---
title: "What Does the Coronavirus Look Like? This."
description: "The deadly COVID-19 virus has killed more than a thousand over the past month, and scientists across the world are racing to understand the novel pathogen. Now, researchers at the Montana-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Rocky Mountain Laboratories have released a gallery of stunning images of the virus that they took with […]"
date: "2020-02-16"
modified: "2020-02-16"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/what-does-coronavirus-look-like-microscopic-view"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "electron microscopy"
  - "health"
---

# What Does the Coronavirus Look Like? This.

![Researchers have released a gallery of stunning images of what the Coronavirus looks like taken with scanning and transmission electron microscopes.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/coronavirus-looks-like-under-microscope.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NIAID\</em\>*

The deadly COVID-19 virus has [killed more than a thousand](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/coronavirus-death-toll-graph>) over the past month, and scientists across the world are racing to understand the novel pathogen.

Now, researchers at the Montana-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Rocky Mountain Laboratories have [released a gallery](<https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/with/49534865371/>) of stunning images of the virus that they took with a variety of scanning and transmission electron microscopes.

The haunting shots that remind you that your body is a microcosmic battleground of [trillions of cells](<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-372-trillion-cells-in-your-body-4941473/>), many of them fighting off invaders that can range from the COVID-19 to the common cold.

Don't believe us? A scanning electron microscope caught this cluster of the viruses nestled in the folds of a human cell from a patient in the US:

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/49530315733_c0093a9deb_c.jpg>)

In this shot, from a transmission electron microscope, the viruses look almost like celestial objects:

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/49530315718_3cf6e80d50_c.jpg>)

Okay, one more. This scanning electron microscope shot shows the viruses living on the surface of cave-like cells cultured in a lab:

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/49530315703_f12c7d53fa_c.jpg>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)