
Earth Day 2025: Student artwork decorates the globe-shaped Sphere in Las Vegas
Earth Day 2025: Student artwork decorates the globe-shaped Sphere in Las Vegas Las Vegas students from elementary schools to UNLV competed to have their Earth Day-themed artwork displayed on the massive Sphere's Exosphere. Eight lucky winners got their wish on April 22.
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Las Vegas Sphere displays winners of student artwork challenge
Eight students were selected and awarded prizes as part of the second annual Sphere XO Student Design Challenge.
The Sphere in Las Vegas gets some homegrown imagery for Earth Day.
Eight local students – all winners of the Second Annual Sphere XO Student Design Challenge – will have their art creations displayed on the mammoth installation's Exosphere throughout the summer, starting the night of April 22.
Students from Clark County elementary, middle and high schools and from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas collectively submitted thousands of Earth Day-themed artworks for the chance to be displayed on Sphere. From those, more than 100 were entered into an online public vote, from which four winners were selected. Four additional winners were chosen by a panel of artists.
"It feels so cool. Like, out of this world cool! It's super exciting that my art is going to be on Sphere," said Leena Luu, a fifth-grader at Lucille S. Rogers Elementary School, who wants to pursue a career in science, said in a news release. Her drawing of the Earth humanized the globe with a pair of pensive eyes.
Las Vegas Sphere concerts: All the bands that are playing and how to get tickets
Sphere Earth Day art contest rewards artists, their schools
Winning elementary and middle school students get a $10,000 donation for their school's art program and tickets for their entire school to attend The Sphere Experience. The high school and UNLV winners get a $10,000 educational scholarship from Sphere.
UNLV senior Gage Glass plans to use the scholarship prize towards tuition and a goal of graduating with a major in entertainment engineering and design and a minor in music technology. Glass created a verdant scene of mountains, fields, a massive tree and a river to showcase the four seasons.
"It's quite incredible to have my art featured on the biggest canvas in the world after all this hard work and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it!" Glass said.
For last year's contest, competitors created 4th of July-themed art to display on the Exosphere, which measures 580,000 square feet as the largest LED screen on Earth. This year, students were asked to create imagery with the theme of Earth Day.
In addition to the fan vote, held during March to select four of the eight winners, another four were selected by a panel of artists including Shepard Fairey and Jen Stark, both of whom have designed art to appear on the Exosphere.
"The Exosphere is an impactful platform for public art and nearly a quarter of a million votes were cast in this year's Challenge in support of the talented young student artists in our Las Vegas community," said Rich Constable, Sphere's global head of government affairs and social impact, in a statement. "We are proud to collaborate with CCSD (Clark County School District) and UNLV on this important initiative and we encourage all participants to continue to pursue their interests in the arts, science and technology."
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Digital Trends
4 hours ago
- Digital Trends
NASA astronaut's first ISS time-lapse is a real stunner
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has shared his first-ever time-lapse from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — and it's a real stunner. The dramatic 68-second clip shows a changing view of Earth as the space-based facility orbits our planet at an altitude of about 250 miles. Recommended Videos 'My first time-lapse,' Kim wrote in a social media post that included the video (below). Kim said he managed to nail it thanks to some time-lapse tips shared by fellow astronaut Nichole Ayers. 'After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing,' Kim wrote. 'Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a catch. And after catching my first fish, I think I'm hooked.' My first time-lapse. Thanks to some instruction and tips from @Astro_Ayers, I caught my first aurora. After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing. Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a… — Jonny Kim (@JonnyKimUSA) June 6, 2025 The video shows the space station flying into the night, with city lights in Asia and Australia visible far below, and bright stars shining in the far distance. A short while later, a gorgeous aurora appears over the horizon before filling much of the frame. Toward the end of the clip, one of the station's solar arrays also come into view. Auroras are natural light displays in Earth's sky, caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. While also viewable from parts of Earth, astronauts on the ISS can also enjoy a unique view of this natural wonder. Indeed, for most astronauts, witnessing auroras is one of the highlights of their time in orbit. Earlier this year, another NASA astronaut, Don Pettit, shared a dramatic view of an aurora, captured as the ISS flew directly over it. Kim arrived at the space station with two Russian cosmonauts after launching aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in April this year. With another four months of his mission left to run, hopefully the American will have time to create more clips similar to his first outstanding effort.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
From festivals to weddings: Why drone shows are booming
The wedding ceremony was almost over when newlywed Bobby Underwood stepped on a napkin-covered glass to break it, as is Jewish tradition, and everyone shouted "Mazel Tov!". But as he and his new wife Siobhan turned to walk back down the aisle, their wedding officiants said, "Wait." There was a surprise. "All of these drones started rising up," recalls Mrs Underwood. "It was honestly remarkable, very overwhelming – and incredibly emotional for us." She estimates that between 100 and 150 drones appeared in the night sky, displaying lights of various colours, and forming images chosen to represent the bridge and groom. These included a baseball player hitting a ball – as Mr Underwood is a big baseball fan – and a diamond ring being placed on a finger. The couple were married on New Year's Eve 2024, in New York State. Mrs Underwood's mother had arranged the surprise drone show with help from the couple's wedding planner – who had suggested it as a "wow factor" component of the day. It seemed to have the desired effect. "It was kind of just shock – 'Is this really happening right now?'," says Mrs Underwood. "I can't believe my mom did this for us." Drone shows are becoming ever more popular. Once rarities, they