100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

We post tons of great images on Gizmodo, from space to science to art to design. Here’s a treasure trove of our very favourites that proves that 2013 was, if nothing else, eye-catching.

The Most Spectacular New Year’s Eve Fireworks Are Definitely In Dubai

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Gerald Donovan


The USS Zumwalt Deck Looks Like a Part of an Imperial Star Destroyer

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: U.S. Navy


This Picture Makes Manhattan Look Like a Video Game

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: AirPano


How Scientists Observe the Sun In Every Possible Way

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center


What Is Happening to This Aircraft Carrier?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Mass Communication Specialist Iain L. Stratton/U.S. Navy


Incredible Images of the Massive New Tunnels Hollowing New York City

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Mass Communication Specialist Iain L. Stratton/U.S. Navy


An Instagram Foot Shot From the Tallest Building in the World Is the Best Instagram Foot Shot

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Joe McNally


How to Jump Out of a Chinook in Style

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Airman 1st Class Christopher Callaway/US Air Force


Saturn’s Harrowing Hurricane Is Even More Terrifying in Technicolor

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: NASA


Watch the World Trade Center’s Spire Rise 104 Stories into the Air

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Michael Hession/Gizmodo


Convenience Food Looks Kinda Gross In Cross-Section

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Beth Galton


Inside the Rain Room: Walking Through a Downpour Without Getting Wet

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Michael Hession/Gizmodo


Is This a Real Picture or a Frame from a JJ Abrams Movie?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: NASA


Holy Crap These Four Images Are Actually Just One Single Picture

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Bela Borsodi


These Cross-Sections of Golf Balls Look Like They’re From Outer Space

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: James Friedman


What Happens When the US Navy Does a Doughnut in the Pacific Ocean

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: U.S. Navy


Mesmerizing Photo Collages Show Time Peeling Away In Layers

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Fong Qi Wei


A Frog Got Too Close to a NASA Launch and, Well, This Happened

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: NASA


These Floating Globes of Ink and Oil Look Completely Unreal

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Alberto Seveso


9 Breathtaking Images That Make the American West Look Utterly Alien

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Reuben Wu


This Year’s Best Wildlife Photograph Required Serious Balls to Take

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Udayan Rao Pawar/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013


Haunting Aerial Photographs of Drowned Villages in Canada

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Louis Helbig


These incredible sky lights look like alien spaceships coming to Earth

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Pauli Hänninen


You Need This Beautiful Machinery If You Want Atomic Precision

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Brookhaven National Laboratory


Explore the Extraordinary, Glittering Infinity Rooms of Yayoi Kusama

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Michael Hession/Gizmodo


This must be the greatest light show in the entire solar system

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: NASA


Is This a Storm or the Open Gates of Hell?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Anne Goforth


Whoa, Watch This Hotel in Munich Get Transformed in 88 Different Ways

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Víctor Enrich


The Chinese Rover’s First Moon Photos Are Here

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: China National Space Administration

Antarctica Looks Like a Mystical Land Shrouded in Lenticular Ice

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Michael Studinger/NASA


You’ve Never Seen GPS Data Look This Beautiful

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image by Eric Fischer/Mapbox


The World’s Tallest Waterslide Better End in the World’s Deepest Pool

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Imgur


The Red Planet’s Deep Valleys in Kaleidoscope Colour

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image: ESA


What the Hottest Place on Earth Looks Like

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Satellite image: ESA


You’ve Never Seen a Cell Look Like This

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image by Mariela Loschi


It Looks Like You Could Climb This Celestial Tree Into Space

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Jerónimo Losada


This Aerial of NYC Makes One World Trade Look Like the Eye of Sauron

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: James Kastner


Perfectly Timed Pics of Aeroplanes Silhouetted Against the Moon

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Sebastien Lebrigand


NASA’s Psychedelic Space Plane Is Glowing With Pure Science

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image Credit: NASA Langley/Preston Martin


Inside the Celestial Workshop That Makes the World’s Fastest Yachts

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Benedict Redgrove


OK, Who Invited the Osprey to the Rave?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Navy


This Terrifying Lightning Storm Is a Masterful, Miniature Fake

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Matthew Albanese


What the World Would Look Like If You Could Actually See Wi-Fi Signals

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Nickolay Lamm


This Intense Real-Life F-35 Picture Looks Like an Iron Man 3 Frame

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

A Tiny Wasp Hitches a Ride on the Back of a Dragonfly

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image: Yuan Tung Shih/NHM


NASA’s 3D-Printed Rocket Injector Test: A Beautiful Inferno

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image Credit: NASA Glenn Research Center


