Snowfall is always an ecstatic romantic scene. But when viewed through the lens of science, snow has shockingly naked truths that not everyone knows.
Although not everyone living in Vietnam or tropical countries has the opportunity to touch snow even once in their life, the image of slow snowfall on Christmas Eve always makes an impression. strong in everyone’s mind.
But snow is not simply snow, it also contains a lot of interesting things and not too many people know its true nature. Here are some snow facts that might surprise you.
In fact, snow is not pure white like we often see. Do you believe it?
Surprise? The dream of white snow may sound romantic, but it’s not accurate to the eyes of a science geek. To be honest, snow is just frozen water so it has no color but has the pure beauty of transparent water.
The reason we see snow as white is because it scatters light in many directions and diffuses the entire color spectrum. When many snowflakes are close together and form large patches of snow, this light scattering process will make the snow white as we usually see it.
But not only that, sometimes dust or pollutants in the air also cause the snow to tarnish. The cold-loving freshwater algae (cryophilic) makes snow black, orange or even blue. If astaxanthin is present in the water, which has a cell structure similar to that of a carrot, the resulting snow will be orange or watermelon red.
It takes about an hour for a snowflake to fall from the clouds above to the ground. Temperatures below -5 degrees Celsius and higher humidity will produce larger snowflakes. At lower temperatures and drier conditions, like at the Earth’s poles, ice chips and lamellar crystals produce snow.
One of the factors that determines the shape of a snowflake is the temperature in its surroundings . Snowflake studies show that needle-long ice crystals are produced at -2°C, while at -5°C it will appear as flat sheets. Similarly, different temperatures will produce different snowflake shapes, changes in the arms or tail structure of the snowflake.
Snowflakes are very diverse in shape and structure. (Image: Getty Images).
Scientist Andy Brunning has painstakingly researched and published a detailed catalog of the shapes of snowflakes. There are 35 basic snowflake styles in total, which will combine and create countless other beautiful snowflake shapes.
One of the wonders of the snowflake is its formation, it grows from the inside out. Like other life forms in nature including plants and animals, snowflakes are initially just a drop of frozen water and gradually take shape by growing evenly in all directions.
But snowflakes are not just tiny crystals like drops of water. There have been many records showing that snowflakes have grown to 38 cm in size. Although there is still no corroborating evidence for this, scientists say it is not impossible. Basically, snowflakes can grow to be very large if not prevented by natural external conditions such as wind.
Snow when falling from above will absorb sound waves, so if a heavy snowfall occurs, it will form a soundproof wall and limit the sound transmission in that area. But when the snow hits the ground, it melts and then freezes again, and the ice reflects the sound, causing the sound to travel farther.
The Mars Express spacecraft captured this image of snow covering the 80km wide Korolev crater at the north pole of Mars on December 20, 2018. (Photo: ESA).
According to NASA’s scientific observations, Mars also has clouds and a thick layer of ice below the surface. In the Martian summer, there will be violent snowstorms that appear suddenly. Not only that, the orbiters on the red planet also found snow clouds filled with carbon dioxide at the south pole of Mars.
Don’t jump to the conclusion that humans are the only species interested in romantic snowfalls. Japanese macaques, also known as Snow Monkeys, are other mammals that love to play with snow, and live in the cold weather of snow, baby monkeys grab snowballs and snowballs. play with each other.
Japanese macaques live farther north than any other monkey on the planet, they love to play and live in the snow. (Photo: Julia Wimmerlin/Getty Images).
Because snow consists of 90% to 95% of trapped air, this means snow is an excellent insulator . This is why many animals dig deep into the snow and snuggle inside to sleep through the winter. Igloo or ice houses have also been used by humans for thousands of years, the inside of these ice houses can be up to 100 degrees warmer than outside.
Depending on the surroundings, snowflakes can fall at speeds up to 14km/h. Flakes of snowflakes can fall very quickly, but when they combine and form drops, they gradually decrease in speed. Normally, it takes about an hour for the snowflakes to leave the clouds and reach the ground.
Glaciers are formed by accretion of snow and solidify over time. Snow melts and re-freezes into a granular form of ice called firn . In fact, the word “firn” is derived from a German word meaning “belonging to last year”. Blue or green, glistening glaciers have become key markers of climate change.