NASA asked the public to choose its all-time best photos of Earth. Here are 17 of them.

To honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and he 20th anniversary of NASA’s Earth Observatory, the agency asked the public to pick our all-time best image on Earth. After five a five-round tournament and more than 56,000 votes, the readers chose Ocean Sand, Bahamas as their favorite. We’ve posted 16 of the other top…

Tod Perry

May 5, 2020

Array – Photo credit: via Nasa

We’ve posted 16 of the other top entrants. You can see the complete tournament results at Earth Observatory.

Ocean Sand, Bahamas (2001)

Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas.

The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

Raikoke Erupts (2019)

An unexpected series of blasts from a remote volcano in the Kuril Islands sent ash and volcanic gases streaming high over the North Pacific Ocean.

“What a spectacular image. It reminds me of the classic Sarychev Peak astronaut photograph of an eruption in the Kuriles from about ten years ago,” said Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Tech. “The ring of white puffy clouds at the base of the column might be a sign of ambient air being drawn into the column and the condensation of water vapor. Or it could be a rising plume from interaction between magma and seawater because Raikoke is a small island and flows likely entered the water.”

Where the Dunes End (2019)

Mountains of sand, some as tall as 300 meters (1000 feet), reach from the floor of Africa’s Namib Desert toward the sky. Driven by wind, these dunes march across the desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.

The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in these images, acquired on November 13, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea—a field of sand dunes spanning more than 3 million hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) within the Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013. Sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.

Twin Blue Marbles (2007)

This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists. The twin images are a composite of multiple images taken between 1994 and 2004.

Fire in the Sky and on the Ground (2011)

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.

Retreat of the Columbia Glacier (2014)

Scientists have long studied Alaska’s fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidewater glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains into Prince William Sound. Yet the river of ice continues to deliver new surprises.

Preliminary results show that both the West Branch and the East Branch (which feeds into the Main Branch) are now moving between 5 and 10 meters (16 and 33 feet) per day. That’s slow for Columbia, but fast compared to other glaciers.

View of Earth from Saturn (2006)

Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot. The image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.

The Dark Side and the Bright Side (2015)

A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has captured a unique view of the Moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth. A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.

The images were taken over the course of five hours on July 16, 2015.

A Voyager Far From Home (1977)

The image of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon was captured on September 18, 1977, when Voyager was a mere 11.66 million kilometers (7.25 million miles) from Earth and directly above Mount Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude).

On September 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Thirty-five years later, the planetary probe is now an interstellar traveler, having traveled farther from Earth than any manmade object in history.

Roiling Flows on Holuhraun Lava Field (2014)

On September 6, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of the ongoing eruption in Iceland.

Ice and the plume of steam and sulfur dioxide appear cyan and bright blue, while liquid water is navy blue. Bare or rocky ground around the Holuhraun lava field appears in shades of green or brown in this band combination. Fresh lava is bright orange and red.

Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record (2020)

On February 6, 2020, weather stations recorded the hottest temperature on record for Antarctica. Thermometers at the Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula reached 18.3°C (64.9°F)—around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers.

The warm temperatures arrived on February 5 and continued until February 13, 2020. The images above show melting on the ice cap of Eagle Island and were acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on February 4 and February 13, 2020.

Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (2009)

At roughly eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo Atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south are not shown) comprising the Tokelau Islands group located in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Making Waves in the Andaman Sea (2020)

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured these images of the Andaman Sea on November 29, 2019. The reflection of the Sun on the ocean—sunglint—helps make the internal waves visible. The colors also have been slightly enhanced. The detailed swirls, fronts, and patterns are all quite real, but certain shades and tones in the data have been separated and filtered to make water features more visible.

Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth (2018)

During one day in August, tropical cyclones, dust storms, and fires spread tiny particles throughout the atmosphere.

The Electric Eye of Cyclone Bansi (2015)

Bansi formed in the southwestern Indian Ocean on January 11, 2015. By the time this photo was taken on the following day, Bansi had achieved tropical cyclone strength, with sustained maximum winds over 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour. The cyclone would reach category 4 strength before becoming a weak extra-tropical system on January 19.

Awesome, Frightening Views of Hurricane Florence (2018)

Satellites and astronauts observed the potent storm as it headed for landfall in the southeastern United States.

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Youth-led party for community engagement, MEDEA, Tanzania Captured by James Roh for Pura

Culture, Education, Empowered Women, Equality, Family, Identity, Modern Families, Uncategorized

The next generation of female leaders has arrived. Here’s how they’re making sure they (and every girl) get a chance to learn.

