Science image of the day

SEPTEMBER 28: Niwa and Antarctica NZ staff deploy an ice tethered profiler. It is used to collect measurements of conductivity, temperature, and depth.

SEPTEMBER 27: Nasa's Global Hawk aircraft is unmanned and can fly for long periods of time allowing it to collect much data. It was most recently used to acquire detailed measurements from hurricanes.

SEPTEMBER 26: Niwa's Mike Williams and Gideon Geerling from Antarctica NZ investigate icebergs in McMurdo Sound.

SEPTEMBER 25: A moonrise at 2pm in Antarctica in April this year.

SEPTEMBER 24: Nasa Mars rover Curiosity endorsed by American science and political leadership. This plaque is riveted to the rover.

SEPTEMBER 21: New research published in Biology Letters reveals snakes are descended from an ancient burrowing creature. The DNA based research found (above) palm vipers, Indian cobras, green snakes and timber rattlesnakes were all closely related to the Anomalepididae family of burrowing blind snakes.

SEPTEMBER 20: Endeavour lifts off for the last time as it rides atop a shuttle carrier craft destined for the California Science Center where it will be a museum piece.

SEPTEMBER 19: The Endeavour mounted atop Nasa's shuttle carrier aircraft is positioned at a gantry as protection from a storm which has delayed its flight to Los Angeles. Once there it becomes a museum piece at the California Space Center.

SEPTEMBER 18: The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on Nasa's Mars rover Curiosity. It is used to analyse chemical elements in rocks and soil.

SEPTEMBER 14: Nasa is preparing to test a brick-making technique that would allow them to make heat shields for spaceships from soils on other planets. This would lighten spaceships allowing them to carry more cargo or use smaller rockets.

SEPTEMBER 13: Nasa releases satellite image of New York city taken on the morning of September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was destroyed.

SEPTEMBER 11: Prickle face - a cactus gives the impression of a face with sockets for eyes.

SEPTEMBER 10: Drone aircraft Global Hawks fly above hurricanes to monitor the formation and intensity changes of the meterological phenomena.

SEPTEMBER 4: Spacewalker Ron Garan rides on the International Space Station's arm as he transfers a failed pump module to the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis.

SEPTEMBER 3: The mixing layer between two fluids of different densities in a gravitational field. Known as a Rayleigh-Taylor instability - a type of turbulent mixing that occurs due to gravity, when a heavy gas is on top of a lighter one - this mixing plays an essential role in stellar convection.

AUGUST 30: Follow that tortoise! This Agassiz's desert tortoise is fitted with a transmitter so researchers can observe its behaviour.