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)

A large Mantle or Desk Clock featuring a fossil ammonite at its center, carved from the South American wood Keolbra with radiating Walnut spines. The clock hangs on a round, Plexiglass back supported by a wood base (Bubinga). The clockworks is a quartz, high-torque movement that runs on a single AA battery.

English singer and songwriter Anne-Marie performs on stage during day two of Capital's Jingle Bell Ball with Seat at London's O2 Arena on December 8, 2019. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/PA Images via Getty Images)

Actress and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley during an evening out and about in London, England on January 23, 2020. (Photo by Stephen Coke/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Actresses from left Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Margot Robbie and Ella Jay Basco pose for a selfie photo upon arrival at the world premiere of “Birds of Prey” in London, Wednesday, January 29, 2020. (Photo by Joel C. Ryan/Invision/AP Photo)

Visitors are seen with giraffes on a bus at Safari Park in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, January 19, 2020. Kanchanaburi in western Thailand an area known for its waterfalls and caves. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua News Agency/Eyevine)

Two zebras stand so close in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. (Photo by Zhayynn James/Solent News)

Vaccinators wear protective masks as they get their temperature checked, during an anti-polio campaign, in a low-income neighborhood as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Karachi, Pakistan on July 20, 2020. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)