Astronomy and microscopy are both fields that are built on the challenge of making the invisible visible. Each discipline relies on light and data to reveal hidden structures, whether across the vastness of space or within the intricacies of living cells.
While their goals differ in scale, the equipment of telescopes and microscopes reflects a shared purpose: to greatly extend human vision. Telescopes (“light buckets”) collect faint light across vast distances with mirrors and detectors, often orbiting in space to avoid Earth’s atmosphere. Microscopes, by contrast, are more of light funnels, focusing on the tiny, using lenses, lasers, or electron beams to magnify the minute worlds within our reach. In both, technology shapes the limits — and possibilities — of discovery.
Despite these differences, the two fields can converge through a common visual language. Images from telescopes and microscopes alike require translation: representative color, scaling, and data processing all help convey meaning. What we see is a translation that interprets our data while highlighting structure, function, or scale.
Astronomy and microscopy remind us that vision is both a tool and a construction. By transforming the invisible into the visible, these disciplines not only advance science but also reshape how we perceive our place in the cosmos and the complexity of life itself.
Pairings of the Extremely Big & the Incredibly Small
Mouse Brain Cell vs. Ring Nebula
Left: Inside a mouse brain cancer cell, color reveals the framework and inner membranes that help keep the cell alive. Right: The Ring Nebula, a glowing cloud of gas left behind when a dying star shed its outer layers, seen by NASA’s Webb telescope.
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Left: The actin cytoskeleton, the structure of protein fibers that give shape and structure, (cyan) and endoplasmic reticulum , a membrane system, (red) of a mouse brain cancer cell, seen in 100x magnification in a confocal and deconvolution image. Right: The Ring Nebula was formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, and it is seen here in infrared light by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Also known as M57 and NGC 6720, it is relatively close to Earth at roughly 2,500 light-years away. Scale: The image is 2.17 arcminutes across.
Credit: Left: Halli Lindamood & Eric Vitriol, Augusta University, Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Augusta, Georgia, USA; Right: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (UCL), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University)
Cardiac Organoid vs. Supernova 1006
Left: A cardiac organoid — a tiny 3D model of heart tissue — grown from stem cells to help study how the heart forms and functions. Right: The aftermath of a supernova seen from Earth over a thousand years ago, captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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Left: A cardiac organoid is a miniature and simplified three-dimensional (3D) cellular model system grown from progenitor cells or stem cells. This image of one has been magnified 10X. Right: The explosion that created this supernova remnant was seen from Earth over a thousand years ago seen here in a long observation from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. SN 1006 belongs to the class of supernovas used to measure the expansion of the Universe. Scale: The image is about 70 light years across.
Credit: Left: Syed Ashraf, Dr. Divya Sridharan & Ms. Salvia Zafar, The Ohio State University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA; Right: NASA/CXC/Middlebury College/F.Winkler)
Behind the Telescope: Supernova 1006
SN 1006 is a treasure chest of a supernova remnant to explore. It’s the debris from a star that exploded more than a thousand years ago, an event so bright it was recorded by observers around the world in 1006 AD. In this image, we worked with detailed data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, stacking multiple exposures and coloring them by energy from low to high.
The processing challenge here was to bring out both the large shell of gas expanding outward and the finer knots of material racing away at millions of miles per hour. We calibrated the contrast so that even faint wisps appear, while keeping the bright edges from saturating. The result can almost look like something seen under a microscope — and we often get questions asking if it is! To help orient viewers, in other versions of this data set we’ve added a star field via an optical light image so people can more easily distinguish that it's cosmic, and not microscopic.
Supernova remnants like SN 1006 provide material enriched with elements that are necessary to create life as we know it. One day, the glowing material we see now may become a future generation of stars and planets. It helps remind me of the circle of life that plays out in the stars.
— Dr. Kimberly Arcand, Visualization scientist
Algae in Reflected Light vs. Our Star in UV light
Left: Volvox algae form spherical colonies that live and move together in a drop of water. Right: The Sun, seen in ultraviolet light by NASA’s STEREO spacecraft, where magnetic fields twist and glow with energy.
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Left: Volvox is a type of green algae that can grow spherical colonies with 50,000 cells in a drop of water. Here one of these spheres is seen in reflected light with a 5x magnification under a microscope. Right: This image of our Sun was taken with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager aboard the STEREO-A satellite, which collects images in several wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye. This image shows the Sun in the wavelength of 195 angstroms. Scale: About 1.4 million kilometers across.
Credit: Left: Dr. Jan Rosenboom, Rostock, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany; Right: NASA/STEREO
Supernova 0509 vs. Rat Liver
Left: The remains of a massive stellar explosion in a neighboring galaxy, captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Right: A single liver cell from a laboratory rat, showing a delicate network of fibers that give the cell its structure.
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Left: SNR 0509-67.5 is a supernova remnant located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way about 160,000 light years away. Data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows a ring of gas that has been shocked by the expanding blast wave. Scale: About 20 light years across. Right: Isolated cell from the liver of a Sprague-Dawley rat, a type of rat widely used in biomedical research. This Image shows the extensive microtubule network in a giant cell that has lost some of its original characteristics using fluorescence microscopy.
Credit: Left: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Right: Francisco Lazaro-Dieguez, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
Mouse Embryos vs. Spiral Galaxy
Left: A developing mouse embryo seen through a high-resolution microscope. Different colors are used to mark and highlight the growing structures, making details visible that our eyes alone could never detect. Right: The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), a giant spiral galaxy locked in a cosmic dance with a smaller companion. NASA telescopes combined X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light to show its full structure in stunning detail.
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Left: Embryonic mouse in red, green, blue, and composite via high-resolution confocal microscopy; Scale : 4X magnification (Objective Lens Magnification). Right: The Whirlpool galaxy (M51) is a spiral galaxy interacting with a smaller galaxy at the top. This multiwavelength X-ray-ultraviolet, infrared and optical composite includes data by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in blue, Hubble Space Telescope in green and Spitzer Space Telescope in red, with the final image compositing all four wavelengths together; Scale: Each image of M51 is about 52,000 across by 87,000 light years tall.
Credit: Left: Dr. Carlo Donato Caiaffa de Carvalho, Dr. Richard Finnell, Dr. Bogdan Wlodarcyk, Dr. Linda Lin; Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Precision Environmental Health, Houston, Texas, USA; Right: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Behind the Microscope: Mouse Embryos
This image documents the transition from neural plate to closed neural tube and the induction of migratory neural crest at the dorsal midline. Using a low-magnification 2x apochromat on a spinning-disk system let me capture intact embryonic geometry while preserving single-cell signal across z-stacks. The scientific value is synoptic: neuroectodermal markers Pax6 and Neurofilament in one specimen show how morphogenesis and patterning are coordinated during early organogenesis.
Being awarded an Image of Distinction in 2022 was pivotal for me. It validated my approach to whole-embryo imaging and strengthened my commitment to communicating developmental biology through microscopy.
— Carlo Donato, Microphotographer
Behind the Telescope: The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
Working with the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is always a thrill. The Whirlpool is a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way, but we can’t see our home galaxy like this since we’re embedded inside! For this version of an image of the Whirlpool, we took data from four different telescopes and assigned them into red, green, and blue channels for low, medium and high energies respectively (combining high energy X-ray and ultraviolet light into one). We balanced the layers to bring out the galaxy’s spiral arms, star-forming regions, dust lanes and high-energy objects. The goal was to showcase the main structure in each type of light while preserving the astronomical features.
Each color channel began as a separate grayscale exposure. We smoothed, aligned and stacked them, then adjusted brightness, contrast, and saturation so that the delicate spiral structures and glowing core appear as clearly as possible. The final image spans tens of thousands of light-years and invites you to see both the grand cosmic form and its detailed internal structures — bridging the science and hopefully the beauty.
— Nance Wolk, Imaging scientist
Night Sky Moves in X-rays vs. Capillary Network of Mammalian Brain
Left: A map of the night sky made from nearly two years of X-ray observations. As NASA’s NICER telescope on the International Space Station moved between targets, it recorded X-rays that together reveal the hidden activity across the sky. Right: A 3D view of tiny blood vessels in a section of the mammalian brain. Seen with a powerful microscope, these branching capillaries carry blood to nourish and support brain tissue.
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Left: The sky via 22 months of X-ray data recorded by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload aboard the International Space Station during its nighttime slews between targets. Scale: most of the night sky. Right: 3D capillary network section of the mammalian brain (dentate gyrus of the hippocampus) using confocal, deconvolution. Scale: 10X magnification.
Credit: Left: NASA/NICER; Right: Stephen Vidman, Dr. Andrea Tedeschi, The Ohio State University, Department of Neuroscience, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Lab Skin Cells vs. Planetary Nebula
Left: Human skin cells, seen under a microscope, glow with added color that highlights their structure. These cells have been altered so they can divide endlessly, allowing scientists to study them over time. Right: A planetary nebula, the phase of a star like our Sun experiences after it runs out of fuel. Different kinds of light — X-ray, visible, and infrared — reveal the star’s colorful final act as it sheds its outer layers into space.
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Left: Immortalized human skin cell (HaCaT keratinocytes) expressing fluorescently tagged keratin using confocal and 40x magnification; Right: The Helix planetary nebula composited in X-ray, optical and infrared light. Scale: 4.7 light-years across;
Credit: Left: Dr. Bram van den Broek, Andriy Volkov, Dr. Kees Jalink, Dr. Reinhard Windoffer, Dr. Nicole Schwarz, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, BioImaging Facility & Department of Cell Biology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Right: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Univ Mexico/S. Estrada-Dorado et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI (M. Meixner)/NRAO (T.A. Rector); Infrared: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, L.Frattare et al.
Behind the Microscope: Lab Skin Cells
I took this image on a Monday morning after an over-weekend live-cell experiment. I was checking how the cells looked after this time on the microscope when I came across this very peculiar cell. It expressed an excessive amount of keratin, assembled in a network of keratin bundles. Also, the nucleus (DNA, labeled in blue) was split and looked quite strange indeed. I decided to make a high-resolution 3D image to test an image processing algorithm called deconvolution on it. The image as you see it here is a maximum intensity z-projection of the deconvolved 3D image. It was taken on a confocal microscope with a 40X water immersion objective with a NA of 1.1. The cellular keratin is modified with a fluorescent protein eYFP; the DNA is labeled with the dye SiR-DNA. This dye fluoresces in the far-red to infrared. Since everything is recorded in grayscale anyway, you can attribute any color you like. For the visualization I carefully selected these 'lookup tables' (colors).
Inspired by the Nikon Small World competition we hold an internal image contest every year at our institute. Our hallway is full with large prints of these beautiful images! They are also used in outreach activities to attract the public to (cancer) research.
— Dr. Bram van den Broek, Microscopist
Behind the Telescope: Helix Nebula
The Helix Nebula is a favorite planetary nebula to work with. It’s sometimes called the “Eye of God,” a dying star only about 700 light-years away, shedding its outer layers into space. For this image, we combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which reveals the high energy material in violet, with stunning data in visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope and infrared light from ESO's VISTA.
Each dataset arrives looking quite different — grayscale and full of subtle detail. It’s a challenge to smooth, stack and align it all, then to balance them so that the colors tell a story of energy, while still allowing the delicate structures of gas and dust to shine through. At Chandra, and Hubble, the teams have processed images like this for several decades, but it never gets old. The Helix still amazes us — it’s a reminder that even in death, a star can create something breathtaking.
— Lisa Frattare, Imaging specialist
Agate vs. Turbulence on Jupiter
Left: A polished slice of agate, a type of quartz found in South Dakota. This view shows rich colors and intricate patterns when magnified under a microscope. Right: The swirling atmosphere of Jupiter, captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. These turbulent clouds stretch for thousands of miles, with colors showing what the human eye would see from space.
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Left: Polished slab of Teepee Canyon agate using stereomicroscopy. Agates are a category of quartz that possess a wide range of colors and patterns. This variety is found in a region in South Dakota. Scale: 90x magnification. Right: Color maps in optical light of Jupiter constructed from multiple images during a flyby of NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 11 and 12, 2000. These Cassini images highlight the turbulent and complex nature of Jupiter's atmosphere, with colors approximating what a human eye would see.The smallest visible features are about 120 kilometers (75 miles) across.
Credit: Left: University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point/Museum of Natural History/Douglas Moore; Right: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Behind the Microscope: Agate
Teepee Canyon Agate is my favorite subject for microscopy. This is a marine sedimentary agate, 256 million years old that occurs in the mile-thick Minnelusa Formation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Although composed of a form of quartz, the most common component in the Earth's crust, the formation of agates is still largely unknown. The colors in Teepee Canyon Agate come from iron compounds: limonite, hematite and goethite. The chert nodule encasing the agate pattern often has microfossils of extinct Conodonts and Fusilinids, barely visible with the naked eye. Teepee Canyon Agate vividly depicts the fibrous structure of agate banding. This was a cut slab of material anointed with immersion oil and lit with fiber optic lights.
I have been a "rockhound" and agate collector for 69 years and have collected Teepee Canyon Agates in the quarry in the Black Hills.
— Doug Moore, Photographer
Dead Star vs. Sea Slug Nerve Cell
Left: The Crab Nebula, born from a supernova explosion in 1054 CE, glows in X-rays and visible light. At its center, a spinning neutron star blasts out powerful winds and jets of particles. Right: A nerve cell from a sea slug, shown with high-resolution microscopy. The extended shapes help scientists study how neurons grow and connect.
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Left: The Crab Nebula is the result of a bright supernova explosion witnessed by astronomers in 1054 A.D. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) sees the rings around the pulsar and the jets blasting into space and has been combined with an optical light image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (gold and red). Scale: 8.7 light years across; Right: Neuronal growth cones of Aplysia californica, also known as the California sea hare, which is a large mollusk and a species of sea slug. They have exceptionally large growth cones, making them excellent targets for imaging. This image used high resolution confocal imaging. Scale: 1000x magnification;
Credit: Left: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Right: University of Wisconsin — Madison/Dept of Chemical & Biological Engineering/Dr. Dylan T. Burnette
Heart Tissue vs. Heart of a Stellar Nursery
Left: A section of heart tissue exposed to radiation, seen under a microscope. The tiny dots and tracks show the effect of high-energy particles on the cells. Right: A bright young star wrapped in gas and dust inside a stellar nursery. Seen in infrared light, these regions are where new stars are actively forming.
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Left: Irradiated heart tissue with overlay of emulsion (dots, tracks and star patterns are silver grains activated by radioactive substances in the tissue using epi-fluorescence and a transmitted darkfield. Scientists use high-energy radiation like X-rays and gamma rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Scale: 25x magnification; Right: An extremely bright star in a fog of hydrogen and carbon compounds. The stellar region from the GLIMPSE survey includes includes light from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared channels in green and red, with another band of infrared light from the 2MASS survey in blue; Scale: 20 arcminutes across;
Credit: Left: William Love, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA; Right: NASA/JPL-Caltech/2MASS/B. Whitney (SSI/University of Wisconsin)
Shrubby Plant Hair vs. Sunspot
Left: Star-shaped hairs from a silverberry plant leaf, seen under a microscope. These tiny structures help protect the plant and are each only a fraction of a millimeter long. Right: A sunspot captured by the NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope shows a dark, cooler patch on the Sun’s surface. This sunspot measures about 10,000 miles across.
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Left: Silverberry scaly hair is microscopic, star-shaped that cover the leaves and young shoots of the plant commonly known as silverberry (Elaeagnus genus). This photo, which used the brightfield technique, received first prize in the 1982 Photomicrography competition. Scale: 400x magnification; Right: Taken on January 28, 2020, this image reveals striking details of a sunspot’s structure as seen at the Sun’s surface using the NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope. Scale: The sun spot measures about 10,000 miles across;
Credit: Left: North Carolina State University/Dept of Plant Pathology/Dr. Jonathan Eisenback; Right: NSO/AURA/NSF
Tiny Wheel Animal vs. Flowing Deposits on Mars
Left: A rotifer, one of the smallest known animals, magnified to reveal its distinctive wheel-like feeding organ. The creature is less than a millimeter long. Right: Deposits on Mars shaped by flowing mixtures of ice and dust, imaged by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The smallest features visible are under a meter across.
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Left: Rotifers are some of the world’s smallest animals and their outer coat looks like clear glass. They get their name from their corona, a rotating wheel like structure that can be seen in this image that uses the differential interference contrast; Scale: 40x magnification; Right: In the past, water flowed on Mars. Evidence for this is found in structures like these viscous flow features, which are massive flowing deposits believed to be composed of a mixture of ice and dust similar to glaciers on Earth captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); Scale: objects about 91 cm across are resolved;
Credit: Left: Rogelio Moreno (Panama); Right: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Membranes vs. Cyclones on Jupiter
Left: The endoplasmic reticulum, a network inside animal cells, acts as a transport system for proteins and other molecules. A microscope reveals its complex structure. Right: At Jupiter’s south pole, five giant cyclones circle a central storm. Infrared images from NASA’s Juno spacecraft capture this unique planetary weather system.
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Left: Endoplasmic reticulum is a transportation system for eukaryotic cells, which play important roles in energy balance, metabolism, and gene expression. Here, a cultured animal cell using objective lens magnification is shown; Scale: 100x magnification; Right: Jupiter's south pole is home to a unique and seemingly stable arrangement of five large cyclones surrounding a single central cyclone. It is captured in this infrared by NASA’s Juno spacecraft; Scale: The United States 48 continuous states would fit across the image over 5 times.
Credit: Left: Howard Hughes Medical Institute(MMMI)/Janelia Research Campus/Dr. Andrew Moore & Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz; Right: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
Tobacco Plant vs. Stellar Jets
Left: A microscopic view of a genetically modified tobacco plant glows with fluorescent markers that highlight its structure. Right: A newborn star shoots out two opposite jets of gas and dust. Seen in infrared light, these jets stretch across space in near-perfect symmetry.
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Left: This is a microscopic view of a tobacco plant that has been genetically modified, called a transgenic nicotiana benthamiana plant, captured using fluorescence; Scale: 10x magnification; Right: A pair of jets protrude outwards in near-perfect symmetry in this image of a young stellar object called Herbig-Haro object 212. The image was taken in infrared light by ESO’s decommissioned Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC); Scale: 3.83 arcminutes across.
Credit: Left: Tallinn University of Technology/Dr. Heiti Paves; Right: ESO/M. McCaughrean
Star Cluster vs. Ladybug Leg
Left: A cluster of stars near the Milky Way’s center shines in X-rays, revealing both faint and energetic stars. Right: A close-up of a ladybug’s leg shows fine details invisible to the naked eye, captured with a powerful microscope.
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Left: A cluster of stars near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory where low- and high-energy X-rays have been color coded green and blue respectively; Scale: About 12 arcminutes across; Right: An extreme close-up view of part of a of a Coccinella (ladybug) leg using the confocal technique; Scale: 10x magnification.
Credit: Left: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.; Right: University of Turin/Dept of Life Sciences & Systems Biology/Andrea Genre
Martian Valley vs. Microcapsules
Left: A section of Mars known as Mawrth Valley shows different types of clay that could only have formed with water. The valley has been reshaped by ancient impacts and erosion. Right: Tiny capsules under a microscope show cracks and self-healing properties. Scientists study these systems for possible medical treatments and materials research.
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Left: This image from a section of Mars called Mawrth Valley has been pummeled by impact craters and has different types of clay that could only form in the presence of water. The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped this data; Scale: less than 1 km top to bottom; Right: Microcapsules are defined as small encapsulation systems that can be implanted in various sites within the body. In this stacked image, the microcapsules are fractured and are in a self-healing polymer blend. Scale: 50x magnification.
Credit: Left: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; Right: University of Illinois/AMS Group/Andrew Lauer
Cell Death vs. Star Death
Left: Human cancer cells viewed with fluorescent light show their structures as they break down. Scientists use these images to study how cells grow and die. Right: The remains of a dying star glow in infrared light. Dense knots of gas rich in hydrogen molecules mark the last stages of its life cycle.
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Left: Human osteosarcoma cells are cancer cells, but they are seen here through epi-fluorescence in a different light; Scale: 60x magnification; Right: Part of a planetary nebula in infrared light from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, one of the end stages of a star, shows 20,000 dense globules in the nebula that are rich in hydrogen; Scale: 2 arcminutes across.
Credit: Left: National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI)/Dr. Ana Pasapera; Right: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow (UCL), N. Cox (ACRI-ST), R. Wesson (Cardiff University)
Martian Crater vs. Blue Pigment
Left: A textured section of Mars’ Gale Crater, captured from orbit, reveals patterns left by impacts and ancient water. Right: A blue pigment called toluidine, used in dyes and research, is magnified under a microscope. Its crystal patterns form striking visual textures.