Malala Fund and their local partners, with support from Pura, help girls find their voice. The result: greater access to education and a better world.

Sarah Watts

3/8/2026

Music, community and joy drive real change

In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.

It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.

The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?

Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.

MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura

Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.

Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.

Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.

A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission

Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.

But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.

The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.

You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.

Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil

Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura

In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.

“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.

But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.

Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura

Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.

“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”

Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria

Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura

In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.

“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”

When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.

Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.

Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura

To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”

“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”

From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.

Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.

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An image f Marie Tharp with her elbow on an oceanic map – Photo credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Planet, Science

Her groundbreaking sea floor discovery was dismissed as ‘girl talk.’ But science proved her right.

Marie Tharp changed how humanity sees the planet. Yet so many have never heard her name.

Heather Wake

2/13/2026

Most of us learn about the Earth’s shifting tectonic plates by middle school. But in Marie Tharp’s time, this fact we now take for granted was a groundbreaking, radical concept…and one that had to overcome gender bias.
In 1957, Tharp, a geologist and oceanographic cartographer, and her colleague Bruce Heezenhad published the first map of the Atlantic. Tharp endured considerable challenges due to sexism. For one thing, women weren’t allowed on the ships that collected the seafloor data to make the maps in the first place. So Tharp spent hours at a desk translating thousands of sonar readings from those ships that wouldn’t take her.
Her hand-drawn maps eventually revealed that the seafloor was covered in canyons, ridges, and mountains…all of which suggested that at some point, pieces of the Earth had moved.

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This was important because the previous mainstream view was that the ocean floor was flat and motionless. However, Tharp’s findings supported Alfred Wegener highly controversial “continental drift theory,” which first suggested that the present-day continents once fit together as a supercontinent, aka Pangaea, in 1912.
Of course, we now know Pangea to be a real thing, but not long ago, this idea was considered heresy. And so when Tharp reintroduced it through her findings, Heezen dismissed it as “girl talk,” or an “old wives’ tale,” depending on where you look. Either way, the context reads pretty clear.

Heezen would come around in time, but the duo would also have to sway the rest of the scientific community. Keep in mind, the supposed peaks and valleys were, at this point, only conjecture. However, in 1959, when Jacques Cousteau, determined to prove Tharp wrong, lowered his underwater camera with 16-millimeter film into the middle of the ocean, and a valley was indeed there…it became fairly evident that she was right.
Though it was primarily Tharp’s groundbreaking findings that paved the way for our new understanding, she was still seen as “merely a technician,” and therefore Heezen took the lion’s share of the credit as they continued their work together, which eventually included mapping all of the world’s oceans. She wouldn’t even be allowed to set foot on a research cruise until 1968.
But proving her tenacity, Tharp was nevertheless able to make a life-changing scientific contribution in spite of it all, a) because she was resourceful, and b) because she believed in the importance of her work. As she herself said,

“I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together. It was a once-in-a-lifetime — a once-in-the-history-of-the-world-opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s.”
In time, Tharp would get some recognition. In 1997, the Library of Congress named her one of the greatest cartographers of the 20th century. And in 2023, National Geographic awarded her the highly prestigious Hubbard Medal.

And of course, every time we look at a map, we witness a bit of her signature. Still, one can’t help but wonder what other women from history secretly shaped the way we view the world today, and the pains they took to do so.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson at CSI Con 2022. – Photo credit: via Karl Withakay/Wikimedia Commons

Planet, Popular, Science

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the impossible concept of ‘nothing’ in less than one minute

“Behold, a true nothing.”

Tod Perry

2/11/2026

One of the greatest philosophical, scientific, and religious questions that humankind has ever asked is: Why is there something instead of nothing? Why do we have a universe, or possibly multiple universes, when there could just be a big nothing and no one or thing to contemplate its lack of existence?
To add another layer to this incredible mystery is the question of what nothing is. We know what something is; we see matter around us and can measure energy, but as humans, we’ve never been able to experience true nothingness, so it feels impossible to comprehend. That’s why we should all be thankful for astrophysicist and science communicator, Neil deGrasse Tyson. He created a video that takes us step by step through how we get from something to nothing in under a minute.

