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Planet from Above and Below by Marina Koran. By capturing the same thing from various different perspectives, a NASA scientist and a National Geographic photographer create a whole new way of seeing our world. Earlier this year, two photographer friends had just finished shooting the Grand Canyon when they began discussing what they might capture together next. Don Pettitt was eager to train his camera on Madagascar and sent his friend Babak Tafreshi a text extolling the beauty of the place.

Tafreshy didn't disagree. He imagined the famous Baobab trees, with their thick trunks and filigreed branches, cast mesmerizingly against a dark, star speckled sky. So, even though he was tired from a good bit of traveling, he boarded a flight from Boston to Paris, and then another to Atta Nonevo, Madagascar's capital city, where he stayed overnight before renting a car and driving out to the remote realm of the Baobabs, a dirt road lined with dozens of the ancient trees.

Pettitt's journey was simpler. He floated from one room to the International Space Station to another towards the windows that looked out onto the world. During his seven month mission on the ISS, Pettitt, who's been an astronaut for nearly thirty years, worked with Tafreshe, a photographer and National Geographic Explorer, on an inventive project to photograph the same location or phenomenon from two wildly different perspectives, one photographer standing on

the Earth, the other floating two hundred fifty miles above it. Together, they coordinated ten photoshoots across four continents. The result is a celestial scrapbook of our planet with spell spellbinding scenes that can make you feel grounded and weightless at the same time. The pair initially connected not long after Pettit's first day on the then newly assembled ISS in two

thousand three. Pettit, an amateur photographer since sixth grade, had brought his digital cameras with him, and he'd used some scavenged stage materials to fashion a camera mount that provided the stillness necessary to capture the night sky without smears of starlight. Pettit, a scientist by training, is among Nassau's craftiest astronauts. He once designed a drinking cup to make

sipping coffee easier in micro gravity. At the time, Tafreshi was working as an editor at the Iranian astronomy magazine Nojun. He had taken up photography as a teenager, focused on the night sky and the national wonders that became visible in the absence of light pollution. When Pettitt's pictures reached Earth, Tafreshey emailed the astronaut with compliments. Soon they became pen pails.

Years later, as their correspondence grew into a photo project, Pettit and Tafreshy found that it helps to have different approaches to telling visual stories about Earth. Pettit, in particular, felt a duty to share his orbital vantage point with his fellow humans on Earth. You want to share that imagery to people that don't necessarily have the wherewithal to be there in orbit, Pettit said. Over the course of their project, the duel sought to synchronized their photoshoots, which

required a tremendous amount of planning. They needed to account for orbital mechanics. From his perch on the ISS, Pettit circled the globe every ninety minutes, racing sunrises and sunsets. The trajectory of the space station mattered as well. When the pair first started brainstorming potential areas of interest, Tafreshy had plenty of ideas. I told him, you know, Iceland is great, to Freshy recalled, but the ISS, Pettit replied,

never flies over Iceland. Earthly considerations influenced the project too. Pettitt once once suggested a couple of regions that appeared photogenic from hundreds of miles up, but they were along the borders of countries in conflict India and Pakistan and North and South Korea, so I couldn't travel there because of safety matters, to Freshy said. Pettitt meanwhile, had to work around his astronaut duties. When you're on station, you've

got a pretty encompassing day job. Pettit, who has locked nearly six hundred days in space across four missions told me, you need to make sure that there's a hole in your work schedule where you can run to the kubola and take a few pictures. Sometimes the universe went easy on them. A comet visiting from the edges of the Solar System showed up a week after Pettit reached orbit.

Tafreshe observed the bright object in Puerto Rico, but Pettit had the best view without Earth's hazy atmosphere with its pesky clouds in the way. Not long after that, a major Aurora storm appeared in the skies over to Frayshe's house. Now, how convenient, and the photographers captured the event within hours of each other, their best timing of the entire endeavor. When it comes to the rippling mystical green lights, two

views are better than one. If you look at the same ripple from orbit, you might find that it's actually an oval, Pettit said, It's as if they had surrounded the shimmering phenomenon, revealing its true nature. While Pettit was spared the difficulties that can ruin a photographer's day on the ground rainy weather, for example, his cameras would occasionally malfunction because of the constant invisible barrage of cosmic radiation, and now and again artifacts of astronaut life sneaked into

his shots. Once Tafrashier was scanned Pett's images of the Baldives in the Indian Ocean when he noticed an intriguing patch of green in the water and algal bloom. I was so excited until I got the next few shots and I realized this patch is moving very fast, Afreshi said. It turned out to be a weight lifting machine reflected in the space station's windows. Every crew member works out on this machine for an hour and a half a day.

