Cosmological Gallery

Durers Celestial Globe, 1515

Durer's Celestial Globe, 1515. This shows the northern hemisphere, and was prepared in conjunction with the astronomer Stabius. Four astronomers are shown in the corners: Aratus Cilis; Ptolomaeus Aegyptius; Maniliusromanus; and Azophi Arabus (al Sufi). Albrecht Durer (1471- 1528) produced the first printed star charts in 1515. One chart, or planisphere, showed all the northern constellations; the other depicted the southern hemisphere. The positions of the stars were exactly fixed (according to Ptolemey's catalogue) and the figures were artistically portrayed, in a classical style. Durer also chose to illustrate the constellations that would appear on a globe as if seen from space. Taken from The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer by Dr Willi Kurth (1936)

© SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Homeric cosmogony

Homeric cosmogony. Map of the Earth based on the myths and knowledge of the Ancient Greeks at the time of Homer (1st or 2nd millennium BC). The map shows a flat Earth centred on Greece and the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by a River Ocean'. At night, the Sun passes from west to east behind a range of high mountains in the north ('region of the night'). To the south in North Africa, is the region of the day'. Other mythological references include the Elysian Fields, the island of the Cyclops, and the entrance to hell. Civilisations (historical and mythological) marked here include: Ethiopians, Libyans, Pygmies, Egyptians, Amazons, Phoenicians, Hyperboreans and Cimmerians. Places include: Thebes, Sparta, Troy, Thrace, Crete and Cyprus. Artwork from Pioneers of Science (Oliver Lodge, 1893)

© SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Lead ion collision C014/1793

Particle tracks from a lead ion collision seen by the CMS (compact muon solenoid) detector at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland. Before the collision the ions had been accelerated by the large hadron collider (LHC). The central tracking chamber (cylindrical) and muon chambers (red rectangles) of the detector are seen end-on in outline. The collision produced a number of unidentified particles (orange) and an upsilon meson. The upsilon meson is not seen, but is revealed through its decay products; a pair of muons (two longest red lines). The green lines show the energy deposited by the muons in the detector's muon chambers. The energies of the unidentified particles are measured by the electrochemical calorimeter (shorter red lines) and the hadron calorimeter (blue)

© CMS EXPERIMENT, CERN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY