Amazing Facts - Planet/Earth Facts

UNIVERSE FACTS – SUN FACTS

• Our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11 billion years.
• Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.
• Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
• On its trip around the sun, the earth travels over a million and a half miles per day.
• No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.
• Lightning bolts can sometimes be hotter than the sun. (about 50 000º F)
• It takes only 8 minutes for sunlight to travel from the sun to the earth, which also means, if you see the sun go out, it actually went out 8 minutes ago.
• In Spit Bergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.
• In Newport, Rhode Island it is illegal to smoke from a pipe after sunset.
• In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.
• If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.
• For 186 days you can not see the sun in the North Pole.
• Every eleven years the magnetic poles of the sun switch. This cycle is called"Solarmax".
• Because of the speed at which the sun moves, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.
• Aztecs believed that the sun died every night and needed human blood to give it strength to rise the next day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to appease their sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Most of the victims were prisoners taken in wars, which were sometimes started solely to round up sacrificial victims.
• At the distance at which our sun is located from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Earth and the rest of our solar system are moving at a speed of about 170 miles per second around the center.
• At its center, the sun has a density of over a hundred times that of water, and a temperature of 10-20 million degrees Celsius.
• All the coal, oil, gas, and wood on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for a few days.
• An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles.
• Your fingernails can turn yellow from wearing nail polish and from the sun.
• If the entire solar system were the size of a quarter, the sun would be visible only under a microscope, and the nearest star would be 300 feet away.
• The Sun provides our planet with 126,000,000,000,000 horsepower of energy every day.
• If the earth were the size of a quarter, the sun would be as large as a 9 foot ball and would be located a football field distance from the earth.
• More than 1 million earths would fit inside the sun.
• 99% of our solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun.
• The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!

UNIVERSE FACTS – MOON FACTS

• The lunula is the half-moon shaped pale area at the bottom of finger nails.
• The term "honeymoon" is derived from the Babylonians who declared mead, a honey-flavored wine, the official wedding drink, stipulating that the bride's parents be required to keep the groom supplied with the drink for the month following the wedding.
• The Sea of tranquility is found on the moon.
• The saying 'once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one calendar month. The last two occurred in January & March 1999. The next one isn't until the end of 2001.
• 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.
• The Earths core is a ball of Iron-Nickel at 7,000 C and is 80% the size of the moon.
• Moon was Buzz Aldines mother’s maiden name. (Buzz Aldine was the second man on the moon).
• Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.
• Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto.
• It takes about 1.25 seconds for moonlight to reach the Earth.
• If you pile up the cans of Yeo's products, you would be able to reach the moon.
• If you fold a piece of A4 paper in half 44 times it will reach the moon
• All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean characters.
• A full moon is nine times brighter than a half moon.
• A manned rocket can reach the moon in less time than it used to take to travel the length of England by stagecoach.
• A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).
• The lunula is the half-moon shaped pale area at the bottom of finger nails.
• When the moon is directly over your head, you weigh slightly less.
• The moon weighs 81 billion tons.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

UNIVERSE FACTS – STAR FACTS

• There are more stars than all of the grains of sand on earth.
• You can see stars from the bottom of a well even in day light.
• Stars with really strong gravity cause themselves to become smaller and smaller and eventually turn into black holes.
• Stars come in different colors; hot stars give off blue light, and the cooler stars give off red light.
• In honor of the original thirteen states, the U.S. $1 bill has the following on the back: 13 steps on the pyramid. The motto above the pyramid has 13 letters (annuity coatis). E pluribus Unum, written on the ribbon in the eagle's beak, has 13 letters. 13 stars appear over the eagle's head. 13 stripes are on the shield. 13 war arrows are in the eagle's left talon.
• All of the stars comprising the Milky Way galaxy revolve around the center of the galaxy once every 200 million years or so.
• Until the mid sixteenth century, Comets were believed to be not astronomical phenomena, but burning vapors that had arisen from distant swamps and were propelled across the sky by fire and light.
• Our galaxy has approximately 250 billion stars and it is estimated by astronomers that there are 100 billion other galaxies in the universe.
• A galaxy of typical size, about 100 billion suns produces less energy than a single Quasar.
• A Comet's tail always points away from the sun.
• A Pulsar is a small star made up of neutrons so densely packed together that if one the size of a silver dollar landed on earth, it would weigh approximately 100 million tons.
• The Star Alpha Herculis is twenty five times larger than the circumference described by the earth's revolution around the sun. This means that twenty five diameters of our solar orbit would have to be placed end to end to equal the diameter of this Star.

