Images Dated 12th January 2005

Biometric scans

Biometric scans. Computer artwork of a human eye and fingerprint. Biometrics is the identification of individuals by measuring and analysing their physiological characteristics, such as fingerprints, and eye retinas and irises. Each has unique features which can be used to identify an individual. Biometric data can be combined with personal information to form the basis of identity card systems

© DAVID NICHOLLS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

COBE observation of dust ring in Earths orbit

Earth's dust ring. All-sky map showing dust clouds trailing (large area, left) and leading (right) Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The colours represent infrared intensity at a wave- length of 12 microns, from purple (lowest) to red (highest). The red areas at top right and bottom left are signals from the Milky Way. The clouds are part of a ring of asteroidal dust which orbits the Sun with the Earth. It is thought that the dust came from the zodiacal cloud which envelops the inner Solar System, and has become locked in a gravitational resonance with the Earth. The data were gathered by the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment on NASA's COBE satellite

© W.T.REACH/NASA GSFC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

V-2 rocket before early US launch

V-2 rocket being prepared for an early US launch, White Sands, New Mexico. After the Second World War a number of German rocket scientists defected to the USA. Amongst these was Wernher von Braun, the head of the Nazi's pioneering V-2 rocket programme. They were taken to the White Sands missile range in New Mexico, where they continued their work. The experiments performed here led directly to the rockets later used for space exploration and for the delivery of nuclear payloads. On 16 April 1946 a V-2 taken from Germany after its defeat was the first to be launched in the US. It was unsuccessful, failing at a height of 5 kilometres, but later launches performed better

© DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY