The world up close: Images to inspire and amaze you

We love science. You love science. That’s probably why you’re here! (Hello!)

We also love falling down internet rabbitholes in search of cool science photos. We thought you might be the same way, so we rounded up some of our finds for you. “The world up close” is a new, evolving piece that will be updated whenever we find a science photo we think you’d be interested in. Grab a coffee, sit back, and take a tour of the world up close. There will be new things to discover each week.

Have an image you’d like to have added to our world up close gallery? Get in touch. We’ll make sure to give full credit and link to your accounts, websites and/or social media profiles.

Taken near Waterberg Plateau, Namibia on Oct. 22, 2011. These are crepuscular rays , bright orange sunbeams that happen at twilight. They occur when the sun sets behind an irregularly shaped cloud or mountain and light passes through in bands. Courtesy: Alchemist-hp/Wikipedia
Hygrocybe miniata, a.k.a. the vermilion waxcap, is a small, bright red or red-orange mushroom that can be found worldwide. In Europe, you'll see it on sandy or grassy spaces in the autumn. In Australia, you might see them in the rainforest. PHOTO COURTESY: JJ Harrison/Wikipedia
On Aug. 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT, creating a coronal mass ejection that created auroras on Earth on September 3. Image by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Courtesy: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
No, it's not coronavirus. What you're seeing here is Cephalanthus occidentalis, a species of flowering plant native to eastern and southern portions of North America. Common names include buttonbush, common buttonbush, button-willow, and honey-bells.
A colourized scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles (green) found both as extracellular particles & budding particles from an-infected African Green Monkey Kidney cell (blue); 20,000x magnification. Photo: BernbaumJG/Wikipedia. Caption: Wikipedia.
Per Wikipedia: The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC - the world's largest and most powerful particle collider/accelerator) at CERN. Located near Geneva, Switzerland. Photo courtesy: SimonWaldherr
The Funfair Send in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in 2019. Light from the rides streak across the frame, a photographic effect called light trails. Using a shutter that's open for a few seconds helps light 'trail,' detailing a movement path. Courtesy: Wikipedia/Dietmar Rabich
Meet diabolical ironclad beetle. It has one of toughest and most crush-resistant exoskeletons in the known animal kingdom. It's so strong that the insect can survive being run over by a car. Researchers at UCI recently published a study on the insect in Nature to learn more. Photo courtesy: David Kisailus / UCI
This female striped horse fly has dichoptic compound eyes, which consist of thousands of independent photoreception units, complete with individual cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells. Courtesy: Thomas Shahan /Flickr/CC