ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

2007 Siberian orange snow

Have you ever seen snow that is orange in color? It happened a very long time ago in a place called Siberia, which is very cold and snowy most of the time.

When snow is orange, it means that there is something in it that is giving it that color. In this case, it was a microscopic fungus called Trentepohlia annulata.

This fungus lives on trees and rocks, but it can also grow on snow when there is a lot of warm weather and sunlight. When the conditions are just right, the fungus can make the snow look orange by producing a pigment called beta-carotene.

Scientists were very interested in the orange snow because it was something that had not been seen in a very long time. They collected samples of the snow and analyzed them to learn more about the fungus and what caused it to grow on the snow.

While it was a very unique and interesting event, it did not have any major impact on the environment or people's lives. It was just a reminder of how unpredictable nature can be and how many mysterious things we still have yet to discover.