Pettitt said he would occasionally ask his colleagues if they wouldn't mind turning off the lights and working out in the dark just for a few minutes. Not everyone obliged. Pettit and Tafreshy both believe that space photography is better done by people. There are plenty of satellites that take images of Earth from orbit, but often these pictures are

flat and textureless. Pettitt can play around with light and shadow, creating a richer portrait, and an orbital view of Earth is more meaningful when there is real emotion behind it. Karen Nyberg, and a retired Nassau astronaut, told me that she liked photographing the places where she knew her loved ones were. I would go over Houston or go over when they were visiting upstate New York and feel very connected to them because I was only two hundred and fifty

miles away, just directly above them, Iberg said. And then I would actually start to feel kind of this connection with people in other places on the Earth that I don't know. There's also perhaps a hint of triumph in it. Human bodies were not made to be in outer space, but there astronauts go, soaking up the wonder and sharing it with the rest of us. In more than two decades of friendship, Heatitt and Tafreshy have met in person only a handful of times. They communicate mostly via text

and email. They told me they don't really talk about their personal lives or get too philosophical. Despite the nature of their work, their conversations are the stuff of true shutterbug geegree, all about f stops and imaging software. Still, they're not just photography buddies. When Taffrisia was robbed in sicily and lost most of his equipment. He withheld the depressing details from Pettit because he didn't want to worry him, explaining to me that it's best practice not to upset

an astronaut far from home. Pettit gently roused him, saying that Tafreshe should be more careful about where he keeps his passport, which had been stolen too. The Madagascar shoot was their last session before Pettit returned to Earth. The region has little artificial light, so Pettitt's shot hinged on the very alignment of selestial bodies the presence of a full moon to illuminate a landscape shrouded in night time.

Tafreshe stood in the brush, in the brush, taking in the shimmer of the milky Way in the unspoiled sky. It was surreal, he said. The evening quiet was punctuated by the nocturnal murmurings of unseen wildlife and of villagers passing by in carts pulled by mules. From above, Earth is a gleaming world with a wispy atmosphere in an inky void. From below, it is a tangle of florofauna and humanity that as far as we know doesn't exist anywhere else. The resulting diptychs present Earth as it truly

is just another planet and our only home. Next, I want to live to be one hundred longevity. Learning from the legends. As told to Devon Gordon, these iconic athletes were the greatest of all time at what they did. So who better? Day asked about getting the most out of our bodies as we age. We came in search of wisdom, but they gave us something even better, motivation. Nadiya Komenich was the first gymnast to achieve a perfect

ten at the Olympics. While she hasn't competed in over forty years, she stays in shape by exercising every day, and when she misses the feeling of being a gymnast, she heads to the balance beam. Next article from National Geographic History Percy Fawcett tragic search for lost city of z. Convinced by old documents that a lost civilization lay in the Amazon rainforest, Fawcet set out to find it in nineteen twenty five. His disappearance sparked a century of speculation

as to his fate. When the Spanish first ventured into the Amazon basin, in the fifteen forties, they recorded indigenous accounts of a lost city of fantastic wealth that they called El Dorado the Golden Over the centuries, many vain attempts were made to locate a lost civilization in the Amazon Forest. The last significant attempt to find such a

culture was undertaken by British explorer Percy Fawcet. Between nineteen o six and nineteen twenty four, Fawcet made seven expeditions across the Amazon basin, concluding with his doomed quest to find the city called z Fawcet was inspired by his extensive reading of historical sources, including a mysterious document known

as Manuscript five twelve. A man of extraordinary mental and physical stamina, Fawcet was working at a time when the Amazon region was still largely undocumented by Europeans who sought to explore its jungles and water wins, seeking ancient cities and riches. His disappearance during his search for Ze in nineteen twenty five in the Matto Grosso region of Brazil

