Anyone else in the Philadelphia area seeing this? There are some strange, vertical clouds in the area that look a lot like aurorae (it's well into darkness here), but they aren't moving. They look like they might be high-altitude noctilucent clouds, but I think it's the wrong time of year for those. What are they? I've never seen anything like them.
posted by drinkcoffee on Nov 19, 2008 - 11 answers

To what extent would the lack of an atmosphere reduce the effectiveness of nuclear weapons?
posted by Artw on Sep 26, 2008 - 17 answers

Does the atmosphere rotate? In other words, is there a net shift in air around the globe, east to west? [more inside]
posted by conch soup on May 9, 2007 - 13 answers

How could someone avoid burning up in the atmosphere while falling to Earth from orbit? [more inside]
posted by clockzero on Feb 6, 2007 - 20 answers

Imagine a world in which the atmospheric density is somewhat greater than ours, but gravity is somewhat lower. How might our experience be different on that world? [more inside]
posted by Ritchie on Jan 8, 2007 - 16 answers

Music for bondage. [more inside]
posted by brautigan on May 11, 2006 - 49 answers

My old apartment had extremely leaky single-pane windows, so in the winter my roommate and I would always cover them with tightly sealed heat-shrink plastic film. Why would the plastic nearly always be bulging inward? [more inside]
posted by Galvatron on Dec 10, 2005 - 18 answers

What makes clouds form where they form, and how? [more inside]
posted by Rothko on Aug 30, 2005 - 6 answers

What would happen if someone were to build a tunnel or tube into space? (Description inside...) [more inside]
posted by punkbitch on Jan 20, 2005 - 10 answers

The smell of space. How and why? [much more... out there.] [more inside]
posted by stonerose on Jan 28, 2004 - 11 answers