If you think you’ve seen it all, think again. Our world is full of infinitely amazing wonders, and some of them exist right under our noses, totally invisible to the human eye. We’re getting up close and personal with microscopic images of things we see every day, from mosquitos to Velcro. Take a gander at these amazing microscope images and try to guess what they are before reading about them. We promise that some of these microscopic worlds will surprise and shock you.
#1: Cracked Steel
Anyone who takes one look at this photo will tell you it’s of the Grand Canyon. It sure looks like the world-famous natural wonder, but it’s actually a microscopic image of a crack in a piece of steel. Steel is one of the strongest metals known to man, but it’s still susceptible to cracks. This image gives us an idea of what such a crack looks like up close and personal.
This image was taken with an electron microscope. It should be noted that this image has been colorized after the fact. It’s impossible to get a color image from an electron microscope because electrons have shorter wavelengths than visible light. So, it’s totally fair to mistake this steel crack for a real-life image of a desert canyon. They even put a bright blue sky in the background!