Palacios cariocas - O Paço Imperial

O Paço Imperial, localizado na Praça XV, centro histórico da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, foi construído em 1743 para ser a residência dos governadores da Capitania do Rio de Janeiro.

Hoje em dia, este edifício é considerado o mais importante em estilo colonial no país e abriga um Centro Cultural.

Astronomy picture of the day - 2016 December 22 - An Airplane Glory

An Airplane Glory 
Image Credit & Copyright: Shane Larson (Adler Planetarium, CIERA-Northwestern)

Explanation: Looking out the window of an airplane, you might be lucky enough to see "the glory" in the direction directly opposite the Sun. Before airplanes, the phenomenon, known to some as the heiligenschein or the Specter of the Brocken, was sometimes seen from mountaintops. There, when conditions were right, one could look away from the Sun and see what appeared to be the shadow of a giant surrounded by a bright halo. The giant turns out to be the observer, as in the modern version a silhouette of an plane frequently occupies the glory's center. This bright glory was photographed two weeks ago over Michigan from an airplane on approach to O'Hare International Airport. Thecause of the glory is still being researched and is relatively complex. Surely, small droplets of water in some way reflect, refract, and diffract sunlight backwards towards the Sun. The phenomenon has similar counterparts in other branches of science including astronomy, where looking out from the Earth in the direction opposite the Sun yields a bright spot called the gegenschein.

Imagenes del Mundo - Aves en Nepal

Un grupo de aves migratorias se posan en las ramas de un árbol al amanecer en el lago Taudaha, en las afueras del valle de Katmandú (Nepal).
HEMANTA SHRESTHA EFE