Image Credits & Links
The following images, and their approximate size, appear on the wheel-shaped logo to the left, beginning at twelve o'clock and working clockwise:
Galaxy, ~1021 m
Our own Milky Way is a spiral galaxy much like this one.
Courtesy of Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images
Horsehead Nebula, ~1016 m
New-born stars light up clouds of interstellar dust and gas, silhouetting beautiful forms like this horse's head.
Courtesy of European Southern Observatory
Solar System, ~1012 m
Our solar system, composed of four giant gas planets and several smaller rocky planets, may be typical - or it may not.
Courtesy of istockphoto.com
Earth, ~107 m
Today and always, our only home.
Albert Einstein, ~2 m
2005 marks the centennial of Einstein's 'miracle' year, in which he developed special relativity and laid some of the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Neuron - On the home page, ~10-5 m
Information is sped throughout our bodies via specialized cells called neurons.
Courtesy of Dave Dwire
DNA - On the home page, ~10-9 m
The DNA molecule is the mechanism of heredity and evolution.
Courtesy of Robert Finkbeiner, © 2005
Atom - On the home page, ~10-10 m
The carbon atom is the foundation of life on Earth.
Courtesy of Tinka Sloss
Sub-Atomic Particles, ~10-19 m
A veritable zoo of very small particles is revealed when atoms are slammed together.
Courtesy of CERN
Strings, ~10-35 m
At a scale even smaller than atoms or sub-atomic particles, are there strings?
Courtesy of Stephen Harrison, Directed Technologies Inc
Multiple Universes
Together, inflation and string theory imply that we may inhabit a 'multiverse' of regions with different properties, and even different laws of physics.
Courtesy of Anthony Aguirre
Universe, ~1027 m
This image of the microwave background radiation temperature is a snapshot of the universe when it was very young.
Courtesy of Max Tegmark
Large Scale Structure of the Local Universe, ~1024 m
Initially nearly uniform, over time matter clumped into sheets and filaments of a 'cosmic web,' through the action of gravity.
Michael Norman and Greg Bryan, NCSA/UIUC
Uroboros - Background
Nature's forces - strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity - unite small and large scale phenomena.
Courtesy of Joel Primack This image was first published in "Dark Matter, Galaxies, and Large Scale Structures in the Universe," preprint SLAC-PUB-3387, published in Proceedings of the International School of Physics``Enrico Fermi" XCII, N. Cabibbo, ed. (North-Holland, 1987), pp. 137-241. For a more modern version of this diagram, please see Primack & Abrams, THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Riverhead Books, March 2006)
The following images, and their approximate size, appear on the wheel-shaped logo to the left, beginning at twelve o'clock and working clockwise:
Galaxy, ~1021 m
Our own Milky Way is a spiral galaxy much like this one.
Courtesy of Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images
Horsehead Nebula, ~1016 m
New-born stars light up clouds of interstellar dust and gas, silhouetting beautiful forms like this horse's head.
Courtesy of European Southern Observatory
Solar System, ~1012 m
Our solar system, composed of four giant gas planets and several smaller rocky planets, may be typical - or it may not.
Courtesy of istockphoto.com
Earth, ~107 m
Today and always, our only home.
Albert Einstein, ~2 m
2005 marks the centennial of Einstein's 'miracle' year, in which he developed special relativity and laid some of the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Neuron - On the home page, ~10-5 m
Information is sped throughout our bodies via specialized cells called neurons.
Courtesy of Dave Dwire
DNA - On the home page, ~10-9 m
The DNA molecule is the mechanism of heredity and evolution.
Courtesy of Robert Finkbeiner, © 2005
Atom - On the home page, ~10-10 m
The carbon atom is the foundation of life on Earth.
Courtesy of Tinka Sloss
Sub-Atomic Particles, ~10-19 m
A veritable zoo of very small particles is revealed when atoms are slammed together.
Courtesy of CERN
Strings, ~10-35 m
At a scale even smaller than atoms or sub-atomic particles, are there strings?
Courtesy of Stephen Harrison, Directed Technologies Inc
Multiple Universes
Together, inflation and string theory imply that we may inhabit a 'multiverse' of regions with different properties, and even different laws of physics.
Courtesy of Anthony Aguirre
Universe, ~1027 m
This image of the microwave background radiation temperature is a snapshot of the universe when it was very young.
Courtesy of Max Tegmark
Large Scale Structure of the Local Universe, ~1024 m
Initially nearly uniform, over time matter clumped into sheets and filaments of a 'cosmic web,' through the action of gravity.
Michael Norman and Greg Bryan, NCSA/UIUC
Uroboros - Background
Nature's forces - strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity - unite small and large scale phenomena.
Courtesy of Joel Primack This image was first published in "Dark Matter, Galaxies, and Large Scale Structures in the Universe," preprint SLAC-PUB-3387, published in Proceedings of the International School of Physics``Enrico Fermi" XCII, N. Cabibbo, ed. (North-Holland, 1987), pp. 137-241. For a more modern version of this diagram, please see Primack & Abrams, THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Riverhead Books, March 2006)