Step 1: Life on Earth
“Is this nothing?” Tyson asks, waving his hand. “No, it’s air. Let’s go with there’s no air.”
Step 2: Outside our atmosphere
“No, there’s still a few particles floating there between the planets, so it’s not quite nothing.”
Step 3: Space
“How about between the stars? Less, but there’s still something there. Between the galaxies? Less, but there’s still just a few particles per cubic meter that lurk there.”
Step 4: Pure vacuum of space
“There’s something called virtual particles that pop in and out of existence. Quantum physics tells us this. So there’s still something there.”
Step 5: True nothing
“To get a true nothing, you have to go where there’s not even space or time. But if laws of physics still apply, then there’s still something there. So you have to go to not only where there’s no matter and no space time, but where there are no laws at all. Behold, a true nothing.”
Tyson explained his concept of “nothing” in a StarTalk episode with his co-host, Chuck Nice.

If that explanation didn’t quite pull you into the realm of understanding, Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, did his best to describe it to Vice.
“In quantum field theory, which we think is our best way of describing the universe that we have right now, space is kind of interesting,” Carroll explained. “Even if it’s as empty as it can be, there are still quantum mechanical [properties]—they’re just in a zero-energy state not doing anything. But you could probe the vacuum, as particle physics does, and discover its properties.
“Empty space is a very interesting place in modern physics; there’s a lot going on, whereas, if it were nothing, there would be nothing going on,” he said. “It’s probably better to think of nothing as the absence of even space and time, rather than space and time without anything in them.”
Now that you probably have a good idea of what nothing is, we’re back to the big question: Why is there something instead of nothing? Tyson and Carroll discuss the biggest question in the universe in the section below.

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Carl Sagan used a sliced apple to perfectly explain the fourth dimension. – Photo credit: via Carl Sagan Planetary Society/Wikimedia Commons and John Finkelstein/Pexels

Planet, Popular, Science

46 years ago, Carl Sagan beautifully explained the fourth dimension using a sliced apple

Carl Sagan was the Mister Rogers of complex scientific concepts.

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

2/9/2026

How do you explain the concept of a fourth dimension to humans who are only able to see in 3-D? Physical space can be measured in height, width, and depth. What is there beyond or in addition to those three dimensions? How can we understand the existence of a dimension we cannot picture?
Thankfully, we had Carl Sagan, one of the greatest science communicators of his time, to help us visualize a fourth dimension. Perhaps best known for his research into extraterrestrial life, Sagan was among the first to demonstrate that life could have existed on Mars. Sagan possessed a unique gift for demystifying complex scientific concepts, making them accessible and thrilling for the general public. He could be described as a scientific Mister Rogers: friendly, a wonderful storyteller, and able to distill difficult lessons into their simplest form.
In 1980, on Episode 10 of the groundbreaking PBS show “Cosmos,” Sagan embarked on a mission to explain the seemingly impossible fourth dimension. It’s a hypnotic, entertaining, and incredibly enlightening watch:

Many of us have commonly heard of time being considered the fourth dimension. That’s not so hard to understand — in order to locate an object in the universe, you’d need to know three dimensions of its spatial location and also the time during which it exists.
But there is also a more theoretical and harder to understand place, where all four dimensions are spatial. It is nearly impossible for any of us to comprehend… without the help of a gifted teacher.
What’s excellent about Sagan’s explanation is that he uses simple and relatable objects: an apple and a Tesseract, or hypercube.
“In discussing the large-scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved. Or that the universe is finite but unbound,” Sagan begins. “Whatever are they talking about?”
Yeah, this guy gets it.
Sagan then explains how a two-dimensional being living in a flat world would perceive a three-dimensional object like an apple.

Sagan used an apple to help explain the fourth dimension. Photo credit: Canva

“Imagine we live in this ‘Flatland’/2-D plane with no concept of ‘up’ or ‘down.’ Then along comes a 3-D object like an apple. We do not even notice it until it crosses our plane of existence — and even then, we have no idea what the apple is,” Sagan explains. “We see only a fragment as it passes through our plane. There is no way we can comprehend the 3-D quality/dimension of the apple, because it is beyond our understanding. We only have the evidence of what has passed through our plane.”
To further demonstrate, Sagan stamps the apple into an inkpad and then onto the surface in front of him, which represents Flatland and all of its inhabitants. Inside Flatland, the apple exists only as its points of contact on the paper; or four small dots. He adds that as the apple passes through the 2-dimensional Flatland, its cross-section changes. So someone living in that plane of existence would experience the apple as an ever-shifting and rearranging set of shapes or objects. Wild!
Sagan then related this two-dimensional experience of the third dimension to how we might try to understand the fourth. To do so, he used the Tesseract, a four-dimensional cube, to demonstrate how difficult it is for us to perceive or visualize dimensions beyond our own three.

A hypercube is used tou00a0representu00a0four dimensions. Photo credit: Canva

Sagan explains that the tesseract is a cube expanded into a 4th dimension, but “I cannot show you a tesseract because I, and you, are trapped in three dimensions.” But what he can do is show us a 3-dimensional rendering of one. Just like a cube can be drawn and approximated (or cast a shadow) onto a piece of paper, a 4-dimensional tesseract can be imperfectly represented in 3-dimensional space. Still following?
At this point, Sagan is asking the viewer to expand their minds to understand the fourth dimension metaphorically. Though we cannot see it or even properly visualize it, that doesn’t mean that the things we can see can’t offer clues and lessons about the fourth dimension.

Carl Sagan gave many popular lectures. Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Commons

Studying 4-dimensional space can help us understand the universe around us. Just because we see and experience only three dimensions doesn’t mean that’s all that exists. It’s critical for physicists and mathematicians to be able to understand and map these theoretical spaces to better comprehend things we otherwise can not explain. Remember the ever-changing, rearranging set of shapes as the apple passes through Flatland?
Sagan’s demonstration of the fourth dimension isn’t just a wonderful explanation of a scientific idea that many of us find difficult to comprehend; it’s also a great example of how to teach complex ideas by combining clear explanations, everyday concepts everyone can understand, and brilliant storytelling.
You can check out more of Carl Sagan’s brilliant scientific explanations on the carlsagan.com YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

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In Partnership With Ocean Wise →

Array – Photo credit: Array

Art, Community, Culture, Joy, Love Stories, Planet, Popular, Science, Sponsored

Our favorite giveaway is back. Enter to win a free, fun date!

It’s super easy, no purchase or donation necessary, and you help our oceans! That’s what we call a win-win-win. Enter here.

Prutha Patel

2/6/2026
Our love for the ocean runs deep. Does yours? Enter here!

This Valentine’s Day, we’re bringing back our favorite giveaway with Ocean Wise. You have the chance to win the ultimate ocean-friendly date. Our recommendation? Celebrate love for all your people this Valentine’s Day! Treat your mom friends to a relaxing spa trip, take your best friend to an incredible concert, or enjoy a beach adventure with your sibling! Whether you’re savoring a romantic seafood dinner or enjoying a movie night in, your next date could be on us!

Here’s how to enter:
- Go to upworthy.com/oceandate and complete the quick form for a chance to win – it’s as easy as that.
- P.S. If you follow @oceanwise or donate after entering, you’ll get extra entries!
Here are the incredible dates:

1. Give mom some relaxation

She’s up before the sun and still going at bedtime. She’s the calendar keeper, the lunch packer, the one who remembers everything so no one else has to. Moms are always creating magic for us. This Valentine’s Day, we’re all in for her. Win an eco-friendly spa day near you, plus a stash of All In snack bars—because she deserves a treat that’s as real as she is. Good for her, kinder to the ocean. That’s the kind of love we can all get behind.

Special thanks to our friends at All In who are all in on helping moms!

2. Jump in the ocean, together

Grab your favorite person and get some much-needed ocean time. Did you know research on “blue spaces” suggests that being near water is linked with better mental health and well-being, including feeling calmer and less stressed? We’ll treat you to a beach adventure like a surfing or sailing class, plus ocean-friendly bags from GOT Bag and blankets from Sand Cloud so your day by the water feels good for you and a little gentler on the ocean too.

Special thanks to our friends at GOT Bag. They make saving the ocean look stylish and fun!

3. Couch potato time

Love nights in as much as you love a date night out? We’ve got you. Have friends over for a movie night or make it a cozy night in with your favorite person. You’ll get a Disney+ and Hulu subscription so you can watch Nat Geo ocean content, plus a curated list of ocean-friendly documentaries and a movie-night basket of snacks. Easy, comfy, and you’ll probably come out of it loving the ocean even more.

4. Dance all day!

Soak up the sun and catch a full weekend of live music at BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, May 1–3, 2026, featuring Duran Duran, The Offspring, James Taylor and His All-Star Band, The Chainsmokers, My Morning Jacket, Slightly Stoopid, and Sheryl Crow. The perfect date to bring your favorite person on!

We also love that BeachLife puts real energy into protecting the coastline it’s built on by spotlighting ocean and beach-focused nonprofit partners and hosting community events like beach cleanups.

Date includes two (2) three-day GA tickets. Does not include accommodation, travel, or flights.

