Wikipedia:Picture of the day/On the main pages

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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 (2024-04-27)

Benjamin Franklin Tilley

Benjamin Franklin Tilley (1848–1907) was a career officer in the United States Navy who served from the end of the American Civil War through the Spanish–American War. He is best remembered as the first acting governor of American Samoa as well as the territory's first naval governor.

Photograph credit: unknown photographer; Naval History and Heritage Command; restored by Adam Cuerden

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Today (2024-04-28)

Libellula depressa

Libellula depressa, commonly known as the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is a dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. One of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia, its range extends to England, central Asia and the Middle East, with a few limited populations in Scotland. It is not found in Ireland or North Africa, however. This insect is around 39 to 48 millimetres (1.5 to 1.9 inches) in length, with both the male and the female having a broad, flattened abdomen which is brown with yellow patches down the sides. In the male, the abdomen develops a blue pruinescence that covers the brown colour. Both fore and hind wings have a dark patch at the base. This male L. depressa dragonfly was photographed at Wolvercote Lakes in Oxfordshire, England.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Tomorrow (2024-04-29)

Sphalerite

Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S. It is found in a variety of deposit types, and is found in association with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite (and other sulfides), calcite, dolomite, quartz, rhodochrosite, and fluorite. Sphalerite is an important ore of zinc, with around 95 percent of all primary zinc extracted from its ore. Due to its variable trace element content, sphalerite is also an important source of several other metals such as cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium. The zinc in sphalerite is also used to produce brass. This sample was extracted in Creede, Colorado, and features black tetrahedral crystals of sphalerite up to 8 mm (0.31 in) in size, with minor chalcopyrite and calcite, in a 4.5 cm × 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm (1.77 in × 1.18 in × 0.79 in) matrix. This photograph was focus-stacked from 125 separate images.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus