The science behind natural optical phenomena—colors in the sky, rainbows, halos, coronas, iridescence, glories, glitter patterns and auroras—will be the topic of a free talk at Rochester Institute of ...

Optical illusions occur naturally in different habitats and conditions across the world. Cloud formations can sometimes make it seem like there's an ocean or a UFO in the sky. Whether it is salt flats ...

Earth's passage through the plane of Saturn's rings, occurring roughly every 15 years, causes the rings to appear nearly edge-on. The next such event in March 2025 will be poorly observable due to ...

MISSOULA, Mont. — While up in the mountains, have you ever looked down on a cloud or fog bank below and seen concentric rings of light surrounding your shadow? A viewer recently shared a photo of this ...

Peter Berthelemy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

A new study explores the behavior of photons, the elementary particles of light, as they encounter boundaries where material properties change rapidly over time. This research uncovers remarkable ...

Nature is brimming with color in almost every season. While the majority of colors are matte, some are shiny. Evolutionary biologist Casper van der Kooi wondered why shiny colors are so rare. He ...

Magneto-optical effects in plasmonic nanostructures represent an exciting frontier in the convergence of photonics, nanomagnetism and materials science. By harnessing the strong local electromagnetic ...

Everyone loves an optical illusion — even if they leave us completely stumped — and they're all around us in the natural world. From an underwater waterfall in the Indian Ocean to a surrealist scene ...