A light pillar is a visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surfaces. The light can come from the Sun (usually at or low to the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. It can also come from the Moon or from terrestrial sources such as streetlights.

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)

This picture taken on September 14, 2024 shows Filipina wrestler “Crystal” fighting her opponent Yuki Kamifuku of Japan (not pictured) during a Middle Kingdom Wrestling (MKW) championship event in Shanghai. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

A Tibetan mastiff dog is displayed for sale at a mastiff show in Baoding, Hebei province, south of Beijing on March 9, 2013. Fetching prices up to around 750,000 USD, mastiffs have become a prized status-symbol amongst China's wealthy, with rich buyers across the country sending prices skyrocketing. Owners say the mastiffs, descendents of dogs used for hunting by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet are fiercely loyal and protective. Breeders still travel to the Himalayan plateau to collect young puppies, although many are unable to adjust to the low altitudes and die during the journey. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

A member of staff at Morton & Eden holds an extremely rare early Islamic gold coin on Thursday September 12, 2019, which is expected to fetch £1.4m at auction in London. Measuring a 20mm across, about the size of a modern £1 piece, it is one of the world's rarest and most treasured Islamic gold coins from the first dynasty of Islam, the Umayyad gold dinar dated 105h (723AD). (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

Created by ceramic artist Mary O’Malley, who studied in Philadelphia and now resides in Long Island, New York, the Bottom Feeders series is particularly inspired by childhood memories and her newly familiar surroundings next to the sea. By combining the imagery of sea creatures with the elegance of tea time, O'Malley envisions a whimsical occasion worthy of such fictional characters a Davy Jones and Alice.

Musician Jerome Gamble plays guitar to accompany the recorded music as it is played to the city below on September 01, 2020 in Bristol, England. Created by Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram and composer Dan Jones, “Sky Orchestra – A Moment in Time” was first performed at the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta in 2003. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

A motorist drives a car through a flooded expressway in Brooklyn, New York early on September 2, 2021, as flash flooding and record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida swept through the area. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)