Science isn't all about examining graphs and charts. In this weekly column, staff writer Andrea Alfano puts together the most striking science images from the past week's news for your viewing pleasure. Scroll down to find phenomenal images and fascinating facts about the science behind them.
From the hot vents of the deep sea to the frigid surface of Mars, there were some amazing sights in the world of science this week. Creatures dominated this week, with a furry crab, the psychedelic patterns found on squid skin, hoards of gorgeous-but-deadly jellyfish, and the impressive fossilized canine of a saber-toothed kitten. But you'll also get your fix of space images in this week's installment.
This close up shot of France's southern coast was the very first image from the NASA's Sentinel-2A satellite, taken on June 27, only four days after launch. The false coloration shown here come from the high-resolution infrared spectra channel aboard the satellite.
Scientists described a new species of yeti crab this week, Kiwa tyleri (shown above). Of the three species of yeti crab, K. tyleri is the only one known to live in the Southern Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica, where it lives among hot underwater vents and farms bacteria to eat.
There was trouble along the Jersey shore this week as dozens of the deadly jellyfish known as the Portuguese Man O' War washed up. Lifeguards at New Jersey beaches had to warn beachgoers to take extra caution in the water, and to refrain from touching these rather beautiful but very venomous jellyfish once they washed up on the beach.
The strange shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is perfectly illuminated by sunlight in this photo taken by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. On August 13 of this year, the comet will reach it's closest point to the sun along it's orbit, which takes six and a half years to complete.
The psychedelic patterns you're looking at are actually the skin of a squid. This week, scientists figured out the secret to squid skin's dazzling irridescence.
This 10,000-year-old partial jaw of a baby saber-toothed cat showed that saber-toothed kittens didn't start getting their teeth until late in life. But once the teeth began coming in, they grew at a very rapid rate, twice as fast as a modern lion's teeth grow.
This shot of a light-toned deposit in Aureum Chaos on the surface of Mars comes to us from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This region of "chaotic terrain" is 229 miles wide. According to NASA, some of the shapes seen here seem to have been carved out by a fluid moving across the planet's surface.
