After Images
The beauty of light, as seen on the last page of each OPN issue
Polynomial Beauty
A 2D histogram on the complex plane of the number of solutions from a given set of polynomials generated from a set of 7×7 matrices. The heat map can be interpreted as a plot of the probability that a random matrix will have a characteristic polynomial with a solution in a certain location.
—Trra02, Wiki Science Competition 2023; CC-BY-4.0
01 Jul 2025
Milky Way dust emission
Milky Way dust emission as measured from the Planck satellite and converted into a polarization pattern of B-modes, a spiral type of polarization imprinted in the microwave sky.
—Uroš Seljak, University of California, Berkeley, USA, Winner Wiki Science Competition 2019; CC-BY-4.0
01 Jun 2025
Fruit fly retina
Confocal image of a fruit fly retina expressing a toxic form of the RdgB protein, leading to degeneration.
—Guilliaume Thuery, Ireland, Wiki Science Competition 2023; CC-BY-4.0
01 May 2025
Far-UV photo of Earth
On 21 April 1972, NASA’s Apollo 16 mission took a far-ultraviolet photo of Earth with an ultraviolet camera. The original black-and-white picture was printed on Agfacontour professional film three times, with each exposure recording only one light level. The three light levels were then colored blue (dimmest), green (next brightest) and red (brightest), resulting in the enhanced-color image seen here.
—Apollo 16 Far UV Camera, G. Carruthers, NASA
01 Apr 2025
Butterfly Wings
In a dark room with no external source of light, a beam of light through a pinhole creates the illusion of a butterfly. Using multicolored LEDs results in a beautiful shape.[OPN 2024 Photo Contest]
—Sritam Kumar Sethy, M.pharma Student, Balasore, Odisha, India
01 Mar 2025
Spectral flame
A CD has the effect of a diffraction grating on candlelight, separating its constituent colors.
—Adriana Pedrosa Biscaia Tufaile, Soft Matter Lab, EACH, University of São Paulo City, São Paulo, Brazil
01 Feb 2025
Laser-induced plasma
Laser-induced plasma on an acoustically levitated water drop. A 4-microliter water drop is levitated at the center of an acoustic cavity made by two arrays of compact ultrasonic transducers (cylinders at the top and bottom of the image). A laser pulse is fired and focused from left to right to hit the droplet and induce a plasma (white light).
—Victor Contreras, UNAM, Cuernavaca, Mexico
01 Jan 2025
Water on the moon
In a stop-action shot of water dripping from a faucet into a blue cup of water, motion is frozen by a flash that illuminates an image of the moon. The water drops act as lenses that bring the moon into focus, morphing from a cylindrical lens at the top to a spherical lens at the bottom.[OPN 2024 Photo Contest Editors’ Choice]
—Fredrik Fatemi, VA, USA
01 Dec 2024
Laser-Induced Damages
Laser-induced damage to a dielectric high-reflection coating on fused silica after destructive testing of the damage threshold. Delamination of coating layers down to the substrate can be observed at sites exposed to very high fluences over many shots.
—Frederik Hasselmann, OHB System AG, Munich, Germany
01 Nov 2024
Ceramic Reflections
The internal surface of a ceramic bowl placed on blue paper and illuminated with sunlight forms a caustic—the curve where all light rays that have been reflected from a curved surface meet. Fujifilm XH-2, f/11, 1/3 sec, ISO-125, focal length 33 mm.
—Andrea Aiello, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
01 Oct 2024
