分类必应美图下的文章

Texas Star, the Ferris wheel at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas (© N. Hamp/Shutterstock)

A fair that's star-studded

Meet Texas Star, one of the tallest Ferris wheels in North America and a big attraction at the State Fair of Texas. Built in 1985, on a clear day it can be seen from Fort Worth, about 40 miles away. Since 1886, locals and visitors have come to Dallas' historic Fair Park for food, rides, shows, and other attractions. About 100,000 people a day now visit the fairgrounds to experience the array of activities and treats, from the largest new car show in the Southwest to a bevy of culinary delights. You can try deep-fried shepherd's pie, fried beer, or something called deep-fried skillet potato melt. Awards are given to the tastiest concoctions. But the fair's flavor extends beyond food. The purpose is to promote Texas agriculture, education, and community. There's plenty to do after exploring and sampling one-of-a-kind bites, including live music, pig races—and don't forget to ride the Texas Star.

韦尔瓦奥迪尔湿地起飞的三只大红鹳，西班牙安达卢西亚 (© Óscar Díez/Minden Pictures)

马尔堡峡湾鸟瞰图，新西兰 Aerial view of Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand (© Mathias Ortmann/Getty Images)

Land ho in New Zealand 250 years ago

We're looking at Marlborough Sounds, a network of ancient sunken river valleys located at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island. But it was on the North Island, 250 years ago, that New Zealand was spotted by Captain James Cook from the HMS Endeavour. 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. This was a hypothetical southern landmass that European Renaissance geographers thought must exist in order to counterbalance the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Of course, Cook never found Terra Australis, but with the help of a Tahitian named Tupaia, who had extensive knowledge of Pacific geography, and armed with the previous findings of explorer Abel Tasman from 1642, Cook sailed on to New Zealand. There, he and his crew built upon Tasman's work, becoming the first to circumnavigate and chart New Zealand's North and South Islands.

丁顿修道院，威尔士 (© Lynda Morris Photography/Getty Images)

木星增强色彩后的一组镜头 Sequence of enhanced-color images of Jupiter (© Enhanced Image by Gerald Eichstädt and Sean Doran, CC BY-NC-SA, based on images provided Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)

Images from NASA's Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter

For the start of World Space Week, today's homepage features a composite of images taken by NASA's Juno probe as it swooped past Jupiter. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, also has the largest number of moons: 79. Jupiter is the Roman counterpart to Zeus, and so the planet's major moons are named after Zeus's, shall we say, extra-marital partners. So, when it came time to name NASA's most ambitious Jupiter probe, they decided to name it after his wife, Juno, so that she could keep an eye on him. Every 53 days in the course of its wide and complex orbit, the Juno probe makes its closest approach, snapping shots like these as it speeds past the gas giant in just two hours. World Space Week starts on the anniversary of the launch of the very first space probe, Sputnik, which entered orbit around the Earth on October 4, 1957.

Merced River in Yosemite National Park, California (© Robb Hirsch/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Wild scene on the Merced River

Signed October 2, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves rivers with 'outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.' It covers 13,416 miles of streams and protects parts of such natural treasures as the Allagash, Salmon, Snake, Concord, Fortymile, Trinity, Missouri (the longest river in the US)—and the Merced River, which we're looking at here.

California's Merced makes its way through canyons, mountains, and foothills, flowing from the Sierra Nevada mountains, through the southern part of Yosemite National Park, into the San Joaquin Valley. Rafters enjoy the Class III and IV rapids, and visitors can camp at several sites along the river's course while also exploring the Merced River Trail.

秋天的罗梦湖和特罗萨克斯国家公园，苏格兰 (© Jon Arnold/Danita Delimont)

Wheels up in Beijing

Last Wednesday, September 25, China officially opened the world's largest airplane terminal, Beijing Daxing International Airport. Constructed to alleviate pressure on the city's existing airport, Beijing Capital International, the bright orange starfish look-alike took more than four years to construct. And travelers, hold on to your hats, because Daxing International will connect to China's capital city—about 30 miles away—with a high-speed train that travels at top speeds of more than 200 mph.

Sitting on 18 square miles of land, the massive terminal was designed by legendary architect Zaha Hadid, who also masterminded China's Guangzhou Opera House. In a nod to traditional Chinese architecture, the building consists of a central hub with six curved spokes—bringing organization to the interconnected spaces around a central courtyard and minimizing the building's environmental footprint. Inside, passengers will feel like they're in anything but an airport with dark, polished-stone floors and white ceilings that open intermittently to big, beautiful skylights.

西班牙里奥哈区克拉维霍镇附近的秋日景色 Autumnal landscape near the town of Clavijo in Spain's Rioja district (© Olimpio Fantuz/eStock Photo)

Falling for Rioja

While today's image of beautiful fall colors in Rioja is serene and peaceful, the people of this area are hard at work harvesting grapes at 14,800 different vineyards across the region. And soon the 600 wineries in this smallest Spanish province will begin the lengthy process to turn this year's grape harvest into its world-famous Rioja wines. (To get an idea of how tiny the Rioja province is, it makes up just 1 percent of Spain's land area and only about 0.67 percent of Spain's population lives here.) While winemaking techniques have evolved and improved over the thousands of years that wine has been made here, each year around this time locals and visitors gather in the region's capital of Logroño to celebrate the wine harvest and see a traditional example of the first, uh, step of this process—crushing newly harvested grapes by stomping them with bare feet.

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