The well-hidden pre-eternal secret comes to light with the help of science
Champagne is always served cold, so this little spectacular phenomenon goes unnoticed.
So if we enjoy it at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius), something wonderful will happen. Which now has the voula of science.
Researchers at the University of Rennes in France, a region well versed in champagne, used a science camera to observe the fleeting blue "mini cloud," as it is called, that stays in the neck of the bottle for only 2-3 milliseconds. This blue smoke is colder than ice, we are told in their study published in the journal Scientific Reports, and was "completely unexpected".
Those who open an icy champagne manage to see the white smoke coming out of the bottle, although here we are talking about something slightly different. Before opening, the champagne is subjected to high pressure, which is why they always secure the cork with the metal wire. But when the bottle is opened and the pressure is adjusted, the carbon dioxide starts to flow. And at lukewarm 20 degrees Celsius, the white fog acquires a fleeting blue hue.
And if blue reminds us of the color of the sky, there is a good explanation for that. The sky acquires its blue hue from the molecules that scatter the blue sunlight. "Blue clouds form when carbon dioxide transforms into tiny dry ice molecules that reflect ambient light," the study tells us. "The blue cloud has the same physical properties as the blue light of the sky. Isn't that wonderful? '
It is indeed…