Захар

Two companions, and both rose at the same time. A short story—one of those I make up along the way.

The ring of any planet consists of billions of individual ice floes and rocks. It appears solid only from a distance—like asphalt from an airplane.

Without heating, moisture from the air settles on the metal first. That's why abandoned stations in science fiction are always covered in frost—and it's true.

A contrail isn't smoke, but condensed vapor. It will tell you more about the air's humidity than any instrument on board.

The first thing to fail isn't the concrete, but the roof. If the roof starts to leak, the building is destroyed by water, not time.

One hundred and ninety-two lasers converged on a single point—and the energy output was greater than what was put in. For the first time in history.

Each "grain" is a convection cell the size of an entire country. It lives for about eight minutes and then sinks back down.

The center of the chamber becomes hotter than the star's core for a split second. This state lasts less than the blink of an eye.

Inside is fuel for a thermonuclear reaction. One hundred and ninety-two lasers are aimed at such a capsule at once, and the miss is measured in microns.

All of this is a path for light. The laser pulse lives here for nanoseconds, and it's accelerated by a structure the size of a city block.