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Explanation: A natural border between Slovakia and Poland is the Tatra Mountains. A prominent destination for astrophotographers, the Tatras are the highest mountain range in the Carpathians. In the featured image taken in May, one can see the center of our Milky Way galaxy with two of its famous stellar nurseries, the Lagoon and Omega Nebula, just over the top of the Tatras. Stellar nurseries are full of ionized hydrogen, a fundamental component for the formation of Earth-abundant water. As a fundamental ingredient in all known forms of life, water is a crucial element in the Universe. Such water can...

Traces of Alpine ibex hunters from several thousand years ago have been discovered in the Belianske Tatras in Slovakia.Based on isotope analyses, the joint Slovak-Polish research expedition in Hučivá Cave (Hučivá diera), say the traces were found in what was a Palaeolithic settlement left by the Magdalenian people, best known from France and Spain in the 13th millennium BC.Professor Paweł Valde-Nowak from the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków said: “It was a group of hunters specialising in hunting ibex, a species no longer found in the Tatras today.“We found several hundred blades of thrown weapons, bone...

A Polish paradise February 18, 2006 It added even more old-world charm to the scene. Homes were decorated with holiday lights and religious icons, many of which were built right into the side of the houses. Parents pull high-sided wooden sleds along the streets. Inside are their pink-cheeked babies nested in fleecy blankets, caps, snowsuits and mittens. Look on the corner and you’ll see a T-shirt vendor and someone selling fuzzy puppets on a stick. Look the other way and there’s an old woman in a patterned headscarf selling cheese and pickles. You can catch a horse-drawn wagon ride, mingle...