NASA and Nikon compare universe and microscopic life

By Dean Murray

A remarkable science project sees a quirky comparison of vast and small.

Curated by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, a series of pairings reveals stunning connections between the vast universe and the microscopic world that we cannot see with the naked eye.

Dubbed "New Perspectives," the project takes space-based images and creates side-by-side comparisons with winning images from the Nikon Small World contest, an annual free microscopy competition.

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Highlights include a cluster of young stars, nicknamed the Christmas Tree Cluster, paired with collagen fibers and fat cells under a laser microscope.

Another eye-catching duo sees the Sun shown in green ultraviolet light, coupled with Volvox algae that form spherical colonies that live and move together in a drop of water.

“Whether we’re studying a galaxy cluster millions of light-years away or a crystal formation at the micrometer scale, these images remind us of the shared beauty and complexity that define the natural world,” Dr. Kimberly Arcand, Chandra’s visualization and emerging technology scientist, who led the project.