Squid, spaced dust and sound boom – The best scientific images of March

Good vibrations. This false-color image shows shock waves emanating from the supersonic US T-38 Talon aircraft, used to train fighter pilots. During flights at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the space agency staff tested a system that captured high-quality shockwave imagery. These rapid changes in atmospheric pressure cause people to hear "sonic booms" on the ground. Imaging system data will help aeronautical engineers design a "silent" supersonic engine.

On the asteroid. The Japanese asteroids Hayabusa2 have been busy for a few months. The probe, suspended from a rock in the space called Ryugu, was placed on the body at the end of February and collected space debris raised after the aircraft fired a bullet on the surface (photo). On April 5, he made his most daring maneuver to date: he dropped an explosive on the surface to create a small crater that will expose some layers of the basement. Hayabusa2 will collect additional materials during a subsequent touchdown and eventually return the samples to Earth.

Dangers of the jungle. This radiographic image shows a three-month-old orangutan baby operated from a broken arm in North Sumatra, Indonesia, where rainforests are threatened by palm oil plantations. The monkey was operated at the rehabilitation center of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program in North Sumatra. Brenda was rescued a few days after rescuers found an adult orang-utan, Hope, in the area, with 74 air-gun shots; the animal was blinded as a result. Ecologists warn that orang-utans will likely become the first great apes to extinguish in the wild.

With glassy eyes. Chief taxidermist Christophe Gottini, at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, gets to work to restore a giant squid at an exhibition on the ocean.

CSI: charcoal. This image looks pretty innocent, but it could help fight the rising fraud in the trees. The micrograph shows a cut of charcoal made from a tropical African Fabaceae tree; He was captured using a technique developed by Gerald Koch and Volker Haag at the Thünen Skill Center on the Origin of Wood, in Hamburg, Germany. This method is part of a growing arsenal of tools that scientists use to detect illegally harvested and exported trees. In 2017, Koch helped uncover a scandal in which many Germans burned charcoal made from protected forest wood.

In thunder, lightning or rain? This spectacular light show was filmed in Santa Barbara, California, with a long exposure. The electrical display appeared during winter storms that caused heavy rains, hail, thunder and lightning in southern California in early March.

Moon games. The Israeli lunar satellite Beresheet is about to become the first private probe to land on the moon. The machine, which also received Israeli space agency support and was launched in February, has just moved from Earth's orbit to lunar orbit and is due to land on the moon on April 11. The success of Beresheet and the renewed interest of the government for the rock mate of the Earth should announce a new race in the lunar space.