Tom Hanks mindblown after discovering why leaves turn red in the Fall — and we're all going, 'Wait, what'

Every day, we see a lot of things happening in our surroundings — the sunrise and the sunset, birds flying in formation, wind blowing in a particular direction, etc. But, how often do we wonder why these small yet meaningful things happen the way they do? While these sightings seem too familiar to us, adult responsibilities usually force us to overlook these incredibly ordinary moments, hiding something extraordinary in them. On a related note, in an episode of ''The Americas,'' on NBC, actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks displayed childish wonder when he discovered why England’s trees turn ‘red’ during Fall— a simple phenomenon that we're all aware of, but have forgotten the mechanism behind.

"This truly blew my mind because I had no idea," Hanks confessed in giddy excitement as he talked about the Triple Oak changing colors during the Autumn. Further, the ''Forrest Gump'' actor shared that he never understood the real reason behind this astonishing occurrence, as Hanks simply believed that during Autumn, leaves wither and eventually die. To this, Mike Gunton, Executive Producer, explained, "That image [of the Triple Oak] can be seen from space. That whole New England is such an amazing place. So what happens is..." Gunton spoke before explaining how, during winter, trees mindfully expose other pigments, responsible for the color change seen in Autumn.

He said that, when, during winter, the sun doesn't produce as much energy as required by the trees to produce chlorophyll, they take all the existing chlorophyll (which brings the 'green' color) from the leaves and store it away. This explains why, as per Gunton, leaves turn shades of red, orange, and gold, as the pigments other than chlorophyll start to show up. "What it leaves behind is all the colors in the leaves that aren't green. So the colors of the fall are the colors left after the leaves have taken out all the chlorophyll," Gunton shared.

"The other thing is, once the leaves have stopped doing the energy-grabbing thing, the tree thinks, 'Well, I don't need this anymore,' so they say, 'Let's get rid of them,' so the leaf then just goes and falls to the ground, and that's the fall," he, further explained. All the while, Hanks sat in awe, wondering how trees know exactly what they need to do to get through the winter. "So in 'The Americas,' there will be something that will make you look at something with a whole new understanding of it. You will never look upon the changing of the colors in New England again the same way," Hanks added. While the "Here" actor's reaction to learning something new was just wholesome, an interesting report by Closed Today claims that  85% of Americans are eager to learn about science, while around 44% believe they don't understand it the way they should.

Meanwhile, reacting to Tom Hanks' revelation, @chrisbrockhurst commented, "This is fascinating. I was never taught this in school, or I wasn’t paying attention." Likewise, @christiandelatorre_, equally amazed by the phenomenon, shared, "Mother Earth and nature as a whole are incredibly more intelligent. And to think all we have to do is take care of her, and she will take care of us."

On the other hand, @palettes_and_punchlines wrote, "That's awesome. I feel like as we get older, more and more things take space in our brains, and we forget simple wonders like this! I totally forgot! @petitlavieve revealed, "The beautiful philosophical thing about this is literal hibernation. The tree takes its rest after a full two seasons of 'being put there'. He saves his energy and is smart enough not to waste it on hard work."