Pictures of the day reveal a hand-embroidered cape made from the silk of the Golden Orb Spider. The cape is one of two golden spider silk textiles that exist in the world. Made in Madagascar over a period of 8 years the cape uses the silk of silk of 1.2 million spiders
Other magical sights include Sirius (the Dog Star) in Somerset, in the constellation Canis Major, while less uplifting but similarly striking is the pollution reflected in fast moving clouds over the Glastonbury Tor.
Other galactic delights included the Tropicana Sun art installation which bathed London's Trafalgar Square in summer sunshine as part of the Brighter Mornings campaign, while elsewhere in the solar system, two smaller moons, Epimetheus and Prometheus were captured near Saturn's moon Dione.
Sporting legends were captured panting mid court as Rafael Nadal cooled off with water during a break in his fourth round match against Feliciano Lopez of Spain during day seven of the 2012 Australian Open at Melbourne Park, Australia. Elsewhere down under, competitors jumped in the women's 3000m steeplechase during the Capital Classic at Newtown Park in Wellington, New Zealand.
And as Le Huffington Post launched in France, Le Monde group publisher Louis Dreyfus, editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, editorial director Anne Sinclair, chief editor Paul Ackermann, editor David Kessler and French businessman Matthieu Pigasse gave a press conference for the launch of the French version of Huffington's news website, Le Huffington Post.
For more artwork, sea storms and rocket launchers click through: they can all be seen in pictures of the day.