Thursday, January 27, 2011

Life's Design - Welcome to the Microverse




NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has, for the first time, detected tiny quartz-like crystals sprinkled in young planetary systems. The crystals, which are types of silica minerals called cristobalite and tridymite, can be seen close-up in the black-and-white insets (cristobalite is on the left, and tridymite on the right). The main picture is an artist's concept of a young star and its swirling disk of planet-forming materials.

Cristobalite and tridymite are thought to be two of many planet ingredients. On Earth, they are normally found as tiny crystals in volcanic lava flows and meteorites from space. These minerals are both related to quartz. For example, if you were to heat the familiar quartz crystals often sold as mystical tokens, the quartz would transform into cristobalite and tridymite. Source
^ No surprise that cristobalite and trdymite were found...


Snow Crystals








Gultamate Crystal



Snowflake closeup


Soybean cyst nematode and egg


Tococara canis. This is a scanning electron microscope picture of the microscopic juvenile forms of the dog parasite Toxocara canis


Guitar String





Butterfly tongue


Pollen



Hairs on seed of Rochelia Persica


I want a SEM.
Too bad I can't afford one now...
Next up Defraction Patterns

No comments:

Post a Comment