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Left: This view of an area with unusual texture on the southern floor of Gale Crater, a large impact crater on Mars comes from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s, High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE); Scale: About 1 kilometer wide; Right: Dried toluidine, chemical compounds used in organic synthesis, dye industries, and as reagents, is seen on a petri dish through stereomicroscopy with episcopic-ring and oblique diascopic illumination; Scale: 35x magnification.
Credit: Left: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona; Right: University of Minnesota/CBS Imaging Center/Tracy Anderson
Our Sun vs. Carbon Nanotubes
Left: Over two days, the Sun erupted with giant loops of plasma. Seen in ultraviolet light, these eruptions tower high above the solar surface. Right: Carbon nanotubes, tiny cylinders made of carbon atoms, appear under the microscope. Their strength and lightness make them valuable for new technologies.
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Left: Over two days (Dec 7-8, 2016), the Sun produced swirling prominence activity, or eruptions, across its surface. This was captured in ultraviolet light from Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory; Scale: 1.4 million kilometers across; Right: Carbon nanotubes are long, cylindrical tubes made entirely of carbon atoms, which makes them strong, lightweight, and useful in many ways. Captured in this image through stereomicroscopy; Scale: 30x magnification.
Credit: Left: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA; Right: National Research Council of Canada/Paul Marshall
Galaxy Cluster vs. Fruit Fly Cells
Left: A massive galaxy cluster, nicknamed “Il Gioiello,” glows in X-rays, infrared, and visible light. It contains thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. Right: Immune cells from a fruit fly are highlighted with fluorescent colors. Fruit flies are widely studied to understand genetics and biology.
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Left: The Il Gioiello galaxy cluster is the most massive one ever detected with an age of 800 million years or younger, and it seen here in X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple), infrared data from ESA's Hershel Space Telescope (red) and optical data from the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii (blue); Scale: about 5 million light years across; Right: Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fruit fly whose cells are widely used in genetic studies because of their short lifespan. In this image, immune cells from this fly are seen via immunofluorescence; Scale: 200x magnification.
Credit: Left: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/P.Tozzi, et al; Optical: NAOJ/Subaru and ESO/VLT; Infrared: ESA/Herschel; Right: Hungarian Academy of Sciences/Institute of Genetics/Dr. Robert Markus
Exploded Star vs. Divided Cells
Left: The remains of a supernova near the Milky Way’s center glow in X-rays and radio waves. Shockwaves ripple through the surrounding space. Right: Mammalian cells caught in abnormal division show how mistakes in growth can occur. Fluorescent light makes the process easier to study.
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Left: This image shows the area around the supernova remnant called Sagittarius A East, which is located very close to the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way's center, and likely overruns the disk of material surrounding the black hole. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) are combined with the NSF's Very Large Array (red); Scale: 30 light years across; Right: Aberrant cell division is a form of disordered or abnormal behavior that can lead to damaged or misconfigured cells. This image shows aberrant division of mammalian cells, which are found in the tissues and organs of mammals using computer-enhanced fluorescence; Scale: 500x magnification.
Credit: Left: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Nanjing Univ./P. Zhou et al. Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Right: University of Alabama at Birmingham/Ray Zinowski & Albert Tousson
Star Cluster vs. Cluster of Fibers & Fat Cells
Left: A cluster of young stars, nicknamed the Christmas Tree Cluster, shines in X-rays and visible light. It is just a few million years old. Right: Collagen fibers and fat cells appear under a laser microscope. This technique helps researchers explore how tissues grow and repair.
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Left: NGC 2264, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster, is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. This image is made from X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (red) along with optical data (green and white) captured by astrophotographer Michael Clow in November 2024; Scale: 50 light-years across; Right: Collagen fibers (green) and fat cells (red) are distinguished using a laser-based imaging system that might help in the development of stem cell therapies. The techniques in this image include second harmonic generation and coherent anti-stokes raman scattering; Scale: 20x magnification for collagen; 40x for fat deposits;
Credit: Left: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand; Right: Catarina Moura, Dr. Sumeet Mahajan, Dr. Richard Oreffo, Dr. Rahul Tare, University of Southampton, Institute for Life Sciences, Southampton, United Kingdom
