Images Dated 6th February 2004

Florida peninsula seen from Space Shuttle

Florida peninsula seen from space. To the right of the frame is the Atlantic Ocean, with the Gulf of Mexico to the left. Just right of centre jutting out into the Atlantic is Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center from where all Shuttle missions are launched. The spread of the city of Miami is seen as the grey area at the bottom right of the peninsula. The dark patch next to Miami is Lake Okeechobee. Extending from bottom centre to bottom left is the line of the Florida Keys: at bottom right is pale blue, shallow water next to South Bimini Island. This photograph was taken by the crew of Shuttle Discovery during Mission 51-C of 24-27 January 1985

© NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Visualisation of quark structure of neutron

Quark structure of the neutron. Computer visualisation of the structure of the neutron, one of the building blocks of atomic nuclei. The three objects seen here are quarks, held together by the strong nuclear force. This force is mediated by the exchange of virtual gluons which form a quantum cloud around the quarks. The colours here represent the quark "flavour"; the proton is made of two "down" quarks (pink) and one "up" quark (green). These quarks have electric charges of -1/3 and +2/3 respectively, so the neutron has no net electric charge (is electrically neutral)

© ARSCIMED/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY