21st Century Collection

Lascaux II cave painting replica C013 / 7378
Lascaux II replica of a Lascaux cave painting. These are deer and auroch figures in the Great Hall of the Bulls. The original Lascaux cave was closed to the public in 1963

Pendolino tilting train
A Pendolino tilting train, heading to London, tilts as it rounds a bend on the West Coast main line near Wolverton station, Bucks

Cosmic microwave background. Spherical projection of the cosmic microwave background, using all-sky data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe)

Wimbledon tennis complex, UK
Wimbledon tennis complex, aerial photograph. This complex is host to the Wimbledon tennis championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world

International Space Station, 2008
International Space Station (ISS), February 2008, taken from the Space Shuttle Atlantis after undocking took place towards the end of the Shuttles mission to the ISS

Full Moon. The Moon appears full when it is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun during its orbit, when it presents its full sunlit face to Earth

Airbus A380 in flight C017 / 7889
Airbus A380 in flight. The A380 is the worlds largest passenger airliner and, due to its size, many airports have had to expand their facilities to properly accommodate it

Higgs boson event, ATLAS detector C013 / 6892
Higgs boson event. Graphic of a transverse section through a detector showing one of the numerous particle collision events recorded during the search for the Higgs boson

Europe at night, satellite image. North is at top. Yellow lights mark the major cities and population areas, showing a clearly delineated Mediterranean coast

Titanic Museum, Belfast, Ulster, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe

UK at night from space
UK at night, as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population. France is at bottom. Image taken on 24th December 2010

Earth from space, satellite image
Earth from space. Satellite image showing North and South America as seen from 35, 000 kilometres above the Earths surface. North is at top and the Moon is at upper right

Tinsley cooling towers, Sheffield
Tinsley cooling towers being demolished. These towers were built in 1938 as part of the Blackburn Meadows power station and stood over 75 metres tall

Jupiter and Io, New Horizons image
Jupiter and Io. Montage of images of Jupiter (left) and its moon Io (right), obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft in February and March 2007 as it passed Jupiter on its way to Pluto

Antennae colliding galaxies, Hubble image
Antennae colliding galaxies, Hubble Space Telescope image. The Antennae (NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) are formed of two galaxies colliding due to mutual gravitational attraction

Curiosity rover, artwork
NASAs next Mars rover, the Curiosity Rover, will land at the foot of a layered mountain inside the planets Gale Crater. Launch is palneed for November/ December 2011

ATLAS detector, CERN
ATLAS detector. Composite image of the ATLAS (a torodial LHC apparatus) detector (circular) at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland

Sunrise at the Clyde Arc (Squinty Bridge), Pacific Quay, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

The Shard and Tower Bridge at night, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Crab nebula, composite image
Crab nebula. Composite x-ray, infrared and optical image of the Crab nebula (M1), a remnant of a supernova that exploded in AD 1054

Sheffield, UK, aerial image
Sheffield, UK, aerial photograph. Sheffield is a city of some 510, 000 people (2003) in South Yorkshire. The M1 motorway (running down right) links Sheffield with London (to the south)

David Attenborough, British naturalist
David Attenborough. Caricature of the British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Frederick Attenborough (born 1926) holding a frog

Snow-covered United Kingdom, January 2010. Satellite image of snow and ice (white) covering the UK during the cold spell in January 2010

Oak tree at sunrise
Oak tree (Quercus sp.) silhouetted against the morning Sun

ATLAS detector, CERN
ATLAS detector. Engineer standing on a platform in front of the ATLAS (a torodial LHC apparatus) detector (circular) at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland

CMS detector, CERN
CMS detector. Part of the CMS (compact muon solenoid) detector at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland

North America at night, satellite image
Africa at night. Satellite image of the Earth at night, set against a background of stars, centred on the continent of Africa. North is at top. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population

Europe at night, satellite image. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population. There are few lights in North Africa (bottom) and the Arctic (top) since they are more sparsely populated

Saturns rings, Cassini image. The rings consist of particles of nearly pure water ice and meteoric dust and span almost 300, 000 kilometres

Ireland, Dublin, Lansdowne Road Football stadium, interior panoramic view looking from the south end of the stadium

Lead ion collisions. Particle tracks from the first stable run lead ion collisions seen by the ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) detector at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory)

City skyline and Taipei 101 building in the Xinyi district, Taipei, Taiwan, Asia

North Sea at night, satellite image
North Sea at night. Black marble satellite image of the North Sea at night. Lights from ships and flares from gas and oil platforms can be seen. On land, more densely populated areas are brighter

ITER fusion research reactor, computer artwork. ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, is being designed to test the principles surrounding the generation of power from nuclear

Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian gun designer
Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (born 1919), Russian gun designer, holding the first-ever AK-47 assault rifle, at an official 60th anniversary event, held in 2007 in Moscow, Russia

Aurora over Antarctica, satellite image
Aurora over Antarctica, ultraviolet satellite image. Australia is at upper left. This is the aurora australis (green ring), the southern lights display

Martian landscape, Spirit rover image
Martian landscape. False-colour image of the Martian surface taken by NASAs Mars exploration rover Spirit between the 23rd and 24th November 2005. Part of the rover can be seen at bottom centre

Solar panels in the sun
Solar cells are often electrically connected and encapsulated as a module. Photovoltaic modules often have a sheet of glass on the front (sun up) side

Tinsley cooling towers demolition
Tinsley cooling towers being prepared for demolition. These towers were built in 1938 as part of the Blackburn Meadows power station and stood over 75 metres tall

Scotland, UK, satellite image
Scotland, UK. North is at top. Natural colour satellite image showing Scotland in the United Kingdom, with the surrounding territories shaded out

Lascaux II cave painting replica C013 / 7382
Lascaux II replica of a Lascaux cave painting. These are horse and cow figures in the central gallery. The original Lascaux cave was closed to the public in 1963

Cassini-Huygens probe at Saturn, artwork

Saturn, Cassini image
Saturn. Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn, its rings, and two of its moons Titan (upper right) and Tethys (bottom left). The rings, which consist of particles of nearly pure water ice

Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Oldest Dickinson College building, " Old West" Hall, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, built in 1803 to replace the original college hall, which burned. Digital photograph

Io and Jupiter, Cassini image. Io, the round object at left, is one of the largest of the moons of Jupiter. Clouds in Jupiters atmosphere form the backdrop to this image

Clyde Arc (Squinty Bridge) and residential flats, River Clyde, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Supercell thunderstorm, Kansas, USA C017 / 8422
Supercell thunderstorm forming over Sanford, Kansas, USA, at twilight. A supercell thunderstorm is a severe long-lived storm within which the wind speed and direction changes with height

The Ak Orda, Presidential Palace of President Nursultan Nazarbayev at dawn, Astana, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Asia

Interacting galaxies NGC 5257 and 5258
Interacting galaxies NGC 5257 and NGC 5258. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of two interacting spiral galaxies, collectively known as Arp 240

Helix nebula, infrared Spitzer image
Helix nebula (NGC 7293), infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image. This is a planetary nebula, a series of shells of gas cast off by a dying star

Newborn babies at a maternity hospital. Nurse wheeling a trolley of newborn babies around a maternity hospital. The babies are weighed and checked

Firth of Forth, UK, satellite image. The Firth of Forth is the major estuary of the River Forth in Scotland. The grey area at centre is the city of Edinburgh

Reading, UK, aerial photograph

Curiosity rover on Mars, artwork

Australia, satellite image
Australia. Satellite image of the Earth, set against a background of stars, centred on the island continent of Australia. North is at top. Clouds (white) are seen in the atmosphere

Spacecraft on the Moon, lunar map
Spacecraft on the Moon. Map showing coloured markers for 34 spacecraft that impacted or landed on the Moon from the 1960s onwards

Particle physics research. Screenshot of particle tracks as recorded by a detector at a particle accelerator. Particles such as protons are accelerated to near the speed of light to collide with

Oil drilling rig, North Sea
Oil drilling rig. Byford Dolphin semi-submersible oil rig moored in the Cromarty Firth at the town of Invergordon, Scotland

Spiral galaxy M81, composite image. M81 is around 12 million light years from Earth, in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has a supermassive black hole at its centre

Jackup oil drilling rig, North Sea
Jackup oil drilling rig. Ensco 80 oil rig being towed up the Cromarty Firth passing the town of Invergordon. Photographed in the North Sea, Scotland

Richard Dawkins, British science writer
Richard Dawkins. Caricature of the British ethnologist, evolutionary biologist and controversial author Richard Dawkins (born 1941) holding one of his books

Isaac Asimov, US author and biochemist
Isaac Asimov. Caricature of the Soviet-born American science fiction writer and biochemist Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). Asimov is best known for his science fiction novels and popular science books

