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Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

COSMOS field, imaged by CFHT

... that the COSMOS field (pictured) is the largest contiguous survey of the universe ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope?
... that Harrogate War Memorial, by Ernest Prestwich, names 1163 casualties of the First and Second World Wars, of whom more than 300 have unknown graves, and the youngest was 15 years old?
... that within a week of its upload, YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind became YouTube's most-disliked video of all time?
... that no voting was held in four out of six curiae in the 1916 Warsaw City Council election, as the Polish and Jewish parties had agreed on a single joint candidate slate?
... that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority general manager Phillip Eng brews his own beer?
... that the oldest complete versions of the Book of Jonah and 1 Peter are from a 3rd-century codex discovered in Egypt in 1952?
... that social media influencer Andrew Tate described himself as "absolutely a misogynist"?
... that when the Bukharian-Jewish Soviet newspaper Bajroqi Miⱨnat switched to the Latin script, it initially did not use capital letters, following Jewish writing rules?
... that actress Edna May Sperl's fiancé was arrested on the day of her wedding by a federal marshal because her fiancé's father opposed the marriage?

In the news
Aurora borealis seen from Southern England A series of solar storms impact Earth, creating aurorae (pictured) at lower latitudes than usual. Former prime minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama is sentenced to one year in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Mahamat Déby is declared the winner of the Chadian presidential election. Flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, leaves more than 110 people dead and at least 140 others missing. Kyren Wilson wins the World Snooker Championship. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Myanmar civil war Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline War in Sudan timeline Recent deaths: Yvonne Mokgoro Sean Burroughs César Luis Menotti Colleen Barrett Jimmy Johnson Ignatius Jones Nominate an article
On this day...
May 12 B-17 bombers intercepting the Rex 1743 – War of the Austrian Succession: Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia after driving French troops from the territory. 1938 – During an exercise to demonstrate air power, United States Army Air Corps bomber aircraft intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex (pictured) 620 nautical miles (1,100 km) off the US Atlantic coast. 1948 – The United Kingdom publicly announced that it was independently developing nuclear weapons, after the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended cooperation on the matter. 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the war for the Australian Army. 1998 – Four students were shot and killed by Indonesian soldiers at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which led to widespread riots and the resignation of President Suharto nine days later. Thomas Palaiologos (d. 1465) Otto Frank (b. 1889) Moto Hagio (b. 1949) More anniversaries: May 11 May 12 May 13 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture

Carpocoris purpureipennis is a species in the shield bug family, Pentatomidae. With a length of 11–13 millimetres (0.43–0.51 in), its body color varies from purple or reddish-brown to yellowish. The pronotum angles are black and the pronotum usually shows short longitudinal black stripes, while the scutellum may have some contrasting black spots. The insect's antennae are black and its legs are orange. Both the adult bugs and their nymphs are polyphagous. Adults mainly feed on juices of Cirsium arvense and nectar of Leucanthemum vulgare. These images show top and bottom views of a C. purpureipennis nymph.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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