- If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact. This is because the sunlight takes around 8 minutes to reach the earth.
- Our universe consists of more than 100 billion galaxies, and each galaxy, on average contains more that 100 billion stars, which accounts for more than 10 billion trillion stars i.e. 1 followed by 22 zeros.
- The Earth is rotating on its axis at a rate of 0.5 kilometer per second at the equator, and is orbiting the sun at a rate of about 30 kilometers per second. The sun is orbiting the centre of the Milky Way at a rate of about 220 kilometres per second.
- Even on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 100,000,000,000 in our galaxy alone!
- Its estimated that the number of stars in the universe is greater than the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in the world! On a clear night, we can see the equivalent of a handful of sand.
- Mars hosts the highest peak in the solar system, named Olympus Mons, with a height of around 80,000 feet(2400 meters) which is more than 2.5 times the height of mount everest.
- The sun, when it becomes red giant, in 5 billion years, will expand to a size that it will engulf the orbit of venus, in 5 billion years.
- There are approximately 10,000 pieces of equipment revolving around the earth. About 3,000 of these pieces are satellites, the rest are odd bits of Debris.
- A huge asteroid slammed into Earth 65 million years ago. The ensuing global climatic catastrophe left 70 percent of all the world's species extinct, including the ferocious dinosaurs.
- 1 million earths can be fit in the sun, 1300 earths can be fit in jupiter, 800 earths can be fit in saturn.
- The moon is moving away from earth at a rate of 3 centimeters per year.
- 99% of our solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun.
- The star Betelgeuse, a bright star in the constellation of Orion, is estimated to have a diameter of around 700 million miles. If it were placed at the centre of our solar system, it would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter, engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
- The asteroid "Aphophis" will come close enough to Earth to dip below our communication satellites on 13th April,2029. It returns on 13th April 2036.
- NASA ruledout the possiblility of the asteroid Aphophis hitting the Earth on 13th April, 2036, because the chances of the asteroid hitting the earth is calculated to be 1 in 45,000. The chances will increase if the asteroid moves through a region in space called keyhole when it comes close to the earth on 13th April, 2029.
- The moon actually has mirrors on it. They were left there by astronauts who wanted to bounce laser beams off them, so that the distance to the moon can be measured.
- For 186 days you can not see the sun in the North Pole.
- In Spit Bergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.
- Jupiter is heavier than all the other planets put together.
- If you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) it would still take 100,000 years to cross our galaxy!
- Venus is the brightest object in the night sky, next only to theMoon.
- Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the Universe.
- Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.
- About 25% of the universe consists of "dark matter", and about 70% consists of "dark energy", leaving only about 5% of the universe visible to us.
- The matter in the universe is so thinly dispersed that the universe can be compared with a building twenty miles long, twenty miles wide, and twenty miles high, containing only a single grain of sand.
- Approximately 40,000 tons of meteoric dust hits the Earth each year.
- The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are visible to the naked eye.
- Our milkyway galaxy and our closest neighbour, the andromeda galaxy are on a collision course. In about 3 billion years, the two galaxies will collide with each other.
- NASA announces that water ice has been discovered near the landing site of the Phoenix Mars Lander on the planet Mars.
- Our Milkyway galaxy is 1,00,000 light years across and 20,000 light years thick at its center.
- Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, next only to the sun. It is at a distance of 4.24 light years.
- Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system.
- Sirius is the brighest star in the night sky.
|
