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Blue Marble image of Earth (2005)

Blue Marble image of Earth. Composite satellite image of Earth's western hemisphere, centred on the Atlantic Ocean. North is at top. The image is one of a set entitled Blue Marble: Next Generation, released in October 2005, which improves upon Blue Marble 2000. The new images combine data collected over a longer period of time at an improved resolution of 500 metres per pixel. Features include cloud cover, oceans, phytoplankton activity, topography, and city lights in the nighttime part of the hemisphere. Data was obtained mainly by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites between July 2001 and July 2004. Topography is based on radar data collected by the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

© Nasa Earth Observatory/Science Photo Library

1689 Sir Isaac Newton portrait young

Sir Isaac Newton ( 4 January 1643 -31 March 1727). English physicist and mathematician. 18th Century Mezzotint portrait after the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller 1689, with later colouring. It shows Newton in his prime and is the earliest of the portraits. Newton is famous for his laws of motion and gravitation and remains one of the greatest scientists of all time. His opus magnus was his "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica". Other pursuits included optical physics, alchemy, religious and occult investigation, and preventing forgery while superintendant of the Royal Mint. He was widely viewed as an eccentric genius, but his human remains indicated mercury poisoning from his alchemy may have contributed to his instability. This version retains yellow age toning of original and is in the possession of the photographer.

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Saturn silhouetted, Cassini image

Saturn silhouetted. Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn and its ring system with the Sun directly behind. The view revealed two previously unknown rings. One, associated with the orbits of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, lies in between the outer edge of the bright main rings and the thin grey/brown G Ring. The other, associated with the orbit of the moon Pallene, lies just inside the broad and diffuse outer E ring. Earth is seen as a bright dot at the ten o'clock position between the bright main rings and the G Ring. This is a composite of 165 images taken at infrared, visible light and ultraviolet wavelengths by the Cassini spacecraft on 15th September 2006, while it was around 2.2 million kilometres from Saturn.

© Nasa/Jpl/Space Science Institute/Science Photo Library