COVID-19: Portraits of a virus

A handout illustration image courtesy of the National Institutes of Health taken with a scanning electron microscope shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

This handout illustration image courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first US case of COVID-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV, with the spherical viral particles, colorized blue, containing cross-sections through the viral genome, seen as black dots.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) illustration by the US Food and Drug Administration

Transmission electron microscope image by National Institutes of Health. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like.

A transmission electron microscopic image courtesy of the National Institutes of Health shows COVID-19 isolated from a patient in the US, emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab.

Scanning electron microscope image by National Institutes of Health showing yellow virus particles emerging from cells cultured in a lab.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) illustration released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) transmission electron microscopic image by National Institutes of Health

Ultrastructural morphology, created by Lizabeth Menzies / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention