Ever wanted to visit another world? Mars, one of our closest celestial neighbors, is an astonishing 225 million kilometers from Earth, a distance that would take over 1,000 years to walk.
But guess what? Many things on Earth look exactly like Mars; that’s what this year’s winner of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition proved. Although this photo looks like a snapshot of an extraterrestrial plant, it actually shows a group of Smile mold growing in a lush garden in the UK.
But the other pictures in the collection are equally amazing. From a crystal forest to a temporary rift and jellyfish elevator, the images capture strange scientific phenomena.
Ecology Category Runner-Up – Postwar Chamois
Micro-imaging category runner-up – Crystal lighthouse in the wild forest
![multicolored bright crystals](https://i0.wp.com/c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2023/12/Beacon-of-crystals-in-a-wild-forest-Shyam-Ulhas-1024x683.jpg?resize=749%2C500&ssl=1)
Astronomy Category Winner – Western Veil Nebula
![deep space stars and red clouds](https://i0.wp.com/c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2023/12/The-Western-Veil-Nebula-Imran-Sultan-1024x1024.jpg?resize=749%2C749&ssl=1)
Overall Winner – Mars Landscape
![blue slime mold on brown rock](https://i0.wp.com/c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2023/12/Martian-landscape-Irina-Petrova-Adamaztky-1024x708.jpg?resize=749%2C518&ssl=1)
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Source: www.sciencefocus.com