Multimedia / Image of the Week

Image of the Week

Striking images of optics and photonics, contributed by OPN readers

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

Light Trapped in a Drop
Light Trapped in a Drop

A liquid oil droplet in water with light trapped inside. An optical fiber (diagonal line) launches light inside a droplet. The bright lines within the droplet indicate the trapped light optical path.

—Mark Douvidzon, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

30 Sep 2022

New York City Colors
New York City Colors

Double rainbow with a backdrop of the New York City skyline.

—Aniruddha Ray, University of Toledo, OH, USA

23 Sep 2022

Light Bird
Light Bird

A focused femtosecond laser pulse interacts with a glass slide—creating a colorful flying-bird pattern. The shiny colors denote the strong laser-induced breakdown.[Taken from the 2021 OPN Photo Contest]

—Zhijun Xu, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China

16 Sep 2022

Lake Manchar Overflowing
Lake Manchar Overflowing

Natural-color images, acquired by Landsat 8 and 9, of Lake Manchar, Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake, which overflowed in early September 2022 as devastating floods hit the Indus River Valley. Detailed image (bottom) shows breaches of the Main Nara Valley Drain, a canal that connects Lake Manchar (visible in the lower part of the top image) to Lake Hamal, which lies about 160 km (100 mi) to the north. (Details: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150306/lake-manchar-is-overflowing)

—NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey 

09 Sep 2022

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