Archive - Red Rose and Morning Dew

June 12, 2021

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Happy Red Rose Day! Each weekend we present a notable item from our archives. This EPOD was originally published May 12, 2013.

Photographer: Alejandro Jaramillo
Summary Authors: Alejandro Jaramillo; Jim Foster

The photo above showing a red rose draped in dewdrops was taken in Medellin, Colombia. When air at a constant atmospheric pressure is cooled below its dew point, typically in the early morning hours, moisture condenses not only on blades of grass and windshields but on all nearly all exposed surfaces. In fact, many plants, and even some animals, rely on dew and fog as a valuable source of water.

The dipole charge on every water molecule attracts them to each other -- positive to negative and negative to positive. Water drops are more or less spherical because of this electrostatic attraction and cohesion. Photo taken on May 3, 2012.

Photo details: SONY NEX-5N camera; 54 mm focal length; f/5 aperture; 1/100 sec. exposure; ISO 200.