The physics behind the color of the sky on Earth and on Mars
Why is the sky blue during the day and what makes the sunset red? Why is it almost the opposite on Mars?
Sunsets are red
Clear skies are blue
Rayleigh Scattering
Makes it all be true
Why the sky is blue
The phenomenon responsible for the color of our sky is Rayleigh Scattering. It is…
Funny thought, but an electron would not have enough mass to bend the spacetime around it and hence make stars orbit around it (as is the case with our black hole in galactic center) or bend the light coming from behind. What would the orbiting stars be, if the supermassive black hole was an electron?
Apollo missions, China’s lunar far-side mission, and Lagrange points
Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins is experiencing during this 47 minutes of each lunar revolution when he’s behind the Moon with no one to talk to except his tape recorder.
— Mission Control Statement, refering to biblical figure
Apollon missions and the far side of the Moon
Due to Earth's gravitational pull…
My Top Medium Articles 2019–2020
This is a collection of 12 of my most popular Medium stories and a little reflection on what made them popular.
1. We All Travel Through Spacetime at the Speed of Light
28K views, 9.7K reads, 277 fans, 130hr 20 min reading time (Dec 2019)
My most viewed and most-read article is about speed through the 4D Minkowski spacetime. Everything travels…
How your mind makes up stuff to make sense of it all
An underrated material with fascinating properties
Recently, I had a muscle biopsy that was taken from my thigh — for science(!), of course. After the biopsy, the researcher said that I had a very resilient fascia. Usually, the fascia would become “mushier” with age, he said. (Did he just call me old? …
6 categories of scientific curiosity and how to use it to your advantage
“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Ellen Parr
What is curiosity and how is it related to science and scientific thinking? Neil deGrasse Tyson said:
“When I think of science and scientists I think of kids who never lost their curiosity and wonder…
Caffeine is not the only reason for coffee!
I recently read about the natural biorhythms of hormones following our inner circadian clock. Cortisol is rising in the morning and awakens you together with higher levels of adrenaline. This means that in the very early morning, you are naturally awakened by your own body (although I am sure that…
The stars within 10 lightyears and their quirks
“What’s the point of racing around the galaxy if you aren’t going to have fun?”― Zoraida Córdova, A Crash of Fate
We live on a spinning globe orbiting around a yellowish star in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The daily spin makes the view of the…
Lenka Otap
Computer scientist and almost-astrophysicist. Curious about life, the universe, and everything. Are you too? https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceandcuriosity
