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)

Cheerleaders let their hair fly as they perform prior to a German first division Bundesliga soccer match between 1. FC Cologne and Bayern Munich in Cologne, Germany, March 4, 2017. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

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

A Femen activist is led away by French police in Henin-beaumont, northern France, Sunday, May 7, 2017. Voters across France are choosing a new president in an unusually tense and important election that could decide Europe's future, making a stark choice between pro-business progressive candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right populist Marine Le Pen. (Photo by Francois Mori/AP Photo)

The Pink Floyd inflatable pig floats next to Broadcasting House to promote their new exhibition at the V&A museum, in London, Britain May 10, 2017. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)

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

Attendees look at Volkswagen's BUDD-e, a long distance electric vehicle, displayed during a press event at CES 2016 at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on January 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 6-9 and is expected to feature 3,600 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 150,000 attendees. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

A Toy Poodle is groomed at the benching area before competition at the 139th Westminster Kennel Club's Dog Show in the Manhattan borough of New York February 16, 2015. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)