Bing Wallpaper Archive - Daily Desktop Backgrounds

What can a 28-inch-tall bird teach us about life? Quite a lot. On World Teachers' Day, the Adélie penguin offers a lesson plan packed with resourcefulness, resilience, and a little mischief. Found along the Antarctic coast, the species was named after Adèle, the wife of French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, during the expedition that encountered the penguins in 1840.

First, you build a rocket. Then you ask it to leave Earth, fly to the moon, survive the trip, and bring its spacecraft home. Simple, right? Well, not quite. World Space Week, observed every October 4–10, celebrates the science that makes missions like this possible. The United Nations established the observance in 1999 to commemorate Sputnik 1's launch on October 4, 1957, and the entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty on October 10, 1967. This year's theme, 'Rocket Revolution,' focuses on the evolving technology driving space exploration.

The season of big meals, bigger bellies, and stocking up for winter is here. In Alaska, brown bears at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve make the most of the food still available in October. They feed on fish, sedges, berries, roots, clams, and other foods to build up fat reserves. Some can weigh more than 1,000 pounds before entering their dens for hibernation. That stored fat helps them survive the winter, when they do not eat or drink.

Rivers have long played an important role in life across the United States, supporting communities, wildlife, and industry. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act into law on October 2, 1968. It created a national system to protect rivers and river segments with outstanding scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, or cultural values. The Act preserves designated rivers in a free-flowing condition, protects their water quality, and aims to safeguard the qualities that made them worthy of designation.

On October 1, 1890, Yosemite became the nation's third national park. More than a century later, it still feels like a place that operates on geological time rather than human schedules. From Olmsted Point, the overlook in today's image, that timescale is impossible to miss. The smooth granite underfoot was sculpted by glaciers, while scattered boulders known as glacial erratics were carried here by ice and abandoned when it melted.

Balanced on a slender stalk in Norfolk, England, the male bearded reedling in today's image stands out with a pale blue-gray head, a bright orange bill, and the black facial markings that give the species its name. Despite its striking appearance, this small bird spends much of its life hidden among the dense wetland vegetation of marshes, lakeshores, and reed beds.