UNIVERSE FACTS – PLANETS FACTS

• Uranus' axis is at 97 degrees. which means that it orbits on its side. (Most of the planets spin on an axis nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic but Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic.)
• The three most recently discovered planets were Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930.
• Mercury is the only planet whose orbit is coplanar with its equator. Venus and Uranus are the only planets that rotate opposite to the direction of their orbit.
• Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. Although it has a circumference of 280,000 miles compared with Earth's 25,000 Jupiter manages to make one turn in 9 hours and 55 minutes.
• If you are having problems remembering the planets in their correct order, just remember this sentence "My very educated mother justed served us nine pickles," Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
• According to scientists, Gold exists on Mars, Mercury, and Venus.
• Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and it doesn't have a moon. Its atmosphere is so thin that during the day the temperature reaches 750 degrees, but at night it gets down to -300 degrees.
• Saturn is a very windy place! Winds can reach up to 1,100 miles per hour. Saturn is also made of gas. If you could find an ocean large enough, it would float. This planet is famous for its beautiful rings, and has at least 18 moons.
• Uranus is the third largest planet, and is also made of gas. It's tilted on its side and spins north-south rather than east-west. Uranus has 15 moons.
• Neptune takes 165 Earth years to get around the sun. It appears blue because it is made of methane gas. Neptune also has a big Spot like Jupiter. Winds on Neptune get up to 1,200 mile per hour! Neptune has 8 moons.
• Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun... usually. It has such an unusual orbit that it is occasionally closer to the sun than Neptune. Pluto is made of rock and ice.
• Mars is nicknamed the "Red Planet," because it looks reddish in the night sky. Mars has 2 moons.
• Venus is nicknamed the "Jewel of the Sky." Because of the greenhouse effect, it is hotter than Mercury, even though it's not as close to the sun. Venus does not have a moon but it does have clouds of sulfuric acid!
• Jupiter is the largest planet. If Jupiter were hollow, you could fit 1000 earths inside! It is made up of gas and is not solid. The most famous feature on Jupiter is its Red Spot, which is actually an enormous hurricane that has been raging on Jupiter for hundreds of years! Sixteen moons orbit Jupiter.

UNIVERSE FACTS – EARTH FACTS

• Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.
• At one time the earth consisted of one land mass and a huge body of water. Geologists today call the land Pangaea (from the Greek words "all land" while the water was called Panthalassa (from the Greek words "all sea"). Between 180 and 200 million years ago, Pangaea split into two parts: Laurasia, which consisted of North America, Europe and Asia; and Gondwanaland, which consisted of Africa, South America, India, Antarctica and Australia.
• Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.
• Approximately 40,000 tons of meteoric dust hits the Earth each year.
• According to Hawaiian lore, the earth mother Papa mated with the sky father Wake to give birth to the Hawaiian Islands.
• About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice.
• A Red Giant(a kind of exploded star) has a lower density than any vacuum here on earth.
• A Blue Earth, Minnesota, law declares that no child under the age of twelve may talk over the telephone unless monitored by a parent.
• You would need to travel at 6.95 miles per second to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. This is equivalent to traveling from New York to Philadelphia in about twenty seconds.
• Venus rotates so slowly that in a typical day lasts approximately 244 Earth days (5,856 hours).
• If you dig in your backyard, don’t worry about running into the earth’s core. You’d have to dig a hole 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) deep!
• Some scientists believe that the earth began billions of years ago as a huge ball of swirling dust and gases.
• Some parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder.
• Earth weighs 5,972,000,000, 000,000,000, 000 tons.
• Earth is the only planet not named after a god.
• Some scientists believe that the earth began billions of years ago as a huge ball of swirling dust and gases. If you dig in your backyard, don’t worry about running into the earth’s core. You’d have to dig a hole 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) deep!
• Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!

UNIVERSE FACTS – OTHER UNIVERSE FACTS

• The universe is so vast in relation to the matter it contains that it can be compared in the following way: A building 20 miles long, 20 miles wide and 20 miles high that contains 1 grain of sand.
• The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3) oxygen.
• As late as 1820, the universe was thought to be 6,000 years old. It is now thought to be between 15 and 20 billion years old.
• Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the Universe.
• A bucket filled with earth would Weigh about five times more than the same bucket filled with the substance of the sun. However, the force of Gravity is so much greater on the sun that a man Weighing 150 pounds on our planet would Weigh 2 tons on the sun.
• A space vehicle must move at a rate of 7 miles per second to escape the earth's Gravitational pull. This is equivalent to going from New York to Philadelphia in about twenty seconds.
• 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.
• Astronomers believe that the universe contains one atome for every 88 gallons of space.