Magnified Gallery

Dark matter gravitational lensing

Gravitational lensing by dark matter in the galaxy cluster CI 0024+17, Hubble Space Telescope image. The cluster galaxies are bright yellow, the far more distant lensed galaxies appear as elongated blue smears. Gravitational lensing is an effect whereby the path of light from distant objects is bent and magnified by the gravity of a sufficiently massive foreground object in the same line of sight. The amount of lensing can be used to determine the mass of the foreground object. By this method, the cluster was found to contain a vast ring of dark matter (see image R980/230), providing the best evidence yet of its existence. Image taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the HST in November 2004

© M J Jee, H Ford/Nasa/Esa/Stsci/Science Photo Library

Human finger, skin, blood, serum and salt crystals

Human finger, skin, blood, serum and salt crystals.. Human finger 1, magnified 2, epidermis 3, magnified 4, scales 5, magnified skin 6, and human blood 7, serum 8, and salt crystals in blood 9 under the microscope. Handcolored copperplate engraving from Friedrich Bertuch's Bilderbuch fur Kinder (Picture Book for Children), Weimar, 1798

© Florilegius / Mary Evans

Red biscuit seastar (Pentagonaster duebeni)

Red biscuit seastar (Pentagonaster duebeni), detail of the upper (dorsal) surface. Usually red in NSW and more orange in Victoria. It feeds on sponges and bryozoans. The sieve plate or madreporite in centre is the inlet to the water vascular system that allows locomotion for seastars. Between the plates are small balloon-like papulae that are used in respiration. Beside them, barely visible, are the pedicellaria that have pincer-like ends used to remove foreign objects. Solitary Islands Marine Park, off Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

© Mark Spencer/AUSCAPE All rights reserved