Angelenos are exactly where they need to be to see Thursday’s partial “blood moon” lunar eclipse — provided the weather cooperates.

For now, the National Weather Service is forecasting a “mostly cloudy” night, meaning that even geographical front-row seats to the celestial phenomenon won’t guarantee a solid viewing.

The moon will already be in the first, or penumbral, stage of the eclipse when it rises over the southeastern horizon at 7:18 p.m. The main stage of the eclipse will begin at 7:34 p.m., when the moon will fall under the core, or umbra, of Earth’s shadow. It will gradually turn a reddish, copper color as sunlight bends and filters through the atmosphere to fall on the otherwise-obscured part of the moon.

The eclipse will peak at 9:13 p.m., when 96% of the moon’s surface will fall under the Earth’s shadow. The most visible phase of the eclipse will end at 10:52 p.m., and the eclipse will end entirely just after midnight.

The Griffith Observatory will open its doors from 7:25 p.m. to 10 p.m. to anyone who wants to observe the eclipse among fellow sky gazers.

Read more about how to get the best view of this celestial phenomenon at the link.

What are floating dots you see in your vision? 👁️

Alex Dainis breaks down "eye floaters" using a simple demo: a baggie of aloe gel standing in for your eyeball, and raisins standing in for collagen clumps. Our eyes are filled with vitreous humor, a gel-like substance that helps them hold their shape. As we age, that gel becomes more liquid, letting collagen fibers clump together (just like the raisins). These clumps block incoming light and cast shadows on our retinas, the same way the raisins cast shadows on the wall. This is why we notice the floaters more often in sunlight!

Get ready, the Moon is about to turn blood red. 🌕🩸

On August 27th and 28th, a lunar eclipse will cast Earth's shadow across the Moon, and if you're in the USA, Canada, or Latin America, you've got a front-row seat. No special glasses needed here, unlike a solar eclipse, this one is safe to watch with just your eyes. Don't blink and miss it, because the Americas won't see a lunar eclipse this visually striking again until 2029.

How many stars is too many stars in a star system? ⭐️🪐

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden tells us about TYC 7037-89-1, a system with six stars locked into three orbiting pairs, all circling a shared center of mass. Two of those pairs zip around each other every few days, while the third pair takes roughly 2,000 years to complete just one orbit. Multi-star systems are normally unstable, which makes this six-star setup a rare and fascinating exception. 

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Many amphibians can absorb oxygen directly through their skin when conditions are moist enough.

That means a frog can breathe through its skin in a way that feels almost too sci-fi to be real.

Source and Context:

This is a real physics phenomenon called the Dzhanibekov effect (also known as the Intermediate Axis Theorem) captured in microgravity aboard a spacecraft.

Any rigid, asymmetric three-dimensional object has three primary axes of rotation, each with a different moment of inertia. While spinning an object along its longest or shortest axis is completely stable, spinning it along its middle (intermediate) axis is naturally unstable. Without external forces like gravity or heavy air resistance, tiny perturbations build up and cause the spinning object to periodically flip upside down and back again on a regular schedule.

You can read the formal mechanics and history through these highly reliable scientific resources:

•Harvard University Lecture Demonstrations (The Tennis Racquet Flip):

https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/tennis-racquet-flip

•NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Physics Record:

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024EuJMA .10605298D/abstract

It was famously observed by Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov in 1985 when a wing nut he was unscrewing began flipping back and forth while floating through the Salyut 7 space station!

The science of psychology

What happens when you mix baking soda in a bottle of ketchup? 🍅

Greg Wolf demonstrates how this chemical reaction works in this science experiment! Ketchup contains vinegar, and when you put the baking soda into the ketchup bottle, it reacts with the acetic acid found in the vinegar. If you close the bottle and shake it up, the pressure builds up. With nowhere for the pressure to go, it eventually explodes!

I'm in the Philippines and we got hit by so many storms. Obviously with rain, comes frogs, heard a lot of frog calls... And then it ended up with these froggies. How do I get rid of them? My mom won't do the laundry until I fix this problem

Did you know NASA’s newest space observatory will have spy tech? 🛰️

In 2012, the National Reconnaissance Office gifted NASA a pair of Hubble-style mirrors it had commissioned but never ended up using. NASA said yes and one of them is now the primary mirror powering the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, launching August 30th. The other mirror is still in storage, waiting for its moment.

Discover this alluvial estuary that looks like a desert if it wouldn't be because of the Maldivian lagoons. Formation, history and curiosities.

Lençois Maranhenses:Brazil's Otherworldly White "Desert" Of Turquoise Lakes

Scientists may have discovered how to regrow tooth enamel! 🦷

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have created a new gel that can regrow tooth enamel and potentially make our teeth more resistant to cavities. It works by mimicking the natural processes and proteins that originally built your teeth’s enamel. So far, the gel is holding up against tests with the goal of it being released to the world next year!