Images

The first direct visualization of the shape of a photon has been created. These particles of light are impossible to photograph, but UK physicists have now calculated their wave function to produce an accurate image of a photon as it’s emitted.

A new international study has revealed that the prevalence of image-based abuse, so-called ‘sextortion,’ among adult men and women is more common than was first thought, with a high degree of overlap between perpetrators and victims.

In 2017, scientists discovered a new species of giant rat that can reportedly crack open coconuts. Now, this extremely rare creature has been captured in the wild on camera for the first time.

Scientists have “painted” with DNA, creating 16 million colors to accurately reproduce digital images with 24-bit color depth. The resulting images are incredible, and represent not just a new art form but potential advances for storing data on DNA.

In 2019 we got the first-ever direct image of a black hole, which resembled a fuzzy, orange donut. Now the team has refined the iconic image with the help of machine learning to produce the highest resolution image possible with the original data.

If you’re looking for some Red Planet real estate, there’s a new tool that could help you pick out the very best spot. Caltech scientists have created a nearly complete global map of Mars at an extremely high resolution of 5 m (16.4 ft) per pixel.

In 2022, decades of work finally came to fruition as the James Webb Space Telescope focused its powerful eyes on the universe. From distant galaxies to our nearby neighbors, let’s look back at some of the most impressive images captured so far.

By now you’ve no doubt seen the first batch of images from NASA’s powerful new James Webb Space Telescope. But the scope of the achievement is hard to appreciate without context, so here they are side-by-side with Hubble’s views of the same regions.

The James Webb Space Telescope has snapped its first in-focus image. With this milestone, the telescope is now set to meet or even exceed its original science goals. It was also recently spotted by another spacecraft in the area.

The James Webb Space Telescope has taken its first images of space. What looks like a smeared starfield is actually the same star snapped 18 times, as the mirror segments try to align to focus on the star. The craft also took a selfie of its mirrors.

NASA has released a collection of 50 stunning Hubble images to celebrate the veteran telescope’s 30th anniversary, which took place earlier this year. The images show 30 cosmic objects, visible to amateur astronomers across the globe.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was retired this January. The observatory is responsible for some of the most stunning space photos ever taken, so to celebrate New Atlas is rounding up some of the absolute best infrared images snapped by Spitzer.