5. Chef it up (at home)

Stay in and cook something delicious with someone you love. We’ll hook you up with sustainable seafood ingredients and some additional goodies for a dinner for two, so you can eat well and feel good knowing your meal supports healthier oceans and more responsible fishing.

_{^{Giveaway ends 2/15/26 at 11:59pm PT. Winners will be selected at random and contacted via email from the Upworthy. No purchase necessary. Open to residents of the U.S. and specific Canadian provinces that have reached age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence at the time. Please see terms and conditions for specific instructions. Giveaway not affiliated with Instagram. More details at upworthy.com/oceandate}}
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In Partnership With Ocean Wise →

Art, Community, Culture, Joy, Love Stories, Planet, Popular, Science, Sponsored

Copy of Enter this giveaway for a free, fun date!

It’s super easy, no purchase or donation necessary, and you help our oceans! That’s what we call a win-win-win. Enter here.

Prutha Patel

1/28/2026
Our love for the ocean runs deep. Does yours? Enter here!

This Valentine’s Day, we’re teaming up with Ocean Wise to give you the chance to win the ultimate ocean-friendly date. Whether you’re savoring a romantic seafood dinner, catching waves with surf lessons, or grooving to a concert by the beach, your next date could be on us!

Here’s how to enter:
- Go to ocean.org/date and complete the quick form for a chance to win – it’s as easy as that.
- P.s. If you follow @oceanwise or donate after entering, you’ll get extra entries!
Here are the incredible dates:

1. Staycation + Surf Lesson

Hang ten on the ultimate ocean date! Whether you’re beginners or seasoned surfers, a cozy stay by the ocean and surf lessons will have you riding the waves and making unforgettable memories together.

2. A Year of Netflix

Get cozy and explore the wonders of the ocean right from your couch! Whether you’re diving into breathtaking documentaries or finally watching My Octopus Teacher, enjoy a full year of streaming on us.

3. BeachLife Festival Tickets

Soak up the sun and enjoy Lenny Kravitz, Sublime, Alanis Morissette, and more at BeachLife Festival May 2-4, 2025. Celebrate your love for music and sea at the LA’s Premier Beach Music Festival!

4. Private Cooking Lesson with Michelin-starred Chef

Learn how to make a delicious meal with Matthew Kammerer who has earned a Michelin green star due to his commitment to sustainability in addition to two Michelin stars for his restaurant – Harbor House Inn.

5. Dinner for Two at Wrench and Rodent

Sustainable seafood isn’t just delicious, it’s an excellent way to combat overfishing. Enjoy dinner for two at the incredible Wrench and Rodent, courtesy of Chef Davin Waite in San Diego, California. Wow your date with both a delicious meal and the knowledge you’re supporting a healthy, thriving ocean!

_{^{Giveaway ends 2/11/25 at 11:59pm PT. Winners will be selected at random and contacted via email from the Upworthy. No purchase necessary. Open to residents of the U.S. and specific Canadian provinces that have reached age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence at the time. Please see terms and conditions for specific instructions. Giveaway not affiliated with Instagram. More details at ocean.org/date}}
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December 21 is the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. One woman documented just how dark it really is. – Photo credit: Canva

Planet, Science

‘Florida girl’ documents darkest day of the year in North Pole, Alaska, and people have questions

“Why would anyone live here?”

Evan Porter

1/2/2026

Does the number 23.5 mean anything to you? It sounds random, but it’s a relatively famous number that refers to the degree Earth tilts on its axis as it rotates around the sun. The fact that the Earth is not standing “straight up,” so to speak, is responsible for a number of fascinating phenomenon in how we experience the sun’s light and warmth.
When our respective portions of the Earth are tilted toward the sun, we receive more heat and longer daylight hours. But some areas of the globe are situated in such a way that Earth’s tilt can cause much more dramatic swings. The Arctic, famously, has a “Midnight Sun” where the sun does not fully set for around two months in the summer. The effect can also be experienced to a lesser degree in lower portions of the Northern hemisphere, including Alaska.
One woman recently documented her experience living through North Pole, Alaska’s “darkest day of the year,” which falls on December 21.
The Winter Solstice has the Northern hemisphere away from the sun, so North Pole, Alaska (not the true North Pole, as in, where Santa Claus lives) receives only a small window of sunlight.

