A Sukhoi Su-35S jet fighter of the Russian Knights aerobatic team performs during the International Maritime Defence Show “Fleet-2024” in Kronstadt, outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, June 21, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires consume a home in unincorporated Napa County, Calif., on Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

Icelandic stallions eat hay from a box at a stud farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A tourist poses for a picture with the Sphinx at the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt, on October 19, 2011. (Reuters/Jamal Saidi)

Model Nikita Dragun gets her hair and makeup touched up backstage at The Blonds fashion show at Spring Place on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Brittainy Newman/AP Photo)

Over 30 Douglas C-47 Skytrains (Dakotas) making final preparations for flight formation practice before the 75th D-Day Anniversary flight to Normandy in Duxford, England on June 4, 2019. (Photo by UK Air Force Images)

Yolanda Sutter dresses up her dog Star to show their support for Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg at the Viva Villa restaurant in San Antonio, Texas on January 11, 2020. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg kicks off his Texas bus tour. (Photo by Mark Felix/AFP Photo)