The 15 coolest images from Wikipedia's first-ever science photography competition
What you see here are spores formed inside a myxomycete called "Reticularia olivacea" from the pine forests of eastern Ukraine. Myxomycetes are slime moulds which often take on amoebae, or single-celled, forms. Their spores are capable of forming a fungi-like produce.
This microscopic image of a fly was taken using fluorescence microscopy.
This is the body of the myxomycete "Alwisia lloydiae" in Tazmania transitioning into a fruiting spore. The image was taken using microphotography which is done by scanning an object with an electronic microscope and colouring the image with graphic tools. This image was magnified 50 times.
Seen here is a magnified image of a butterfly's feelers. Its feelers are long and thin in shape and are used to detect wind direction as well as any nearby nectar.
This picture is a satellite image of crop circles. Crop circles appear when watering systems with a central pivot point are used to care for the crops and plants.
This image was magnified 2000x and shows the rare slime mould, Tubifera dudkae. The substance is covered with formations that look like waves in the ocean, and small egg-like spores lie among them.
An artist's impression of VFTS 352 — the hottest and biggest known double star. This particular phenomenon lies 160,000 light-years from earth and could either end in the formation of one giant star or a binary black, the name given when two black holes sit in close orbit around each other.
These are the micro crystals of ascorbic acid in polarized light. Asorbic acid is found in the majority of citrus fruits and green vegetables and is vital in maintaining healthy connective tissue.
This mind-bending image was taken inside the radio telescope RT-70 in the Crimea. With a 70-metre? antenna diameter, it's among the largest single satellite dishes in the world.
In this picture, a 19-seater Twin Otter passenger plane sits atop the ice sheets of Greenland while two people inspect a weather station.
Sugar crystals in polarized light create this dazzling explosion of colours.
Sefik Suzer is a leading figure in surface science and spectroscopy — the branch of science which studies the spectrum produced when light is separated by refraction. In this picture he's standing next to his old X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer in the Bilkent University UNAM, Turkey.
What you see here is the microbes taken from the photographer's family's fingertips. The photo project attempted to portray family in a unique way over the course of 3 weeks as the microbes cultivated. Photographer Sofia Vini says he carried out the shoot in "an attempt to capture the enthralling beauty of the parallel microbial universe."
It may look like a bizarre insect, but this is in fact the filament inside an incandescent light bulb.
This is what pollen from a sage plant looks like under a microscope.
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