This plane looks like it's bound for the moon as it shoots across the sky. Photographer Sebastien Lebrigand was impressed he could even see the lights on the jet's wings in this stunning silhouette. (Photo by Sebastien Lebrigand/Solent News)

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 worker lifts up tiles during a bodybuilding contest for tile factory workers as part of celebrating Indonesia Independence day at Jatiwangi village in Majalengka, Indonesia West Java province, August 11, 2017. Indonesia Independence day is on August 17, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

One of the last incoming trains arrives outside the main train station after Deutsche Bahn cancelled all train traffic in Germany due to heavy storms, Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, January 18, 2018. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

The waning moon sets behind leafless sumac trees on a crisp, clear morning, Thursday, December 15, 2016, in Portland, Maine. Much of the northern Mid-Atlantic and Northeast will stay cold for the next couple of days as the arctic air remains stuck over the northern Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

Waves hit the seawall during heavy seas and high winds in Dawlish in south west Britain, February 2, 2017. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Cars drive under a rainbow near Bad Langensalza, Germany, Wednesday, November 2, 2016. (Photo by Jens Meyer/AP Photo)

Soldiers try to attach the balloon to their car, June 1944. (Photo by Jared Enos/Mediadrumworld.com)