Physics

The Northern Lights, or Aurora, is a breathtaking phenomenon in the sky. It can be seen simultaneously in the southern and northern hemispheres in the area around the Arctic and Antarctic. People have always tried unsuccessfully to explain its revelation. Today we already know what is causing it. So why and how does aurora come about? Read more

In the case of a clear night sky, a large number of stars can be seen, which seemingly group into shapes called constellations. Thanks to the starlight, we can now enjoy the view of the night sky. In earlier times, the night sky was used, for example, for navigation. But what is it that the stars shine? Read more

The fact that the ice is slippery is a matter of course for us. After all, most of us must have ice-skated, skied, or at least slipped on the icy sidewalk. So it may come as a surprise to find that physicists have been working on ice for more than 160 years, and we do not yet have a perfect and clear answer as to why this is the case. What do we know now and why is the ice actually slippery? Read more

Iceberg floating on water or ice cubes floating in lemonade are no surprise. In nature, however, it is quite an atypical phenomenon. But why is it that ice floats on water? Read more

Most of us learned at school that we have nine planets of the solar system and that the last planet is called Pluto. But that has changed one day, and now Pluto is not considered a planet. Why did the professional community take such a step and what is the history of the discovery of this dwarf planet? Read more

Thunder is a natural phenomenon that we hear during a storm immediately after lightning. From the time delay between the occurrence of lightning and the recording of thunder, we can determine how far the storm is from us. But why do we hear thunder at all? Read more

Snow is a form of ice and it seems transparent to us. The white impression is caused by its thickening in the form of a snow cover, which is formed by many snow crystals. They reflect and refract light in different directions, and our brain perceives this summary effect as white. Read more

The question "why is it dark at night" was asked by scholars many centuries ago. However, they could not find the answer. Although the question seems relatively straightforward, the answer to it is not easy. At least not without the knowledge that science brought in the early 20th century. So why is it dark at night? Read more

The tail of a comet is technically called a coma and is the vapor of the outer ice layer, which evaporates with heating as the comet approaches the Sun. The solar wind causes the coma to always point away from the Sun. The tail glows due to the fluorescence of these gases. Read more