To honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and he 20th anniversary of NASA’s Earth Observatory, the agency asked the public to pick our all-time best image on Earth. After five a five-round tournament and more than 56,000 votes, the readers chose Ocean Sand, Bahamas as their favorite.

We’ve posted 16 of the other top entrants. You can see the complete tournament results at Earth Observatory.

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Ocean Sand, Bahamas (2001)

via NASA

Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas.

The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

Raikoke Erupts (2019)

via NASA

An unexpected series of blasts from a remote volcano in the Kuril Islands sent ash and volcanic gases streaming high over the North Pacific Ocean.

“What a spectacular image. It reminds me of the classic Sarychev Peak astronaut photograph of an eruption in the Kuriles from about ten years ago,” said Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Tech. “The ring of white puffy clouds at the base of the column might be a sign of ambient air being drawn into the column and the condensation of water vapor. Or it could be a rising plume from interaction between magma and seawater because Raikoke is a small island and flows likely entered the water.”

Where the Dunes End (2019)

via NASA

Mountains of sand, some as tall as 300 meters (1000 feet), reach from the floor of Africa’s Namib Desert toward the sky. Driven by wind, these dunes march across the desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.

The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in these images, acquired on November 13, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea—a field of sand dunes spanning more than 3 million hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) within the Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013. Sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.

Twin Blue Marbles (2007)

via NASA

This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists. The twin images are a composite of multiple images taken between 1994 and 2004.

Fire in the Sky and on the Ground (2011)

via NASA

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.

Retreat of the Columbia Glacier (2014)

via NASA

Scientists have long studied Alaska’s fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidewater glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains into Prince William Sound. Yet the river of ice continues to deliver new surprises.

Preliminary results show that both the West Branch and the East Branch (which feeds into the Main Branch) are now moving between 5 and 10 meters (16 and 33 feet) per day. That’s slow for Columbia, but fast compared to other glaciers.

View of Earth from Saturn (2006)

via NASA

via NASA

Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot. The image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.

The Dark Side and the Bright Side (2015)

via NASA

A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has captured a unique view of the Moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth. A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.

The images were taken over the course of five hours on July 16, 2015.

A Voyager Far From Home (1977)

The image of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon was captured on September 18, 1977, when Voyager was a mere 11.66 million kilometers (7.25 million miles) from Earth and directly above Mount Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude).

On September 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Thirty-five years later, the planetary probe is now an interstellar traveler, having traveled farther from Earth than any manmade object in history.

Roiling Flows on Holuhraun Lava Field (2014)

via NASA

On September 6, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of the ongoing eruption in Iceland.

Ice and the plume of steam and sulfur dioxide appear cyan and bright blue, while liquid water is navy blue. Bare or rocky ground around the Holuhraun lava field appears in shades of green or brown in this band combination. Fresh lava is bright orange and red.

Antarctica Melts Under Its Hottest Days on Record (2020)

via NASA

On February 6, 2020, weather stations recorded the hottest temperature on record for Antarctica. Thermometers at the Esperanza Base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula reached 18.3°C (64.9°F)—around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers.

The warm temperatures arrived on February 5 and continued until February 13, 2020. The images above show melting on the ice cap of Eagle Island and were acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on February 4 and February 13, 2020.

Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (2009)

via NASA

At roughly eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo Atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south are not shown) comprising the Tokelau Islands group located in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Making Waves in the Andaman Sea (2020)

via NASA

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured these images of the Andaman Sea on November 29, 2019. The reflection of the Sun on the ocean—sunglint—helps make the internal waves visible. The colors also have been slightly enhanced. The detailed swirls, fronts, and patterns are all quite real, but certain shades and tones in the data have been separated and filtered to make water features more visible.

Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth (2018)

via NASA

During one day in August, tropical cyclones, dust storms, and fires spread tiny particles throughout the atmosphere.

The Electric Eye of Cyclone Bansi (2015)

Bansi formed in the southwestern Indian Ocean on January 11, 2015. By the time this photo was taken on the following day, Bansi had achieved tropical cyclone strength, with sustained maximum winds over 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour. The cyclone would reach category 4 strength before becoming a weak extra-tropical system on January 19.

