27 Interesting Facts about the Universe

How to get rid of the waste from space toilets? What object in the solar system is the largest? How fast is the solar system moving in space? What is the “gravity assist maneuver”?

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1. Hurricane on Jupiter lasted at least 300 years. It was 300 years ago that people invented the telescope, which allowed them to see the hurricane, but it could have started even earlier.
   If Saturn were hollow, it could fit 764 planets the size of the Earth inside it.
2. Solid waste from space toilets on spaceships is compressed and sent to the Earth. Liquid wastes are thrown into space.
3. The sun is not the largest object in the solar system; Holmes comet is larger. Although the solid part of the comet is only 3.6 miles wide, its shell (representing a cloud of dust and gas) is greater than the sun.
4. The moon moves away from the Earth for approximately 4 centimeters per year.
5. If you weigh 45 kilos on the Earth, your weight on Mars will be only 17 kilos because of the difference in gravity. On Mars you will not have to keep to a diet!
6. If you happen to fall right into a black hole and stay awake, you’ll keep falling all the time – time will actually stop, so you’ll never be able to fall anywhere!
7. Some scholars suggest that there is a zone at the distance of 50 kilometers above the surface in the atmosphere of Venus where life could exist. This refers not to people or animals, but to tiny microorganisms.
8. In 2007, scientists connected the telescopes in China, Europe and Australia via the Internet to create a single telescope, covering half of the Earth.
9. Enceladus is the satellite of Saturn where ice volcanoes spew water.
10. In 2007, Holmes 17/P comet became one million times brighter within 36 hours!
11. The solar system is moving at the speed of 237 kilometers per second, almost in the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
12. A day on Neptune lasts only 19 Earth hours, but a year on this planet is equal to 165 Earth years – it consists of 75 thousand days here.
13. It is assumed that the temperature of the atmosphere on the dwarf planet Pluto ranges from minus 240 to minus 210 degrees Celsius. You will need warm clothes if you want to come here some day!
14. To increase the speed without wasting fuel, spaceships often use the gravity of the planets as a kind of slingshot: the ship starts to spin very rapidly around the planet, and after some time it is “thrown” into space. This is called “gravity assist maneuver.”
15. Under zero gravity circumstances, all the blood is collected in the upper part of the body.
16. Some astronomers believe that there rotates a small space object called a brown dwarf at the distance 50 thousand times bigger than the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It was named Nemesis, or “Death Star”.
17. Scientists believe they have found a “hole” in the universe. Perhaps this proves that there is another universe.
18. A typical galaxy consists of 100 billion stars.
19. During two weeks, the sun burns as much energy as has ever been stored in all the coal, gas and oil reserves on the Earth!
20. Fragments from the explosion of the Crab Nebula still roam the universe at the speed of 1.8 thousand kilometers per second.
21. Saturn is the planet with the smallest density – it could easily float on water!
22. For the Earth not to get fried when the Sun increases in size, we could drag it to Pluto. Using the energy of the comet, we could gradually drag the Earth away from the sun. Some scientists believe that in a few billion years we would have moved the Earth for 80 million kilometers away.
23. If you could have dived into the black hole for as much as 161 kilometers deep, you would have got heated to the temperature of more than 2 billion degrees Celsius!
24. The highest volcano in the solar system is called “Mount Olympus”. Its peak is at the altitude of 27 kilometers above the Martian surface.
25. Some of the stones that you find on the ground are in fact pieces of the planet Mars, which have fallen from the sky!
26. Every atom in your body has once been part of a star.
    The Earth’s core is the same size as the moon.
27. A huge cloud of gas at the center of our galaxy consists of gaseous alcohol. To get a glass of wine from it, you will need to take a piece the size of the Earth!