are now appearing at occasions ranging from birthday parties and weddings, to major sporting events. Some theme parks even have resident drone shows that take place multiple nights in a row. Glastonbury music festival had its first drone show in 2024. And record-breaking displays are pushing the technology to its limits – the biggest drone show in history took place in China last October. It featured a total of 10,200 drones and broke a record set only the previous month. So, does all this spell the end for fireworks? "They are really beautiful – they are art," says Sally French, a US-based drone industry commentator known as The Drone Girl. She says that drone shows have appeared at baseball games, corporate conferences, and even at ports, to celebrate the launch of cruises. Drone displays are becoming highly sophisticated, she explains, with some drone shows featuring thousands of flying devices, allowing them to animate figures or patterns in incredible detail. "I saw a Star Wars-themed drone show where there was a full-on lightsabre battle," adds Ms French. One barrier might be the price tag, however, with the cost per drone at around $300 (£220) in the UK, says Ms French, citing industry data from market research firm SPH Engineering: "A 500 drone show would be over $150,000." Mrs Underwood does not have an exact figure, but estimates that her wedding drone show cost tens of thousands of dollars. The sky's the limit, actually. Skymagic, one of the world's largest drone show companies, has put on major displays that cost north of $1m says Patrick O'Mahony, co-founder and creative director. Skymagic's shows have taken place in various countries – including the 2023 Coachella music festival in California. The company has also performed drone shows in the UK, including as part of the King's Coronation concert, which was broadcast by the BBC. Mr O'Mahony has experience in designing fireworks displays and other, similar events. But drones have revolutionised outdoor public displays, he says. His company has a fleet of 6,000 custom-designed drones. Each one can reach speeds of up to 10 meters per second. The drones sport LED lights and have batteries that allow for 25 minutes of flight time. To make them easier to transport, the drones are stored in flight cases and unpacked at venues in a giant marquee before they are laid out in the take-off area, half a metre apart, in a grid pattern. "Once the drones have received their 'go' command [they] fly the entire show," adds Mr O'Mahony, explaining that a single human pilot on the ground controls thousands of the devices at once. The drones are geo-fenced, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) data, which prevents them from straying beyond the allotted flight area. In windy conditions, though, they can get blown off course. In such cases, they automatically return to a landing spot on the ground, says Mr O'Mahony. Fireworks have a "boom" factor that drones generally don't, notes Ms French. However, Bill Ray, an analyst at market research firm Gartner, says that some drones can now launch pyrotechnics, for a firework-like effect. For instance, a stream of sparks raining down from the lower portion of an image created by a group of drones. Plus, Mr Ray says it is much easier to accurately synchronise drone movements with music during a show, which could be another reason behind their appeal. But the cost of shows remains prohibitive to some, and in part comes down to the fact that laying out the devices and gathering them all up again after the performance is still a relatively slow, manual process, adds Mr Ray. Pedro Rosário is chief executive of Drone Show Animations, a company that designs drone show performances for other companies that supply the drones themselves. Mr Rosário says that one challenging aspect of his work is in coming up with displays that adhere to various regulations applying to drone flights, since these rules differ from country to country. England has stricter regulations than countries in the Middle East, for example, he says. Mr Rosário adds that drone shows, which might be paired with pyrotechnics, traditional fireworks or even lasers, allow for a huge degree of creative freedom: "You can really build something that has emotional value, it can tell a story." In Mrs Underwood's case, that seems to have worked. Her guests enjoyed the spectacle too, she adds: "We've heard compliments about our wedding in general – but, consistently, the drone show is something people bring up as something they never expected to see." The people refusing to use AI Who will win the race to develop a humanoid robot? Do we need cocoa-free chocolate and is it nice?


CNET
10 hours ago
- CNET
Get Outside and Spot June's Strawberry Moon This Week
Not all full moons are created equal, and a great example of this is June's full moon, which you can check out this week. Also known as the strawberry moon, June's full moon will be one of the more interesting full moons of the year. It's a mini-moon, which means the moon is as far away from the Earth as its orbit will allow. It's also part of a major lunar standstill, which will give the moon a unique trajectory across the sky that only occurs every 18.6 years. Your best chance to see the strawberry moon will be early on June 11, with the fullest possible moon not visible until 3:46 a.m. according to The Farmer's Almanac. It'll be only slightly less full on both June 10 and June 12. Since it is a mini-moon, it'll also appear to be smaller and dimmer than a normal full moon. Anyone who caught one of four supermoons in 2024 will be able to spot the stark contrast between a supermoon and a mini-moon. During a supermoon, the moon is as close to the Earth as its orbit allows, a phenomenon known as perigee. For a mini-moon, the moon is as far away from Earth as it can get, a phenomenon called apogee. It's a little less exciting than a supermoon, but for context, it's neat to know how dim and small the moon can get compared to how big and bright it can get during a supermoon. The major lunar standstill The strawberry moon is part of what's called a major lunar standstill. This occurs once every 18.6 years when the moon's orbit aligns just right with the Earth's tilt. As most astronomers can tell you, the moon rises and sets from different points of the horizon based on the time of year, the Earth's tilt, and the moon's orbit. In short, the path the moon is taking through the sky is as long as it's going to get. This phenomenon isn't specific to June 2025. In fact, people will be able to view this phenomenon for most of the year. However, once it's gone, it'll be 18.6 years before it shows up again. Another interesting tidbit about major lunar standstills is that the moon will be rising and setting on parts of the horizon where the sun will never go. This was noted by researchers at English Heritage, who are currently studying the notion that Stonehenge lines up with this once-in-a-generation event.