Though it's not the true North Pole, North Pole, Alaska has fun with the whole Santa thing. By Dylan Avery/Wikimedia Commons

Emily, who goes by FBX Foodie on TikTok, shared a video on December 21, 2025 where she begins by standing outside in the pitch black at 7:30 a.m., or about the time the sun should be risen or well on its way in much of the rest of the world.
The self-described “Florida girl,” who recently moved to Alaska with her husband who is stationed there on military duty, has been sharing her journey in acclimating to a very different climate. And that’s putting it mildly. The couple is currently a year into a four-year assignment.
Not only is the sky pitch black, but the temperatures are frigid. In the morning, when she began filming, the temperature was around -40 degrees Fahrenheit. By 8:40, nothing has changed. Everything is still dark and extremely cold.
About an hour later, a crack of light is just barely visible. “This is kind of what I call blue hour,” she says. “It’s not pitch black outside but it’s not necessarily daylight either. We still have about an hour and a half until sunrise.”
By 10:36, the sun is creeping over the horizon, like the early dawn hours anywhere else. Just a few short hours later at 1:25 p.m., the sun is visible in the sky!
But just as soon as it appears, hovering low and orange like a sunset, it’s already on its way down. Shortly before 5 p.m., the day is “over” and pitch black returns.

@fbxfoodie
Happy Winter Solstice! Glad we will be slowly but surely gaining more daylight ❤️ #fairbanks #northpole #alaska #alaskalife #lifeinalaska
♬ original sound – FBX Foodie | fairbanks, ak

Though many people have heard of Alaska’s strange solstices, over five million viewers were stunned to see just how short the day really was in North Pole, Alaska.
“i would be so depressed,” one commenter wrote.
“I would have absolutely zero motivation,” added another.
“Why are you outside?” someone asked, justly.
“I just wouldn’t get out of bed. A heated blanket would hate to see me coming,” one person joked.
Other viewers noted that the conditions seemed prime for sleep and relaxation. If you’re someone who needs complete darkness for a good night’s sleep, you’d love it in North Pole, Alaska.
In a series of follow-up videos, Emily answered some of the many questions she got after her video went massively viral.

@fbxfoodie
Replying to @Silklight24 answering a few common questions from my last videos, like why do I live here, how do I get around, how warm it gets, etc.! #alaskalife #fairbanks #northpole #alaska #lifeinalaska
♬ original sound – FBX Foodie | fairbanks, ak

“Why would anyone want to live there?” Emily says that, though she doesn’t exactly live there by choice herself, a lot of people who don’t mind the cold really love Alaska’s wide open spaces and small communities, along with virtually no traffic and a much slower way of life. You have to put up with some wonky winters and maybe a little too much sunlight in the summer, but for many, it’s well worth it. There’s also a lot of natural beauty, with Alaska being one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights and home to some of the best hiking and adventuring around.
“How do you keep your house warm?” Emily shares that her house has a normal thermostat like you’d find anywhere else, but that her home is heated with oil instead of natural gas. “It’s about $3.75 to $4 a gallon and we’re burning through about six gallons a day in this really extreme temperature.”
“Does society function normally in the dark?” The short answer? Yes. “We don’t work around the sun, which would be pretty limiting in the winter.” Emily says most businesses and schools are still open even in the extreme cold and snow. She says school didn’t even close when her town got over 10 inches of snow overnight.
It’s really hard for people in the “lower 48” to imagine what daily life must be like during the winter with extremely limited daylight hours. People who live in Alaska, of course, have found ways to adapt to the extreme conditions.
Some parts of Alaska are in near-compete darkness for about two months in the winter, while the sun rarely and barely sets during the summer.
For starters, buildings and cities are designed to fit the extreme conditions. Insulation is a top-priority so residents can survive -40 degree temperatures, and pipes are buried and insulated as much as possible to keep from freezing. Air conditioners, strangely, are key, too: Even though Alaskan summers don’t get that hot, the heavily-insulated buildings and the low angle of the sun can heat up indoor environments in a hurry.
Blackout curtains are a must in the summer for sleeping, but otherwise, Alaskan-based climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider tells Fox Weather that residents absolutely love the constant sunlight. “Imagine going fishing at midnight, or playing basketball at 11 p.m., or a hiking traverse through the middle of the night? The only complaints you’ll hear are about it not lasting long enough.”
The winter is more challenging. Vitamin D supplements and sun lamps help some residents keep their spirits and energy up in the darkness, but Alaskans report that winter is often a time for slower living and “hibernation.”
Living in northern Alaska might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but whether you’re born there, stationed there, or decide to move there by choice, there’s a lot of adventure and beauty to be found in the frigid environment.

