Copyright 1999 American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved. For most microbes this is true, but there are some gargantuan microbes that we can actually see with the unaided eye. Largest Virus Viruses are super tiny. There's not a single type of virus that can be seen without a microscope and regular light microscopes that allow us to see bacteria and protists aren't powerful enough to view viruses.
Scientists use special types of electron microscopes to see viruses.
This family includes the Ebola virus, which you might have heard of. Filoviridae are long, thin viruses that look like bent tubes. This makes them actually longer than some of the smaller bacteria. However, these long viruses are only about 80 nanometers in diameter. This is an enlarged photo.