A Perfectly Timed Bolt of Lightning Makes Fireworks Extra Awesome

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo Credit: AJ192/Reddit


Microwaving a Highlighter Is So Dumb But Looks So Impossibly Cool

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: opticreason/Reddit


New York City’s New Subway Tunnel Looks Like a Level From Half-Life

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: MTA


The Ultimate Photoshoot Location

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: NASA


A Soldier Launching a Stinger Missile That Looks Like Lasers

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Marine Corps


Bill Gates and Paul Allen Recreate Iconic 1981 Microsoft Photo

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Paul Allen


A Horizontal Rainbow Makes For Easier Trips to Oz

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Bertrand Kulik


Power-Desperate, Stranded Carnival Cruise Passengers Make a Rat-King Out of Phone Cords

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Las Vegas From Space Is One Bright Hole Straight to Hell

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Chris Hadfield


A Butterfly Under a Light Microscope

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: David Millard/Olympus Bioscapes


This Awesome Image From Another Dimension Has Not Been Photoshopped

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Tackyshack


An Incredible Photo of a Colonial Base in an Alien World Called Earth

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Antony Dubber


What Are the Odds of Capturing a Moment This Rare?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Scott Rinckenberger


It’s Hard to Believe That This Is Part of Our Planet

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: ESA


Incredible Photo Shows the Peaceful Alien Beauty of a Horse Foetus

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Tim Flach


Stunning Night Images of a Nuclear Ice Breaker in the Middle of Nowhere

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

This Mesmerizing Ai Weiwei Installation Is Made From 3,144 Bicycles

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

iOS Maps Atrocities? Nah, These Are Works of Art

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Trapcode


What Happens When You Soak a Negative in Gasoline and Light It on Fire

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Peter Hoffman



Behold the Gigantic 98-Foot-High Horse Heads Just Completed in Scotland

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Brian Smith


Inside the Incredible, Complex Factories Where Satellites Are Born

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Greg White


Minotaur 1 Soars Into Space

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Allison Stancil/NASA


Colourful Desert Ruins Consumed by Waves of Sand

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Romain Veillon


Elaborate Dioramas Model the Apocalypse in Miniature

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Lori Nix


The Creepiest Photographs of Things You Can Only See Under the Microscope

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

You Won’t Believe These Soaring Fighter Jets Are Just Toys

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Dan Ledesma


The View From the Base of New York City’s Annual 9/11 Memorial

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Mark Lenniham/AP


Flowers Shatter Like Glass Thanks to Liquid Nitrogen and a Gun

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

The Jaw-Dropping Winner of the Largest Sports Photography Contest Yet

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Lorenz Holder/Illume


The Research Base At the End of the World

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo: Reuben Wu


The Daya Bay Neutrino Detector’s Photomultiplier Tubes

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Berkeley Lab


This High-Speed Digital Camera Can Freeze Objects Moving 7,500 MPH

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: MetroLaser


What 35MM Film Looks Like Developed in Ammonia

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Matthew Cetta


What Manhattan Would Look Like If It Were in the Grand Canyon

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

The Best Nature Photo of the Year Is This Badass Polar Bear

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Paul Souders


These Incredible Light Columns Are Caused by Ice Crystals

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Thomas Kast


Trial by Ice at GE’s Engine Testing Site in Winnipeg, Canada

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: GE


Helicopter Incredibly Rescues a Man Trapped on a Crane After Explosion

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: @ChrisInKingston


This Is What the Universe Would Look Like If It Were a Tiny Model

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Assembly and processing by Robert Gendler.


You Won’t Believe How Accurate GE’s New CT Scanner Is

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: GE


Every Second in Star Wars IV Arranged by How Bright It Is

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Jason Salavon


Holy Wow, You Can Actually Swim Like Scrooge McDuck in this Bank Vault

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: James Edition Auction


The First Video in History to Capture the Moon Orbiting Earth

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

A Fennec Trots Through the Desert

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo by José Mingorance


Behold the Centrifuge That Looks Like a Laser Cannon

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Sandia National Laboratories


Largest True-Colour Image of the Sky Ever Is Made of 37,000 Photos

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Nick Risinger


This Awesome Photo Hasn’t Been Digitally Modified

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo Credit: JeeYoung Lee


This Beautiful Orchid Is a Deadly Predator

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: James O’Hanlon


This Museum Is Actually an Unbelievable Gingerbread House

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves for Dylan’s Candy Bar


The Grand Canyon Completely Flooded by Clouds in “Once-in-a-Lifetime” Event

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Grand Canyon National Park


Is There an Alien Base in the Heart of This Romanian Salt Mine or What?

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Salina Turda


What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Cell Phone Signals

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Image credit: Nickolay Lamm


The New Home of the Guandong Plastic Exchange

100 Most Astonishing Images Of 2013

Photo credit: Shenzhen Daily



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