There are no two snowflakes alike (at least not in nature). That common information, but did you realize that snowflakes come in 35 distinct varieties? Alternatively, that each snowflake is made up of 100,000 water droplets? Do you have any idea how they come to be? On the other hand, it may take up to 45 minutes to complete.
If you do not know the answers to any of these questions, you are in luck. Dr. Ken Libbrecht, known as “the snowflake person” and a world specialist on snowflakes, has collaborated with Veritasium to reveal the mysteries of snowflakes. Libbrecht constructs “designer” snowflakes and is an expert in the field; he was the snowflake consultant for the film Frozen, and his work has even featured on postage stamps.
Libbrecht can modify snowflakes as they develop by adjusting their growing parameters, such as temperature and humidity, and adding features to produce the perfect pattern. He quips, “I can foretell the future.” To see it in action and learn how to grow creative snowflakes, watch the video below.
Who does not like it when it snows? Whether it falls in the Sahara Desert or on the rusty plains of Mars, it is nature’s greatest paint, changing natural canvases into something strange and very beautiful.
NASA, it turns out, is also a big fan of snow, as evidenced by the creation of a stunning 3D numerical model of a melting snowflake, the first of its kind. From the collection of meltwater in concave segments of each individual snowflake to their accumulation to create a liquid shell around an ice core, several very detailed melting processes found in real-life experimental investigations are duplicated here.
The snowflake eventually turns into a water droplet. The simulation’s creator, Jussi Leinonen of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, hoped to provide scientists with a better means of determining whether snowfall light or heavy using radar. Leinonen and colleague co-author Annakaisa von Lerber of the Finnish Meteorological Institute explain the rationale behind their model in accompanying research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