Awesome, Frightening Views of Hurricane Florence (2018)

Satellites and astronauts observed the potent storm as it headed for landfall in the southeastern United States.

Now that we’re all (hopefully) getting used to wearing masks in public, it feels like time to add another layer to our pandemic routine doesn’t it?

Research out of Northeastern University indicates that adding a nylon layer outside of a homemade mask can boost its effectiveness. According to NPR, the nylon addition increases the masks ability to filter out small particles by creating a tighter seal around the mask. In fact, in some cases, adding the nylon layer made homemade face coverings more effective than medical-grade surgery masks.

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The nylon even made surgical medical-grade surgical masks more effective, pushing a standard surgical mask from blocking 75% of small particles to 90%, rendering it nearly as effective as the N95 mask, which blocks 95%.

Loretta Fernandez, one of the scientists on the Northeastern University research team, told NPR that the key to the nylon working was the way it compressed the mask to the face, sealing off any leaks around the edges. “It really improved the performance of all of the masks,” she said, “and it brought several of them up and over the baseline mask we were using, which was a 3M surgical-type mask.”

The effectiveness of cloth masks vary widely, with some masks in the study only blocking 30% of small particles. Using a thicker weave cloth and adding more layers to a mask helps boost its ability to filter, though any face covering is better than nothing.

With improvements of 15% to 50%, however, the nylon trick is worth trying. Fernandez suggests using queen-sized pantyhose to keep the nylon from being uncomfortably tight. Simply cut 8-inch to 10-inch strip of pantyhose leg and place it over your mask so that it overlaps around all the edges.

Though the research has not yet been peer-reviewed, Ben Cowling, an epidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong who has studied the efficacy of face masks, says that the study and its findings are “important” and “promising.”

“We need better information on what kind of homemade masks, what kind of fabric masks, are the best,” he told NPR, “and how we can improve or upgrade basic masks to make them better.”

The beauty of this upgrade is that it’s cheap, easy, and works with any kind of mask. For medical workers short on PPE, nylon rings may offer an increase in protection, especially when cloth masks are the only face coverings available.

Since the coronavirus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and we’re still a long way from a vaccine, mask-wearing is going to have to be the new norm. Whether you sew your own, buy one from a seller, or use a no-sew mask, it looks like adding a layer of pantyhose to it might be wise.

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ESPN has found a huge hit in The Last Dance, as their 10-hour documentary on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls has offered sports fans a two-hour escape each Sunday night as we await the return of live sporting events stateside.

In looking to continue the positive momentum from The Last Dance, ESPN announced plans to continue their Sunday night documentary programming with three more 30 for 30s that will be shown the four weeks after the end of The Last Dance. LANCE, Be Water, and Long Gone Summer will run from May 24 through June 14, with LANCE being a two-part, four-hour look into the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong running May 24 and 31 at 9 p.m. ET.

Be Water, which will premiere on June 7 at 9 p.m. ET, is a look at Bruce Lee as told by family, friends, and collaborators, along with tons of archival footage that will explore his journey to becoming a massive cultural icon in the world of film and martial arts, prior to his sudden death at the age of 32 as he was becoming a global star.

Long Gone Summer goes back to the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that made baseball the biggest story in sports for the entirety of their historic chase of Roger Maris’ 61 home run single season record. It will feature the first lengthy interviews with McGwire and Sosa on the subject in over two decades, and will be fascinating to revisit the pinnacle of the steroid era in baseball.

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After pulling out of the UFC 249 card, Amanda Nunes will return to the Octagon to put her featherweight title on the line on June 6 against Felicia Spencer, according to ESPN.

UFC 251 was scheduled to take place in Perth, Australia, on the same date, but the organization’s return to Australia has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Instead, the promotion is reportedly hoping to hold the event featuring Nunes in Las Vegas at the UFC-owned Apex.

As of now, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has yet to announce if it plans to regulate events in June. Regardless of where the bout is held, Nunes is expected to square off with Spencer in her first featherweight title defense since she knocked out MMA phenom Cris Cyborg to win the belt in December 2018.

Since knocking off Cyborg, Nunes has defended her other UFC gold twice, beating Germaine de Randamie and Holly Holm in bantamweight bouts.