continues to intrigue writers and filmmakers yearning to explore. Percy Harrison Fawcett was born in eighteen sixty seven in Torquay, Devon, the English county that had produced many famous explorers and mariners, including Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. The son of an aristocrat who had lost his fortune, Fawcet described his childhood as lacking in affection. At age nineteen, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and sent out

to outposts of the British Empire. In nineteen oh one, Fawcet joined the Royal Geographical Society of London and traveled to Africa as a surveyor in the service of the British State, tasked with gathering military intelligence. In nineteen o six, he was commissioned by the Society to lead an expedition to the Amazon. Arriving in South America was the moment

his whole life changed. Setting out from La Pause to map the vast territory on the border lands of Bolivia and Brazil, Faucet often faced hostility from indigenous peoples angered by rubber barons who had invaded their lands to extract rubber for use in car and train manufacturing. For nearly a decade, he roamed the Amazon basin, often the first

European to record geographical features such as waterfalls. His writing gives a sense of the awe he experienced above us Rode Rose, the Ricardo Franco Hills, flat topped and mysterious, their flanks scarred by deep Quabardin's ravines, they stood like a lost forest to their tops, and the imagination could picture the last vestiges of an age log vanished. The outbreak of World War One interrupted this rich period of exploration,

forcing him to return to Europe. Although in his fifties, Faucet was in peak physical condition and he proved to be an outstanding soldier a mysterious manuscript, Fawcett could not shake off the allure of South America, however, so when the war ended, he returned to Brazil, where he would pursue an idea that led him to his last great

adventures and ultimately his mysterious death. Although Fawcet often relied on racist tropes and ideas when he wrote of Brazil's indigenous peoples, he also made great efforts to understand their customs and languages. He lamented the effects of colonialists greed on these societies and became convinced that Spanish and Portuguese accounts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of complex civilizations

in the Rainforest may have had merit. Such accounts mentioned very large settlements as well as fine roadways in the interior. One document in particular fascinated Fawcet. Known as Manuscript five twelve and written in Portuguese, it is purportedly an account of adventurers and fortune hunters in fifty three in search of precious metals. The adventurers found a ruined city boasting monumental buildings, roads, and a plaza, in each corner of which is a spire in the style of the Romans.

Scholars are divided about the manuscript's authenticity. Skeptics consider it a forgery. Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in eighteen twenty five, It would have been useful for a new and secure republic to discover a document that described ancient civilizations in its territory, akin to the Great Maya sites in Central America. Many at this time, however, accepted the manuscript's authenticity, including Fawcet, Already convinced that early accounts of complex civilizations in the

Rainforest were accurate. He became obsessed with finding such a place in search of Z. Although Fawcet was inspired by Manuscript five twelve's claim, he never intended to find the city it described. The settlement in that document lies supposedly in Brazil's northeast. Citing other sources which he did not name, Fawcet became convinced that a lost civilization existed in the

wild central western region of Mato Grosso. He named the city Z. In April nineteen twenty five, Facet set out from Cuiaba to find it, accompanied by his eldest son, Jack and his son's best friend, Raleigh Rimmel. The last news from them was in a letter Facet sent to his wife, we shall disappear from civilization until next year. Imagine us in for us so far untrodden by civilized man. And then they really did disappear. Were they killed by

animals or people? Several expeditions were launched in an attempt to clarify what happened, including one headed by Peter Fleming, brother of the James Bond character creator Ian Fleming. Many of these venturers also ended in tragedy, and none shed any light on what happened to Fawcet. In nineteen fifty two, anthropologists Orlando Viias announced he had found the bones of

the explorer and that Calopolo Indians had confessed to killing him. Later, forensic analysis showed the remains did not belong to Fawcett. Fawcett's story has had an enduring cultural impact. He is one of the inspirations for the character Indiana Jones. The Walt Disney Company is a main majority owner of National Geographic Media. The English Explorer was also the subject of David Grand's The Lost City of z a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon, the basis for a twenty

sixteen feature film. In his book, Grand quotes Kalopolo Indians who insist they had not killed Fawcett. They had seen the smoke from Fawcett's camp for a few days until it stopped. They say he likely died at the hands of hostile people in territory to the east. Although the mystery of his last days may never be fully resolved, Fawcett's quest for a lost city may be at an end.