Modern Neanderthal, conceptual image. Computer artwork representing what a Neanderthal might have looked like today had the species survived

Tinsley cooling towers demolition
Tinsley cooling towers being demolished. These towers were built in 1938 as part of the Blackburn Meadows power station and stood over 75 metres tall

Burj Khalifa, the tallest man made structure in the world at 828 metres, viewed from the Palace Hotel, Downtown Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East

Tornadic supercell thunderstorm, USA
Tornadic supercell thunderstorm over fields. A supercell thunderstorm is a severe long-lived storm within which the wind speed and direction changes with height

Palm Islands construction, Dubai
Luxury island construction, Dubai. Ikonos satellite image of an artificial palm tree-shaped island created in the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Dubai. This is the Jumeirah Palm resort

Bombetoka Bay, Madagascar, satellite image. This bay links the Betsiboka River (at right) with the Mozambique Channel (top left), part of the Indian Ocean

South America at night, satellite image
South America at night. Satellite image of the Earth at night, set against a background of stars, centred on the continent of South America. North is at top

South America at night, satellite image. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population, particularly in North America (top left) and South Americas coasts

North America at night, satellite image. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population, particularly in North America (upper centre)

Syrian Desert, satellite image. North is at top. Vegetation is red and dark green, while arid areas of sand and rock are light green and light blue. Water is blue

Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai at dusk, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East

Gray wolf
Gray wolves (Canis lupus) at the Wolf Science Center, Austria. This research laboratory explores the similarities and links between wolves, dogs and humans

Delta mission to the ISS, artwork
Delta mission to the International Space Station (ISS) over the Netherlands, artwork. This mission (April 2004) included Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers and a variety of European science experiments

Milky Way over Scottish loch
Milky Way, over Clatteringshaws Loch, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The Milky Way, our galaxy seen from the inside, is the band of stars, nebulae and dust lanes running vertically across the sky

The Shard and Tower Bridge, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Teenage girls with a snowman. Photographed in Zvenigorod, in the Moscow region of Russia, in March 2005

Total solar eclipse, 29 / 03 / 2006
Total solar eclipse. Sequence of images of the sun during a total solar eclipse. The disc of the moon is seen moving over the disc of the sun

Tupolev 154 aircraft, Russia
Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft taking off from an airport runway. This aircraft is a jet airliner, designed to carry hundreds of passengers on medium and long-haul flights

Oil refinery at night. A tailings pond, for the disposal of waste material from the mining and refining process, is seen in the foreground

Space Shuttle launch, computer enhanced image. This is mission STS-99, flown by the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It launched on 11 February 2000

Water vapour maps of Antarctica, 2004
Water vapour maps of Antarctica. Satellite images of the increase in water vapour over Antarctica from 13 August to 14 October 2004 (the austral spring)

Fareham, UK, aerial image
Fareham, UK, aerial photograph. Fareham is a market town in Hampshire, England, between the two cities of Portsmouth and Southampton

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"Embracing the Marvels of the 21st Century: A Journey through Time and Innovation" Step into a world where ancient art meets modern technology, as we explore the wonders of the 21st century. From the mesmerizing Lascaux II cave painting replica to the sleek Pendolino tilting train, this era is defined by its ability to bridge past and present. In music, Pat Martino's soulful melodies transport us to new dimensions, showcasing how creativity continues to thrive in our ever-evolving society. Meanwhile, scientific breakthroughs like the Higgs boson event captured by ATLAS detector remind us of humanity's insatiable curiosity and quest for knowledge. Gazing at the cosmic microwave background reminds us that even in this fast-paced era, there are still mysteries waiting to be unraveled beyond our planet. And what better way to celebrate human achievement than witnessing epic battles on Wimbledon's iconic tennis courts? As night falls, lights illuminate cities across Europe and showcase their vibrant energy from space. The Tinsley cooling towers stand tall amidst Sheffield's urban landscape—a testament to both progress and preservation. But it's not just Earth that captivates our attention; Jupiter and Io enchant us with their celestial dance in an image captured by New Horizons. And as dawn breaks over Glasgow's Clyde Arc (Squinty Bridge), we witness a breathtaking sunrise that symbolizes hope for a brighter future. The 21st century has brought forth countless marvels—both big and small—that shape our lives today, and is an era where tradition intertwines with innovation, reminding us that while time moves forward relentlessly, we can always find inspiration in our shared history as we forge ahead towards tomorrow.