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Planet, Popular, Science

Despondent weatherman goes off-script on live TV to explain why he ‘can’t’ forecast anymore

He couldn’t stay silent any longer.

Evan Porter

Upworthy Staff

10/18/2025

I will admit that I hardly ever watch the news on television, especially not for the weather. It’s just so much easier to pick up my phone and check Google or The Weather Channel. I just want to know how warm it’s going to be or how likely it is to rain. These days, I can find that out in about 10 seconds and go about my day.
But when there’s potential danger—hurricanes, storms that might knock out the power of topple over trees, tornado warnings, or threats of ice and snow—my trusty local meteorologist or weatherman is always there. All of that said, I’ve never once considered that I might not be able to get my weather forecast from either source, at least not accurately. It’s 2025—our weather modeling should be better than ever, state of the art, right?
John Morales, a meteorologist and hurricane specialist with NBC6 in South Florida, was reporting on an upcoming storm when he suddenly shifted gears, right in the middle of the broadcast.

Meteorologists play an important role in our communities. Giphy

Morales explains that in his 34 years of presenting the weather, he’s always been able to confidently tell his viewers when a hurricane might hit, or when it might turn away. He’s always been able to stand behind his data, modeling, and forecast in order to help protect the people of South Florida.
“I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can do that this year.”
Why? “Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general.”
Morales then pulled up a graphic instead of his usual weather map. It laid out some stark realities about severe understaffing of the National Weather Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Between brutal layoffs, employees accepting the recent DOGE buyout, and straight-up resignations, the agencies responsible for collecting weather data have lost hundreds and hundreds of valuable experts.

A weather forecaster is only as good as their data. Photo by Stephen Scarboro on Unsplash

He also explained that due to federal government budget cuts, there’s been a sizable decrease in weather balloon launches across the country. Weather balloons are instruments that take crucial measurements of the upper atmosphere and send data that helps with forecasting. With less data available, and lower quality data, Morales say that “the quality of forecasts is becoming degraded.”
That’s a pretty scary thought, especially in a place like South Florida. What do you do when your local meteorologist can’t predict what a powerful hurricane will do next?
“This is a multi-generational impact on science in this country,” Morales warns.
Watch his passionate plea here:

BREAKING: A Florida meteorologist just went on air and said he can’t accurately report the weather anymore, because Trump’s DOGE cuts gutted the satellite data he relies on.

We’re not just defunding science, we’re sabotaging public safety.

And for what? So a billionaire… pic.twitter.com/bANyZv7t4U
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) June 4, 2025

Almost nine million people viewed the powerful clip on X. It was reshared over 26,000 times. Morales’ message is definitely getting the attention it deserves.
It’s not just the National Weather Service that’s bleeding. In the name of efficiency, The White House has slashed budgets at the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and more. Trimming the federal budget sounds well and good until you realize that we won’t be making any major cancer breakthroughs any time soon without funding the research. And we won’t be able to protect people from hurricanes and tornadoes without complete weather data.
(And yes, even the Weather app on your iPhone needs a database to pull from.)
Meanwhile, we’re spending $1 trillion—yes, trillion— per year on our military. This is the anti-science, anti-expert sentiment Morales is talking about. It’s been building for years and is just now coming to a head in the worst way.
We still need meteorologists and weather experts like Morales. We still need scientists.
The impact of these cuts is already being felt as hurricane and flooding season hits. John Morales continues to advocate for a science-based approach to weather and public safety. And he’s not alone.

My public comment ahead of the @CityofMiami officially adopting the Science-based Tracking and Operational Resilience for
Miami (STORM) initiative, affirming a commitment to science-based
weather forecasting as the foundation for public safety—including advocating for NOAA & NWS. pic.twitter.com/xEAeWMlEil
— John Morales (@JohnMoralesTV) October 14, 2025

ChatGPT can pull weather data from Google and tell you if there’s going to be a thunderstorm, but can it tell you when the data behind that forecast is incomplete or unreliable? That’s the reality we’re facing right now, and we might not know the forecast isn’t reliable until it’s too late in some cases.
TV weathermen who live in our communities and can put crucial context behind the weather and help keep us safe still matter. Not only that, but they are ambassadors for science, and they still have a big platform in many communities around the country. Morales is making sure he makes the most of his.
This article originally appeared in June. It has been updated.