In the decade since his disappearance, exploration of northeastern Manto Mato Grosso has uncovered the remains of large urban settlements now located in Shingu Indigenous park named Kihukugu. The complex includes remnants of streets, bridges, and large squares. Modern light our scans further suggest that between fifteen hundred and four hundred years ago, this part of the Amazon was indeed

the site of a large settlement. Whilezi's exact itdentity and location are still a mystery, Faucet's hunch about a hidden ancient city in the region seems to have been correct. This article by Jordi Canal Solar Next Phoenician ties to

an ancient Spanish culture Tartisos. When Phoenician colonists arrived on the southern shores of the Iberian Peninsula ninth century BC, their contact with the peoples of Kadiz, Seville and Yelva sparked a rich, sophisticated society called Tartisos by Sebastian Selestino Perez. To this day, historians can't fully explain the mysterious disappearance

of the thriving ancient society of Tartisos. New questions arise as excavations reveal more about the advanced multicultural civilization that seemingly vanished over night, rising to power along the southern

coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Tartisos is believed to have strong ties to a group of seafaring traders, the Phoenicians, who first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century b C. They originally hailed from modern day Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel, and were known across the Mediterranean as skilled sailors and expert merchants. Given the name Phoenician by the Greeks for the exquisite purple dye they crafted, they

never created a unified kingdom. Tartisos is believed to be the resulting outgrowth of Phoenician culture combined with the indigenous culture of peoples living on the Iberian Peninsula. Some scholars still believed that Tartisos itself could predate these Phoenician influences, and new discoveries continued to fuel the debate legends of Tartisos. Tales of Tartizos stretch all the way back to the

mid seventy century BC. A Greek trader called Colia was set sail from his home island of Samos off the coast of present day Turkey. He was headed for Egypt, but during the voyage, Colaius' ship was surprised by strong winds from the east that pushed it westward across the Mediterranean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Strait of Gibraltar. Coleas and his fellow soldiers arrived in Tartisos, a commercial

emporium previously unknown to merchants from Greece. Coleas began to trade with the Tartisians and turned a large prophet, mainly thanks to the silver over a ton in three quarters that he amassed there. This traveler's tail is found in Greek historian Herodotus's histories, written in the fifth century BC, and although the narrative has no doubt embellished, Herodotus did live for a time in Samos, where he may have

heard of Coleus's adventure. Other classical texts also contained references to a town called Tartisos in the lands around the Gulf of Cadiz in the southern Iberian Peninsula. From these mentions, historians and archaeologists are working to build up a picture of this enigmatic civilization steeped in legend Tortisos's beginning. One of the most controversial issues has been when Tortissos was founded. Until the late twentieth century, most experts believed that Tartisos

emerged as far back as the Bronze Age. The culture was thought to have spread over a large area in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula between the settlements of Huelva, Seville, and Kadiz the Tartisian's Corps. If so, Tartisos would have existed even before the first Phoenician colonies were established in the tenth and ninth centuries b C. However, an archaeological excavation,

as they continue, this hypothesis seems increasingly unlikely. Although some authors speak of a period called the Tartisian Late Bronze Age, there is little strong evidence to support the existence of a defined settlement in the southwestern Peninsula during the twelfth and eleventh centuries b C. What may have existed was an emerging social organization based on agriculture and the export of raw materials from mining. Archaeologists have found evidence of

a community at nearby Huelva during this period. Artifacts unearthed at the site and elsewhere suggest that the community was skilled at trading with the Atlantic world. Objects made of copper from Weiova have been found as far away as France and the British Isles. The well established trading links would have helped them profit from the abundant silver mines in the area, such as those in Asna Kolar, northwest

of modern day Seville. Phoenicians in Iberia, these early trading communities around the Gulf of Kadiz experienced a profound transformation with the rival of the Phoenicians. It was in the ninth century b C. The traders from the flourishing cities of the eastern Mediterranean settled permanently in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenician colonizers started by building temples to