Spencer is 8-1 on her career, with her lone loss coming in a unanimous decision loss to Cyborg in July 2019. After losing to Cyborg in a fight in which she never looked fully confident, Spencer bounced back to earn a TKO victory over Zarah Fairn in February.

The James Beard Award 2020 Finalists are here! After being postponed from its original scheduled ceremony date of March 25th due to COVID-19, uncertainty has hung over whether the James Beard Awards would even happen this year — even after the semi-finalists were announced in February. But the foundation has ultimately decided to go forward with the awards and has now released the full list of finalists. While there won’t be a physical ceremony this year, the foundation is planning to figure out a way to allow chefs a space to shine when they announce the winners on Wednesday, May 27th.

The foundation decided to go forward with a virtual ceremony after reaching out to chefs, restaurants, and industry professionals about how they’d feel given the circumstances of the global pandemic. “Those we consulted felt the Awards could also offer a glimmer of hope to an industry looking for light in a very dark time,” said the foundation in a statement. Considering the tremendous toll that the pandemic and lockdowns are taking on the restaurant industry, even restaurants nominated for prestigious awards need our help, so in addition to gathering all of the Best New Restaurant award finalists, we’ve indicated which ones are still open for take-out orders or offering meal kits.

Prepare to get hungry, here’s a food porn tour of the 2020 James Beard Award Best New Restaurant finalists!

Automatic Seafood & Oysters

Birmingham Alabama based Automatic Seafood & Oysters specializes in gourmet seafood and steak and offers an extensive menu of well-curated in-house cocktails. They’re currently preparing Mother’s Day Specials for pick up or delivery which feature brunch and dinner meals that feed two to four people, as well as refreshing cocktail kits, like the Mothers Day Punch with Cathead Honeysuckle vodka, hibiscus, lime, and orange.

Demi

Located right in the heart of Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood, Demi is headed by Chef Gavin Kaysen and specializes in incorporating local ingredients in a seasonal menu that is always shifting. Demi is currently closed, but beginning on Wednesday, May 6th, Chef Kaysen’s other restaurants Spoon and Stable and Bellecour will be offering to-go orders.

Demi is expected to open in the near future as the country begins to reopen.

Eem

Eem has established itself as one of Portland’s best spots to grab Thai food and BBQ and the fact that you get to wash it all down with a Tiki cocktail makes the experience all the better. No wonder it took the #3 spot on the UPROXX Travel Hot List in the food and drink section. Currently, Eem is periodically offering pre-ordered meals for take-out, so watch their Instagram if you plan on grabbing a meal to go while you wait out lockdown.

Fox & The Knife

If rustic Italian is your jam, you’ll be all about Boston’s Fox & and The Knife from chef Karen Akunowicz, who spent a year immersed in the cuisine and culture of Modena Italy. Chef Akunowicz’s aim is to bring her time in Modena to the tables of South Boston.

Fox & The Knife is currently available for take-out and also offers delivery.

Gado Gado

Gado Gado — named after the Indonesian salad that features boiled vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, tofu, and tempeh in a peanut sauce — specializes in its namesake, but also has a delightfully mixed up menu full of surprises and left-turns on Singaporean classics.

Gado Gado is currently open for take-out orders through online ordering.

Gianna

Just a block away from New Orleans’ Lafayette Square, Gianna’s menu consists of wood-fired Italian food with a distinct New Orleans southern twist. Headed by James Beard Award-winning chef Rebecca Wilcomb and Chef Donald Link, Gianna utilizes New Orleans’ abundance of fresh fish and seafood staples and reimagines what Italian food could be with the bounties of the Gulf of Mexico.

Gianna is currently offering take-out and delivery.

Kalaya

Serving up authentic Thai food to the Philadelphia area, Kalaya specializes in Southern Thai cuisine by chef Chutatip Suntaranon. There isn’t a single dish served at Kalaya that doesn’t look mouthwateringly amazing, so scope out their Instagram at your own risk, you will end up incredibly hungry (if you aren’t already).

Kalaya is currently open for take-out orders.

Nightshade

Los Angeles’ Nightshade, located in the food mecca that is the city’s Arts District, features a seasonal menu of Asian-California cuisine by Chef Mei Lin. Chef Mei Lin cut her teeth working in the Chinese restaurants owned by her parents and extended family in the suburbs of Detroit.

Nightshade is currently offering take-out with a regularly updated special menu of savory and sweet dishes.

Pasjoli

Located off of Santa Monica’s Main Street, Pasjoli’s menu consists of Parisian bistro favorites and small plates in a cozy and chic setting steps away from Venice Beach. Headed by chef Dave Beran, Pasjoli specializes in mostly a la carte offerings, which is perfect for our stay-at-home lifestyle, as nice as the Pasjoli space in Santa Monica is. We’ll be able to sit inside one day!

Pasjoli currently offers take-out and has a few at-home meal kits as well.

Verjus

Located in San Francisco’s dense and busy Financial District, Verjus matches the pace of San Francisco’s busiest district with this upscale fast service bistro and retail bottle shop. As of now, Verjus is currently closed, but since the space is half a wine shop, the restaurant is keeping afloat during California’s lockdown via online putchases.

With the Westworld season three finale now in the books, fans of the HBO series undoubtedly have questions about the future of the show along with the fate of its characters. In a lengthy interview with Variety, co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy did their best to address what’s in store for their epic AI tale and whether or not key cast members will be back for the recently renewed season four.

Spoilers for Westworld season three below.

In the final moments of “Crisis Theory,” Dolores seemingly sacrificed herself to destroy the powerful AI-system Rehoboam in an effort to free humanity from its algorithm-cage and gift the world with true free will. Despite the fact that at least two of Dolores’ clones are still running around in the form of Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) and Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.), there are understandable questions around Evan Rachel Wood‘s future on the show. After what Variety described as “a six-second pause,” Nolan answered a direct question about her potentially leaving Westworld:

I f—ing hope not. Let me clarify: Dolores is gone. We’re not yet discussing publicly the direction the show is taking, but the fun thing about this show is, you know, from the beginning Lisa and I wanted to make a show that constantly reinvented itself, that could be a different show every season. I think it’s important with a show in which death can be impermanent — these are robots, after all — to mark the occasion with Dolores. That version of that character is gone. We love Evan Rachel Wood and we haven’t [sighs] started talking publicly about exactly what the show looks like going forward. But it looks very different.

As for talking publicly about the future of the show, Nolan and Joy shot down reports that Westworld will end after six seasons because they don’t know how much time they’ll need to finish the series, but they did make it a point to say they’re erring towards not overstaying their welcome. That said, the reason they’re not sure how many seasons the show will run is because they haven’t even started writing the fourth season yet, which is also why they’re not sweating the recent production shutdowns and the complications involved with getting Hollywood up and running. A lengthy wait between Westworld seasons was already in the cards.

(Via Variety)

If things had gone differently, Roman Reigns would almost certainly be the WWE Universal Champion right now. After all, he was supposed to face Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, and nobody expected Goldberg to hold that belt for long. But Roman pulled out of WrestleMania out of health concerns due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and he was replaced in that title match with Goldberg by Braun Strowman. And sure enough, Strowman beat Goldberg and is now the Universal Champion. What’s more, WWE hasn’t even mentioned Roman on TV since Mania. In fact, this week’s Raw demonstrated the lengths they’ll go to not to bring him up.

With Money in the Bank coming up this weekend, Raw counted down the top Money in the Bank moments of all time, and of course #1 was Seth Rollins cashing in on the main event of WrestleMania 31. As you no doubt remember, that was a title match between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, which Seth turned into a Triple Threat thanks to his MITB contract and thus won the belt. But you wouldn’t have known that from Raw’s replay of the cash-in, which neither showed Roman Reigns nor mentioned him.

It’s one thing to drop any angles Roman was involved in, since nobody knows when he’ll be back. But to avoid him so deliberately when recapping an event he was directly involved in really makes you wonder about his standing with the WWE brass. Nobody wants to believe that a company would hold a grudge against an immunocompromised cancer survivor for refusing to wrestle during a pandemic, but WWE is honestly kind of famous for holding petty grudges, so in moments like this it’s hard not to wonder.

When Aaron Long leaves the New York Red Bulls to join the United States men’s national team — an event that has happened more and more frequently as he’s established himself as one of the top center backs for the red, white, and blue — he never finds himself in the room with all of his teammates playing FIFA. More frequently, Long squads up with his teammates who opt to play Fortnite.

