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Astronomy

The natural science of the universe

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Decoding the Science Behind Weather Prediction

Reading time 3 min
Views 115

Weather, a perennial topic of conversation, influences our daily lives in myriad ways. From planning outdoor activities to safeguarding against natural disasters, understanding weather patterns is crucial. But have you ever wondered how meteorologists predict the weather with such accuracy? Let's delve into the fascinating world of weather prediction and uncover the science behind it.

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Total votes 3: ↑3 and ↓0 +3
Comments 0

The color of the Moon and the Sun from space in terms of RGB and color temperature

Reading time 17 min
Views 3.2K
It would seem that the question of the color of the Moon and the Sun from space for modern science is so simple that in our century there should be no problem at all with the answer. We are talking about colors when observing precisely from space, since the atmosphere causes a color change due to Rayleigh light scattering. «Surely somewhere in the encyclopedia about this in detail, in numbers it has long been written,» you will say. Well, now try searching the Internet for information about it. Happened? Most likely no. The maximum that you will find is a couple of words about the fact that the Moon has a brownish tint, and the Sun is reddish. But you will not find information about whether these tints are visible to the human eye or not, especially the meanings of colors in RGB or at least color temperatures. But you will find a bunch of photos and videos where the Moon from space is absolutely gray, mostly in photos of the American Apollo program, and where the Sun from space is depicted white and even blue.

Especially my personal opinion is nothing but a consequence of the intervention of politics in science. After all, the colors of the Moon and the Sun from space directly relate to the flights of Americans to the Moon.

I searched through many scientific articles and books in search of information about the color of the Moon and the Sun from space. Fortunately, it turned out that even though they do not have a direct answer to RGB, there is complete information about the spectral density of the solar radiation and the reflectivity of the Moon across the spectrum. This is quite enough to get accurate colors in RGB values. You just need to carefully calculate what, in fact, I did. In this article I will share the results of calculations with you and, of course, I will tell you in detail about the calculations themselves. And you will see the Moon and the Sun from space in real colors!
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Total votes 4: ↑3 and ↓1 +2
Comments 0

Celestia: Bugs' Adventures in Space

Reading time 6 min
Views 960
Picture 1

Celestia is a three-dimensional space simulator. Simulation of the space allows exploring our universe in three dimensions. Celestia is available on Windows, Linux and macOS. The project is very small and PVS-Studio detected few defects in it. Despite this fact, we'd like to pay attention to it, as it's a popular educational project and it will be rather useful to somehow improve it. By the way, this program is used in popular films, series and programs for showing space. This fact, in turns, raises requirements to the code quality.
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Total votes 27: ↑25 and ↓2 +23
Comments 0

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