their gods along the coast. These religious complexes not only served spiritual purposes, they also played a key role in commerce by providing a neutral space for trading. The temple of Melkarte or Hercules near Kadiz seems to have had this dual purpose. Very soon the Phoenicians built permanent establishments called factories and later the first colonies. One of these new city colonies, Cadiz, would become the most important economic political and religious center in the region served as the

main port for exporting silver, tin, and salted fish. These mining and yet agricultural products came both from Huelva itself and from inland. The Phoenicians brought innovations to the areas. They settled iron hybrid animals such as the mule, plant species like grapevines and olive trees, the potter's wheel, and ceramic kilns. They also introduced the alphabet, an essential element

for trade. Even the architecture would be influenced. The Phoenicians favored orthogonal structures with right angles, which generated a much more complex urban layout over the course of the ninth and eighth centuries b c. These things would transform the economy and way of life of the local peoples. During this initial period of colonization, local Iberian communities gradually adapted

to the presence of the Eastern settlers. Our gaelogists are looking for more insight as to how this integration developed, but it seems likely that people migrated from inland regions to the coastal colonies. Workforce swelled. Miners and farmers arrived, as well as the artisans and construction workers needed for

the new cities, temples, and communication routes. In the Gaudiana and Tagus Valleys, the dominant warrior elite may have supplied labor in exchange for access to the Phoenicians iron and technical innovations. In these inland areas, local traders would have

provided gold, tin, and agricultural products to the Phoenicians. Although the Phoenicians had a huge impact on the colonized territories of the Iberian Peninsula, the changes were experienced unevenly in sparsely populated areas such as the guaudal Quivier Valley and the Bay of Kadiz. The incoming Phoenicians were able to found their own cities and incorporate the indigenous population. In Huelva, a more established economy and defined social structure already existed,

rendering Phoenician influence weaker. It was in eighth century BC interactions between the Phoenicians, the indigenous communities, and the populations of the interior gave rise to the culture now termed Tartisian. The word Tartisos first appears in Greek sources in the following century. Archaeological evidence contact between Phoenician colonists and indigenous peoples of the peninsula sparked remarkable economic development, with work

for potters, goldsmith's, blacksmiths, builders, stevedores, and sailors. Maritime trade defined the society. It was labor intensive about, involving many workers to fell trees, build ships, and create vessels such as ampheri to move the goods. These changes likely caused tensions between the Tartisian communities, who found themselves enjoying new lucrative relations with the Phoenicians and other indigenous interior communities

who also sought to control the new economic resources. Tartisian culture saw an evergence of new social groups and a much more complex social organization. The society lasted some four hundred years. How elites maintained control is not clear. Neither Tartisian sites nor tombs provide evidence of much weaponry. Although Tartisos had some notable cultural traits, it wasn't a homogeneous society and shouldn't be considered a united kingdom let alone

in empire. Herodotus does mention a kingdom ruled by Arganthonios, but is referring to a chief within what the Greeks called Tartisos. There would have been other kings or leaders, with each ruler maintaining their political independence despite interconnected economic interests. This social structure was more heterarchical than hierarchical, involving various

leaders and a network of power. Mixed marriages between indigenous people and Phoenicians consolidated the integration of the two communities. This practice would explain the discoveries made in inland areas far removed from the Tartisian nucleus, such as the treasures of Aliseda and Tallaveria, both in Caraces, and the tomb of Casa del Carbio Toledo, which of the rich hordes found at these sites came from local workshops and were

produced by artisans trained in Phoenician goldsmithing techniques. The pieces include many motifs of the Phoenician religion, with representations of the gods El Baal and Astarte. In Extra Madurura and the Tagis Valley, archaeologists have found mixed trousseau in necropoliss of the Tartisian nucleus, such as La Congress in El Proueto de Santa Maria, Cadiz. They feature both indigenous and

Phoenician elements. Recently, large Adobe constructions were uncovered beneath a tumulus by the Guardiana River, providing more evidence of Tartisian culture and architecture mismixing with Phoenician influences. This concludes readings from National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic History for today. Your reader, husband Marsha, thank you for listening, Keep on listening and have a great day.