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Image of the Week

Striking images of optics and photonics, contributed by OPN readers

Soap Halos
Soap Halos

Laser scattering in Plateau borders. The “parlaseric circle” is a luminous ring generated by light scattering in foam or soap bubbles. The name was inspired by the atmospheric phenomena known as a parhelic circle. [OPN 2022 Photo Contest Honorable Mention]

—Adriana P.B. Tufaile, Soft Matter Lab, EACH-University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

09 Dec 2022

Krypton Clusters
Krypton Clusters

Krypton clusters—produced from supersonic expansion in vacuum (center) of krypton gas from a high-pressure nozzle (top)—are irradiated by a high-power, few-cycle laser (right) to produce soft X-rays, emitted in all directions. X-rays going through the vacuum-chamber differential pumping hole (left) are detected by a soft-X-ray spectrometer (Optica, doi: 10.1364/OPTICA.471084).[OPN 2022 Photo Contest Editor's Choice]

—Pierre-Alexis Chevreuil, Ultrafast Laser Physics Group, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

02 Dec 2022

Fiery Hourglass
Fiery Hourglass

The protostar within the dark cloud L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is embedded within a cloud of material feeding its growth. Ejections from the star have cleared out cavities above and below it, whose boundaries glow orange and blue in this infrared view.

—NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale, A. Pagan, and A. Koekemoer (STScI)

25 Nov 2022

Partial Solar Eclipse, in Reflection
Partial Solar Eclipse, in Reflection

A partial solar eclipse was captured with a mobile phone camera (iPhone 11) on 25 October 2022 in Utrecht, Netherlands. The camera didn't facilitate exposure time and stop to prevent saturation. Instead, the eclipsed sun appears as a reflection feature from the camera optics. Imaging in reflection off another dark mobile phone screen in order to check for additional attenuation caused colorful diffraction.

—Dirk Voigt, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, Netherlands

18 Nov 2022

Afterglow
Afterglow

This composite image—stitched together from pictures taken from a drone—shows the atmospheric scattering effect called afterglow. It was taken on a cold evening in Oulu, Finland, just after sunset, at a temperature of around -10 °C.[OPN 2018 Photo Contest Editors’ Choice]

—Prateek Singh, University of Oulu, Finland

11 Nov 2022

Diffraction on Hair
Diffraction on Hair

Diffraction on the hair, photographed in natural light by moving the camera, with a 0.4-second exposure time. Invisible to the naked eye, it was visualized by movement.

—Daniela Rapavá, Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia

04 Nov 2022

Niagara Falls Rainbow
Niagara Falls Rainbow

Beautiful rainbow visible while hiking the Journey Behind the Falls at Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

—Stephanie Scuiletti, Federal Reserve (former Optica employee), College Park, Maryland, USA

28 Oct 2022

Pillars of Creation
Pillars of Creation

The “Pillars of Creation” captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The image highlights new stars forming within the dense clouds of gas and dust.

—NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

21 Oct 2022

Prism Spectrum
Prism Spectrum

Three prisms lit up by sunlight passed through a beam splitter.

—Karen Severin, CA, USA

14 Oct 2022

Crystal Art
Crystal Art

Polarized-light image of crystals formed after heating an ethanol-and-water solution containing L-glutamine and beta-alanine (40× magnification). [Nikon Small World 2020 Photomicrography Competition, 13th place]

—Justin Zoll, Justin Zoll Photography, Ithaca, NY, USA

07 Oct 2022

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