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Carl Sagan used a sliced apple to perfectly explain the fourth dimension. – Photo credit: via Carl Sagan Planetary Society/Wikimedia Commons and John Finkelstein/Pexels

Culture, Planet, Pop Culture, Popular, Science

45 years ago, Carl Sagan beautifully explained the fourth dimension with just an apple

Sagan was the Mister Rogers of complex scientific concepts.

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

9/5/2025

The concept of the fourth dimension seems beyond human comprehension. As three-dimensional beings, we are unable to see beyond a physical object’s height, width and depth. What else could there be? Even if you understand the concept, it is almost impossible to picture it in your mind, which is bound by the limits and realities of the physical world around us.
Enter Carl Sagan, revered as one of the greatest science communicators of his time. Perhaps best known for his research into extraterrestrial life, he was one of the first people to demonstrate that life could have existed on Mars. Sagan possessed a unique gift for demystifying complex scientific concepts, making them accessible and thrilling for the general public. If you never had the pleasure of watching him on television, you could imagine him as something of a Scientific Mister Rogers. Friendly, a wonderful storyteller, and always able to distill difficult lessons into their simplest form.
In 1980, on Episode 10 of the groundbreaking PBS show “Cosmos,” Sagan embarked on a mission to explain the seemingly impossible fourth dimension.

A great communicator and handsome, to boot. Giphy

Many of us have commonly heard of time being considered the fourth dimension. That’s not so hard to understand — in order to locate an object in the universe, you’d need to know three dimensions of its spatial location and also the time during which it exists.
But there is also a more theoretical and harder to understand place, where all four dimensions are spatial. It is nearly impossible for any of us to comprehend… without the help of a gifted teacher.
What’s excellent about Sagan’s explanation is that he uses simple and relatable objects: an apple and a Tesseract, or a hypercube.

Sagan explains that if an apple existed in a 2-dimensional space, anyone living in this Giphy

“In discussing the large scale structure of the cosmos, astronomers sometimes say that space is curved. Or that the universe is finite but unbound,” Sagan begins. “Whatever are they talking about?”
Yeah, this guy gets it.
Sagan then goes on to explain how a two-dimensional being living in a flat world would perceive a three-dimensional object like an apple.
Watch his full explanation here. It’s hypnotic and entertaining and incredibly enlightening.

“Imagine we live in this ‘Fllatland’/2-D plane with no concept of ‘up’ or ‘down.’ Then along comes a 3-D object like an apple. We do not even notice it until it crosses our plane of existence — and even then, we have no idea what the apple is,” Sagan explains. “We see only a fragment as it passes through our plane. There is no way we can comprehend the 3-D quality/dimension of the apple, because it is more than we can understand. We only have the evidence of what has passed through our plane.”
To further demonstrate, Sagan stamps the apple into an inkpad and then onto the surface in front of him, which represents Flatland and all of its inhabitants. Inside Flatland, the apple exists only as its points of contact on the paper; or four small dots. He adds that as the apple passes through the 2-dimensional Flatland, its cross-section changes. So someone living in that plane of existence would experience the apple as an ever-shifting and rearranging set of shapes or objects. Wild!
Sagan then related this two-dimensional experience of the third dimension to how we might try to understand the fourth. To do so, he used the Tesseract, a four-dimensional cube, to demonstrate how difficult it is for us to perceive or visualize dimensions beyond our own three.

A tesseract can not exist in 3-dimensional space, but it can be approximated the same way a cube can be drawn on paper. Giphy

Sagan explains that the tesseract is a cube expanded into a 4th dimension, but “I cannot show you a tesseract because I, and you, are trapped in three dimensions.” But what he can do is show us a 3-dimensional rendering of one. Just like a cube can be drawn and approximated (or cast a shadow) onto a piece of paper, a 4-dimensional tesseract can be imperfectly represented in 3-dimensional space. Still following?
At this point, Sagan is asking the viewer to expand their minds to understand the fourth dimension metaphorically. Though we cannot see it or even properly visualize it, that doesn’t mean that the things we can see can’t offer clues and lessons about the fourth dimension.
Studying 4-dimensional space can help in our understanding of the universe around us. Just because we see and experience only three dimensions doesn’t mean that’s all that exists. It’s critical for physicists and mathematicians to be able to understand and map these theoretical spaces to better comprehend things we otherwise can not explain. Remember the ever-changing, rearranging set of shapes as the apple passes through Flatland?
Sagan’s demonstration of the fourth dimension isn’t just a wonderful explanation of a scientific idea that many of us find difficult to comprehend; it’s also a great example of how to teach complex ideas by combining clear explanations, everyday concepts everyone can understand, and brilliant storytelling.
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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