We often hear that there’s nothing new under the sun, but enough landmark discoveries seem to occur each year to prove that statement wrong several times over.
Still, when you spend enough time in the same place with the same routine, it can be easy to get a little bored with the world around you.
However, you don’t need to travel to this planet’s most remote regions and turn over every wrong to see something you’ve never witnessed before. As it turns out, even the most mundane objects can hold a few interesting surprises.
One look at this would tell you that it’s a heavy piece of hardware that you’d need four people to lift.
However, what you’re actually looking at is a tiny, delicate little snowflake under a microscope.
Nothing about this picture would suggest it, but this technician is actually hard at work.
He’s actually using that paintball gun to spray lubricant pouches on this power transformer’s switches without having to touch them.
I’m not sure how someone figured out that this is the safest way to do that, but their idea was a stroke of genius.
This level looks like someone Photoshopped it in, and there’s a reason for that.
At high noon, the light hits certain objects in a way that makes it look like they’re not really there.
That’s because the sun is right above us and these objects are less likely to have shadows appearing next to them.
This looks like a breathtaking shot of our world from space, but you don’t have to go anywhere near as far to see this.
After all, this is only the result of frost accumulating on a the roof of a blue car. If this person backed up, it would be a lot more obvious.
This might look like a spacious, if oddly-shaped apartment at first, but the little details in the “roof” make this a little easier to recognize.
For those who still aren’t sure what they’re looking at, this photo was taken from the inside of a guitar.
Not to worry, this house hasn’t caught on fire.
This display may seem frightening on the surface, but it’s just reflection of the sunset. So, passers-by are probably a lot more nervous than the people inside right now.
This seems like it belongs in a particularly ambitious art gallery or museum, but it’s found in a place that’s normally not so inspiring.
This rainbow-colored “cave” is actually just a particularly decorative tunnel in a subway station in Stockholm, Sweden.
This chip bags show just how different changes in air pressure can be when you live 7380 feet above sea level.
Opening packages like this is normally no big deal, but it can feel like activating a very messy Jack-in-the-box in some parts of Colorado.
That yellow cloud isn’t a sign of pollution, but it does indicate something that can be just as tough on our allergies.
That field on the other side of the Mjøsbrua Bridge in Norway is actually releasing a thick fog of pollen and I’m suddenly very glad to not be in this picturesque location.
This onion is so big that’s pretty hard to tell that that’s even what we’re looking at.
Apparently, it weighs about three pounds and has somehow grown to the size of a soccer ball. As for how that happened, your guess is as good as mine.
If these snowy mountains seem like a breathtaking example of natural beauty, I’m sorry to ruin that for you.
These mountains are actually made entirely of salt and this isn’t a natural formation, but rather the site of a salt refinery in Australia.
This building isn’t under construction. Those big tubes are actually slides.
If you don’t want to take the stairs back down from the fourth floor, this technical university in Munich, Germany gives you the option to slide down instead.
This vending machine in France dispenses baguettes.
It makes sense for this one to be right in front of the bakery so customers can get them after closing, but this apparently far from the only one of its kind.
This might appear to be another everyday object placed under a microscope, but we’re actually seeing this from very far away.
So what is it? None other than an aerial view of New Delhi, India. For many of us, this kind of urban sprawl is almost unfathomable.
This man is actually walking fairly normally, all things considered.
In case you’re wondering where half of his face went, the truth is that he and a buddy are in the middle of moving a mirror, which makes normal walking seem strange and unnatural.
This isn’t exactly a safe place to be, but it’s a lot less horrific than these bizarre formations make it seem.
What seems like lost souls descending into a fiery pit are actually just the grooves that this lava happened to form as it cooled.
Believe it or not, this is a place that actually exists.
This dream-liked landscape that looks like someone’s painting is actually part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia.
Those small, sparse trees just happen to be engulfed in shadow while the intensely colorful dirt is not.
This lightning storm is actually demonstrating a phenomenon that people commonly mistake for a UFO.
According to National Geographic , these flashes of light within the clouds are known as “sprites” and are the result of an electrical discharge shooting from the top of a cloud, as opposed to the downward path of standard lightning.
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They usually appear when a particularly heavy lightning storm or hurricane is brewing underneath.
If they didn’t helpfully put the model behind it, we’d probably never guess that this skeleton came from a sunfish.
You’d be forgiven that it belongs to some sleek, efficient terror of the deep rather than the dopey-looking fish that it actually rests inside of.
Until today, I never knew that bonsai trees could actually produce full-grown fruit.
According to Mentalfloss , this is because the trees are actually made from the same seeds as their full-sized cousins.
Those who grow bonsai trees just confine them in small containers and develop the right pruning and trimming techniques to stunt their growth.
When you scoff at the cost of a professional photographer, remember this.
It’s not just about pointing a camera and pressing the button. A great photographer will see the best opportunities for a gorgeous photo and be willing to get dirty to make it happen.
It’s hard to visualize the scale of ancient Rome from books and old paintings.
Architect Italo Gismondi understood this and spent 40 years creating this 1:250 scale model of Rome during the age of Constantine. That’s the fourth century A.D.
This photographer managed to capture Jupiter and four of its moons.
The Galilean moons, to be exact. The photo was taken in Alaska, once again proving that the state is a magical place.
If you’ve never visited the pyramids, then it can be hard to understand the scale.
Can you understand it now? Besides the sheer size of the blocks compared to a person, it also shows how most images are taken so far away that the sides look far smoother than they actually are.
The far side of the moon isn’t so dark after all.
We don’t usually get to see our moon from this angle, but NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory managed to snap this photo as the moon passed between it and Earth, with the sun shining right on the back.
Perspective is everything.
This is one of those sideways photos were the person is actually lying down, but it’s an awesome example of one. The location is a field of covered asparagus.
Speaking of perspective, here’s how the movie ‘Elf’ was filmed.
Through careful lighting and camera angles, you totally believe that he’s sitting right beside the other elves.
This photo definitely shows a unique perspective on going out.
“The difference between 31 and 21…,” wrote Reddit user melitini.
Whoa.
“Tiny reporter comparing hands with NBA Player,” wrote a Reddit user.