Various Interesting Facts About The Universe

[kleong 0]

Nice and amazing facts that you have. This is what makes the Universe, in particular Earth, such a interesting place to be in. Maybe we should rename the title to amazing facts on Earth or maybe start a new thread on it.

[Alex Cicala 0]

Facts about our the universe, aka SPACE [hence the word universe in topic title]

 

Saturn's Rings

 

The density of Saturn is so low that if you were to put it in a giant glass of water it would float. The actual density of Saturn is 0.687 g/cm3 while the density of water is 0.998 g/cm3.

 

We are moving through space at 530km a second

 

The Milky Way is spinning at a rate of 225 kilometers per second. Also it is traveling through space at the rate of 305 kilometers per second. This means that we are traveling at a total speed of 530 kilometers (330 miles) per second. That means that in one minute you are about 19 thousand kilometers away from where you were. Scientists do not all agree on the speed with which the Milky Way is travelling - estimates range from 130 - 1,000 km/s. It should be said that Einsteins theory of relativity, the velocity of any object through space is not meaningful.

The moon is drifting away from Earth

 

Every year the moon moves about 3.8cm further away from the Earth. This is caused by tidal effects. Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century. Scientists do not know how the moon was created, but the generally accepted theory suggests that a large Mars sized object hit the earth causing the Moon to splinter off.

 

 

The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old

 

The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago - it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun! The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 kelvins, which in short is very hot. It would destroy your atoms pretty much. All of the energy produced by fusion in the core must travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight or kinetic energy of particles.

The Sun loses up to a billion kilograms a second due to solar winds

 

Solar winds are charged particles that are ejected from the upper surface of the sun due to the high temperature of the corona and the high kinetic energy particles gain through a process that is not well understood at this time. Also, did you know that 1 pinhead of the suns energy is enough to kill a person at a distance of 160 kilometers? [sourced from Planet Science]

Uranus was originally called Georges Star

 

When Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he was given the honor of naming it. He chose to name it Georgium Sidus (Georges Star) after his new patron, King George III (Mad King George). This is what he said:

In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, In the reign of King George the Third.

Uranus was also the first planet to be discovered with the use of a telescope.

 

Earth has at least 4 moons

 

Okay - that is not actually true - but it is very close. In 1986, Duncan Waldron discovered a asteroid (5km across) that is in an elliptic orbit around the sun with a period of revolution virtually identical to that of Earth. For this reason the planetoid and earth appear to be following each other. The periodic planetoid is named Cruithne (pronounced krin-yə) after an ancient group of Scottish people (also known as the Picts). Because of its unusual relationship with Earth, it is sometimes referred to as Earths second moon. Cruithne, is fainter than Pluto and would require at least a 12.5 inch reflecting telescope to attempt to be seen. Since its discovery, at least three other similar asteroids have been discovered. These types of objects are also found in similar relationships to other planets in our Solar System. In the image above (courtesy of Paul Wiegert), the earth is the blue circle with a cross in it, and Cruithnes orbit is shown in yellow.

Metalic Welding

 

If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently stuck together

 

This may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form in to one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesnt happen on earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces. This might seem like it would be a big problem on the space station but as most tools used there have come from earth, they are already coated with material. In fact, the only evidence of this seen so far has been in experiments designed to provoke the reaction. This process is called cold welding.

 

 

Also some more things about space,

 

* Any free-moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere, because of its surface tension.

* Mercury, Venus, earth and Mars are called the inner planets as they are closest to the sun!

* December 21st 1968, was the first time that humans truly left Earth, when Apollo 8 became the first manned space vehicle to leave Earth orbit and to orbit the Moon.

* Olympus Mons, a volcano found on Mars, is the largest volcano found in solar system. It is 370 miles (595 km) across and rises 15 miles (24 km).

* We know more about space than we do about our deep oceans!

* The space age began on the 4th October 1957.

* If you attempted to count all the stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.

* The one and only satellite that Britain has launched was called Black Arrow.

* The odds of being killed by space debris - 1 in 5 billion.

* The Earth's revolution time increases .0001 seconds annually.

* Driving at 75 miles (121 km) per hour, it would take 258 days to drive around one of Saturn's rings.

* Astronaut Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) first stepped on the moon with his left foot.

* "Moon" was Buzz Aldrin's (second man on the moon) mother's maiden name.

* The first conventional use for rockets was rocket mail and catching whales and deer.

* The only married couple to fly together in space were Jan Davis and Mark Lee, who flew aboard the Endeavour space shuttle from September 12-20, 1992.

* The first millennium, 1 - 1000 AD, consisted of 365,250 days. Our current millennium, 1001 - 2000 AD, will consist of 365,237 days. The third millennium, 2001 - 3000 AD, will consist of 365,242 days. The reason for the differences is the calendar system that was in use during the milleniums.

* If you shouted in space even if someone was right next to you they wouldn't be able to hear you.

* Feb 1865 and Feb 1999 are the only months in recorded history not to have a full moon.

* The first man-made satellite in space was called sputnik.

* Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

* Just 20 seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.

* The first woman in space was a Russian called Valentina Tereshkova.

* One Day on the planet Pluto is about the length of a week on Earth.

[rogerthecamel 1]

Well you really outdid everyone there cicala. Just one question

Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century

What does per day per century mean? Shouldn't it be one or the other. Unless somehow it only increases on one day of those 100 years.
I found an interesting way to measure the speed of light using a microwave and marshmellows:

The activity requires a microwave oven, a microwave-safe casserole dish, a bag of marshmallows, and a ruler. (The oven must be of the type that has no mechanical motion-no turntable or rotating mirror. If there is a turn-table, remove it first.) First, open the marshmallows and place them in the casserole dish, completely covering it with a layer one marshmallow thick. Next, put the dish of marshmallows in the microwave and cook on low heat. Microwaves do not cook evenly and the marshmallows will begin to melt at the hottest spots in the microwave. (I leaned this from our Food Science teacher Anita Cornwall.) Heat the marshmallows until they begin to melt in four or five different spots. Remove the dish from the microwave and observe the melted spots. Take the ruler and measure the distance between the melted spots. You will find that one distance repeats over and over. This distance will correspond to half the wavelength of the microwave, about 6 cm. Now turn the oven around and look for a small sign that gives you the frequency of the microwave. Most commercial microwaves operate at 2450 MHz.
All you do now is multiply the frequency by the wavelength. The product is the speed of light.

Example:

Velocity = Frequency x Wavelength

Velocity = 2450 MHz x 0.122 m

Velocity = 2.99 x 10^8 m/s

[Gravity17 0]

Only you would know about those facts lol and basically anything is legal in amsterdam and if you traveled faster then light the question is can you travel negative that amount to get back to where you came from?

[Saint_Michael 3]

Oooh another one I found out awhile ago, in 3 billion years earth and Venus could collide, now how they came up with that one I never know. Either way, with the Milky Way and Andromeda clashing together in less the time I don't think it would even matter if that happens, besides our universe is expanding and so it would be interesting why these two planets would collide though.