PhotoBlog

Nov

2012

11:56pm, EST

NASA

A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun Mountains in western China. The river appears electric blue as it runs out of the mountains at the bottom right corner of the scene and then fans out into scores of intricate, braided channels that disappear into the desert. Dry channels — the river's former paths? — appear as silvery etchings at lower right. This scene was acquired by NASA's Terra satellite on May 2, 2002.

Holiday calendar: Satellite spies a fantastic fan

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

This picture may remind you of an alien landscape, but it's actually a look at our own planet from hundreds of miles above. NASA's Terra satellite captured this view of a 35-mile-wide (55-kilometer-wide) alluvial fan in China's Xinjiang Province in 2002.

The geological feature spreads across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert. Terra's color-coded view shows water flowing down from the mountains along the left side of the fan. Vegetation appears in shades of red in the upper left corner. NASA says the lumpy-looking terrain at the top of the image consists of sand dunes at the edge of the Taklimakan, one of the largest sandy deserts on Earth.

This is one of the first images you'll see in "Earth as Art," a newly published 158-page book featuring satellite pictures of planet Earth. NASA is making the book freely available online in PDF format, but it can also be downloaded as an iPad app or purchased as a coffee-table book from the U.S. Government Printing Office's online store.

"Earth as Art" serves as a great kickoff for this year's Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which highlights views of Earth from space. Every day from now until Dec. 25, we'll pass along a fresh image for you to enjoy. The idea takes its inspiration from a traditional Advent calendar, which lets kids count down to Christmas with a daily treat.

If one cosmic treat a day just isn't enough, you're in luck: The Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar has just started up over at The Atlantic's In Focus photo gallery, and Zooniverse is offering a cosmic Advent calendar as well. Feel free to fill your eyes, and your imagination, with all these non-fattening holiday goodies over the next 25 days.

More goodies from space:

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other science and space news coverage, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered via email. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Mexico hosts Synchronized Swimming World Trophy

The Mexican synchronized swimming team performs during the Synchronized Swimming World Trophy 2012 held at the Mexican Olympic Committee in Mexico City, Nov. 30, 2012. With the participation of teams from Brazil, Russia, China, U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, Japan, Ukraine and Mexico, the event is a gathering of the swimming world with a different concept from the skills of the Olympic Games or World Championships and more emphasis on an artistic side.

Nov

2012

12:47pm, EST

Reluctant to leave, some rebels begin withdrawing around Goma

Jerome Delay / AP

M23 rebels withdraw from the Masisi and Sake areas in the eastern Congo town of Sake, some 27 kms west of Goma, Nov. 30.

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

M23 rebel fighters walk as they withdraw near the town of Sake, Nov. 30.

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

A M23 rebel fighter walks past a resident as they withdraw from the town of Sake in the Congo.

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

M23 rebel fighters withdraw near the town of Sake, some 42 km (26 miles) west of Goma, Nov. 30.

James Akena / Reuters

Congolese national police officers arrive at a port on Lake Kivu, Goma, Nov. 30, as Congolese Revolutionary Army (CRA) rebels prepare their final withdrawal from the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A reluctance of some rank and file fighters in Congo's M23 rebel movement to withdraw from the eastern border city of Goma is complicating a deal their commanders agreed with regional governments, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.

A rebel pullback from Goma, seized by M23 from fleeing United Nations-backed government forces on November 20, would signal some progress in international efforts to halt the eight-month-old insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Goma is an important hub in Congo's eastern borderlands which have suffered years of recurring conflict stoked by long-standing ethnic and political enmities and fighting over the region's rich resources of gold, tin, tungsten and coltan. The latter is a precious metal used to make mobile phones.

Rebel leaders, who have declared their intention to fight to topple President Joseph Kabila, said earlier this week they would vacate Goma and other captured positions west and south of the North Kivu provincial capital. Continue reading....

More photos from Democratic Republic of Congo on PhotoBlog

Sikh devotee takes holy bath in India

An Indian Sikh devotee takes a holy bath in the sacred pond of the Golden Temple, Sikh’s holiest temple, during the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, in Amritsar, India, Nov. 28, 2012. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak, who broke away from Hinduism, India's dominant religion. Nanak preached the equality of races and genders, and the rejection of image-worship and the caste system.