likened these elements to the hemispheres of the brain itself, with the medical building representing rational thinking and the event space (seen here) giving form to creative thinking.Desktop Version

Sep 12, 2020A city, a cliff, a canyon…and cheese

Gazing down the lush Alzou river valley at the vertically-oriented village of Rocamadour, you won"t be surprised some regard the medieval French town as a holy site: Its beauty alone is mystical. The gorges of southwestern France are home to numerous striking historic hamlets built along and atop their steep edges. But Rocamadour is special as a stop for thousands of pilgrims on the Way of Saint James, a UNESCO-recognized traditional route through France and Spain that still draws journeyers both pious and secular. The town"s cliff-top sanctuary and the black-painted Madonna statue within have been purported to have healing powers. If you"re drawn to more earthly sources of good health, though, Rocamadour also lends its name to a delicious, locally crafted goat cheese.Desktop Version

Oct 15, 2021Autumn in the Prosecco Hills

It"s fall here in the Prosecco Hills of northeastern Italy. We"re just outside Farra di Soligo, a village about 30 miles northwest of Venice. This region is known for growing the glera grape used to make the sparkling white wine called prosecco. Once considered a poor cousin to Champagne, prosecco now eclipses it in global popularity. More than 600 million bottles of prosecco were produced in Italy in 2018, about twice the amount of Champagne.Desktop Version

Feb 28, 2021Tough turf

Roofs of sod have sheltered mainland Scandinavians through countless winters and summers. But those who migrated from Norway"s grass-roof log cabins to this Icelandic tundra in the 9th century found none of the rich timberland of their homeland—just wispy birch forests and grassy fields. To survive the cold, they took the old turf roof concept and built on it, encasing not only the roofs but the walls of their birch-framed homes in layers of living, insulating soil.Desktop Version

Mar 24, 2023Wild garlic in bloom at Hainich National Park, Germany

These pristine, white blooms are wild garlic plants, probably not what comes to mind when you think of flowers. You can get a closer look if you visit the Hainich National Park in Thuringia, Germany. This national park was founded in 1997 to protect its ancient beech forest, which is full of lush deciduous trees.Desktop Version

Bing wallpaper for mobile