One such Yank who has a reputation for being a formidable foe in EA Sports’ soccer simulation is Sean Johnson, the starting goalkeeper for Long’s club’s rivals, New York City Football Club. Add all of this together and when Long was asked about playing against Johnson as part of Major League Soccer’s eMLS Tournament Special, well, he didn’t exactly jump at the opportunity.

“I was really adamant about not doing it, especially because I was going to play my rivals, New York City FC, and I didn’t want to get a beat down from my rival team,” Long told Uproxx Sports over the phone. “But when they told me it was Sean John that I was going to play against, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s something I can get behind.’ We already have a really good relationship, me and him from the national team, so we knew that banter was going to be good and I don’t mind losing to a friend if I do end up losing.”

Still, Long wasn’t exactly put in an enviable situation. While he’s played FIFA in the past, it’s been quite some time — in addition to being more of a Fortnite guy, Long’s going to become a father in a few months, and opted to pack up his Xbox at the end of last year. The good news is he wasn’t alone in taking on NYCFC over the weekend. As part of the league’s FIFA tournament, players from the selected clubs would go head-to-head. Once that ended, the sticks would get passed to their club’s eMLS competitors, with the scores from the two games getting aggregated and the better club moving on.

Long got paired up with George Adamou, who came in eighth place in eMLS last year, his first with the club. Over the span of a few hour-long sessions, Long got a crash-course in how to play the game like a pro. They weren’t particularly competitive — Long said they were like Adamou “playing a newborn baby” — but they proved to be invaluable.

“I think people say it’s just like FIFA, but there’s a lot more things to it,” Adamou said. “There’s formations and instructions that I know about that Aaron may not know about, and you have to go set the tactics because in this game it actually really matters. So I think it’s really important to get on the same page and help Aaron learn about a lot of the things that he wouldn’t know since he hasn’t played the game regularly.”

Adamou made it a point to bring Long up to speed on the more specific details of the game quickly. Beyond getting his formation down and figuring out the best way to play within the latest version of FIFA, Adamou told Long to embrace some specifics — get his wingers in behind defenders, have players congregate in the box for crosses, and around the 60th or 70th minute, overload ball side in an attempt to win the ball off of his opponent.

It helped that both know how to play soccer — Long, of course, is a professional, while Adamou played in college before he began his eSports career, one that saw him become the top-ranked American in the FIFA 20 Global Series (like Long, he was a defender when he took the non-virtual pitch). This understanding of the game in one medium is something that Adamou believes is helpful in another.

“I think that you can’t possibly be good at the game without having a background of actually watching soccer because there’s so many … you have to know things like an offside trap, things that you wouldn’t know,” Adamou said. “You have to know how to balance your positioning on your offense, how people attack. Do they go from the wings? Do they cross? Do they go direct? I think that’s something that you would need to watch actual players do so you could replicate it on the field.”

Of course, understanding does not necessarily equal expertise, something the two learned first-hand when they played their foes from the Bronx. Long lost to Johnson, 3-0, while Adamou lost to a longtime eMLS foe, Chris “Didychrislito” Holly, 2-1. In an ironic twist, virtual Johnson came up big in both games, winning Man of the Match honors both times.

“I was kind of screwed there in terms of, I felt like I was on my own and Sean John was kind of toying with me a little bit,” Long said of the first half of his matchup, which due to technical difficulties did not include any coaching, as Adamou could not see his screen. “And he did score a couple of, I don’t want to say crap goals, but they weren’t great goals. I got a little bit unlucky, and then from there I just couldn’t recover. He also made some unbelievable saves, Sean John, with himself in the game. I had two breakaways and he had two unbelievable saves.”

Both guys admit that some more time training would have helped, and in the event that something like this happens again, they’d love nothing more than to get the opportunity to get a measure of revenge on Johnson and Holly — they went on to beat FC Dallas in the quarterfinals and punched their ticket to the semis, which will occur on May 17. And for Long, while it’s unclear when this opportunity will come about, he might have to step away from the Fortnite room the next time he’s with the national team.

“I was already thinking about that,” Long said when asked about playing FIFA against Johnson when they’re wearing the red, white, and blue. “Yeah, I need to see him in person. I think I might be able to get in his head a little bit better.”