Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gove.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about why scientists care that the Earth twinkles from space,

why pockets are so rare in women's clothes,

and whether the first life emerged on land or water.

Let's set us fast some curiosity.

Stars are not the only thing in space that twinkle.

Take Earth, for example. That's right, our planet does indeed

sparkle from space and when we discovered why in May 2017 it was a lesson that

could mean big things in our search for other water-rich planets.

Here's the story.

Science writer Carl Sagan first mentioned the shimmer in a paper in 1993 that he wrote about the discoveries of the Galileo spacecraft.

He had noticed the shimmers appear over our oceans,

which makes sense because the water surface reflects light.

But in 2015, the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite saw glimmer

over lands too. It turns out that what those shimmers had in common wasn't bodies of water.

It was wispy serious clouds full of ice crystals.

When they're in just the right position, those tiny ice particles floating high

inside clouds reflect sunlight and give off a dazzling reflection. So long story short,

Earth shimmers because of horizontal ice. In a way, Sagan was right when he

mentioned water as the source of Earth's sparkles.

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