Cosmic ray research laboratory. Apparatus in a laboratory used for researching the effects of cosmic rays on spacecraft. At centre is an exact replica of the EPIC MOS (European Photon Imaging Camera, Metal Oxide Semiconductor) camera of the XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror) satellite. XMM-Newton is used to detect X-rays in high energy space phenomena like black holes and supernovae. Space research equipment is often made in duplicate so that if a problem should arise in space, the identical machine on Earth can be used by researchers to find out what the cause is. Photographed in the space research centre at the University of Leicester, UK.