Topic
The sun
6 articles
Astronomy
Why does a total eclipse fit so exactly?
The Moon covers the Sun almost perfectly, leaving only the glowing edge behind. Nothing arranged that. The Sun is four hundred times wider and four hundred times further away, and it is a coincidence with an expiry date.
History of science
Why did ten days vanish in 1582?
People went to bed on the fourth of October and woke up on the fifteenth. Nothing happened to the Sun, and nobody lost any time. A rounding error had been accumulating for sixteen centuries, and somebody finally paid it off.
Astronomy
Why isn’t the earliest sunset on the shortest day?
The shortest day of the year ought to have the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise. Check a timetable and neither of them lands there. The sunsets start getting later a fortnight before the days start getting longer.
Astronomy
Why is Venus hotter than Mercury, when Mercury is closer to the Sun?
Mercury sits nearer the Sun than any other planet, so it ought to win. It does not, and the planet that beats it is almost twice as far out. Distance turns out to be the least interesting part of the story.
Astronomy
How do we know what the stars are made of?
Nobody has ever been to a star, and nobody has brought a piece of one home. Yet astronomers will tell you what any star contains, in order, with amounts. The answer is hiding in the parts of a rainbow that are missing.
Physics
Why is the sky blue at noon and red at sunset?
The same sun, the same air, and two completely different colors twelve hours apart. Nothing overhead has been swapped out, so something else must be doing the work.