Thirteen images that reveal the spooky side of physics

Physics gives us insight into how the universe works — and occasionally, it gives us nightmares. From haunting early x-rays to ghostly cosmic phenomena, physics history and research are full of creepy moments.

Below are 13 images that celebrate the spooky side of science.

#1: Jack o’ lantern sun

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the sun in October 2014. The satellite-based observatory monitors the sun’s seismic waves, magnetic field, and atmosphere to understand how they impact Earth. This image shows the sun at 171 and 193 angstroms; the most active regions are brightest.

#2: Glimpse of a skeleton

On viewing the skeletal image of her hand, Anna Bertha Ludwig responded, “I have seen my death.” Her husband, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, was studying cathode rays in 1895 when he discovered a ray that could penetrate most materials, including human soft tissue. Despite Ludwig’s premonition, she lived for another 24 years post X-ray until her death at age 80.

#3: (Silica) eye in the darkness

At the center of this image is a levitating silica nanoparticle consisting of 100 million atoms. By combining laser trapping with optical cavity cooling, facilitated by the mirrors on either side, researchers cooled the particle down to a chilly 0.000012 kelvin — its quantum ground state of motion (and it’s looking right at you, too.)

#4: Spacey spiders

In 2008, the International Space Station welcomed its first spiders. Their irregular webs, including the one shown here, were photographed periodically until the population of fruit fly larvae — the spider’s food — exploded and blocked the view.

#5: Droplets, or spider eyes?

When water and ethanol is dropped onto more viscous miscible liquid, an unnerving formation appears — something, wrote the authors, “akin to the eyes of a spider.” This image was displayed on a poster submitted to the APS Gallery of Fluid Motion in 2024.

#6: Tokamak plasma

Plasma glows in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak, or MAST. The original MAST experiment took place in Oxfordshire, England, from 1999 to 2013; a successor experiment called MAST Upgrade began operating in 2020.

#7: Microsecond blast

This unsettling image shows not an eyeball, cell, or microscopic creature, but an atomic explosion just a few microseconds after detonation. From a vantage point seven miles away and with a ten-foot-long lens, innovative photographer Harold Edgerton captured the blast at the Nevada Proving Grounds in the 1950s for the Atomic Energy Commission.

#8: Dark matter web

For decades, astronomers have been haunted by the existence of dark matter, an unknown substance that lurks in the shadows and is only visible through its influence. Simulations of the formation of dark matter structures, as shown here, could help scientists uncover its elusive nature.

#9 “Wide-eyed” bubbles

A toroidal bubble formed by a rubber popper is captured at 0.11 milliseconds and 0.33 milliseconds. Side-by-side, the images look like a pair of wide, alien eyes. This image was displayed on a poster submitted to the APS Gallery of Fluid Motion in 2022.

#10: Earth’s got company

The first exoplanets were discovered in data blips in the 1990s. While no little green men are visible in this first direct image of an exoplanet — the pixelated red dot known as 2M1207b — seeing a planet orbiting its own star makes the hair stand on end. Shown here in a composite based on three infrared images, the exoplanet was identified in 2005.

#11: Diving for neutrinos

A diver swims through the underground tank of the IMB detector, built to hold 2.5 million gallons of purified water surrounded by 2,000 photomultiplier tubes, which measure charged particles as they pass through water. The IMB detector was built to look for proton decay, but an unexpected neutrino measurement defined its legacy.

#12: Ghostly hand

In the palm of this ghostly cosmic hand lies the pulsating neutron star PSR B1509-58. Jets of plasma emanate from the collapsed, rotating star nicknamed “Hand of God” to form a pulsar wind nebula that stretches across 150 light-years. The structure is revealed in multiple wavelengths; this image contains X-ray and infrared data.

#13: Nanotube jump scare

Most experiments don’t speak directly to their scientists, at least not in words, but these carbon nanotubes went for a jump scare. The message emerged after scientists used capillary forces to densify carbon nanotube arrays into cellular patterns. The scanning electron microscope image was colored orange for a seasonal effect.