Category: Science

A lightning channel can heat nearby air to about 54,000°F in a fraction of a second. That explosive heating creates the shock wave we hear as thunder.

Mars is famous for rusty red landscapes, yet its sunsets often glow blue around the Sun. Fine airborne dust rearranges the colors of Martian twilight.

The Sun’s magnetic north and south poles reverse approximately every 11 years. Sunspots help scientists track this repeating solar cycle.

Venus rotates so slowly that one complete turn takes 243 Earth days, while its orbit around the Sun takes only 225. Its backward spin makes the planet’s calendar even stranger.

Lady Liberty began with a brown copper surface. Here is how natural oxidation created her green patina—and why her copper skin is only about as thick as two pennies.