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Saturday, October 15, 2011

Ten cool facts about Space and Universe

Very little about  outer space is know till now.  But there are some extra ordinary amazing facts about the outer space which everyone should know.   Here is a list of top 10 amazing facts about outer space.
  • If any two pieces of metals touch each other in space, they become permanently attached :  It is true that when two metal pieces will form into one piece when they touch in space or vacuum.  This happens without any welding work.  This process is called as Cold Welding.  Here is an article about cold welding in Wikipedia.
  • If Saturn is put in water, it will float :  The density of Saturn is very very low such that it will float if it is put in a giant glass of water.  The density of Saturn is 0.687 g/cm3 while the density of water is 0.998 g/cm3
  • We are constantly moving in space at the rate of 530 Kms per second :  The Milky Way is out Galaxy.  It is spinning at a rate of 225 kilometers per second.  In addition to the spin, our Galaxy is travelling through at a rate of 305 Km per second.   So we are travelling a total of 530 kilometers per second.  So in one minute, you will be 19,000 kilometers from the place where you were. 
  •  The moon is moving away from earth :  Our natural satellite, the moon is drifting away from us at a rate of 3.8 cm per year.   So one day the moon will be very far away from earth.
  • The light that we see now is 30,000 years old :  The light that is hitting earth right now was created more than 30,000 years ago.  This light started in the core of Sun 30,000 years ago.  It has spent most of the time passing through the dense atoms of the Sun and took only 8 minutes to reach earth from the surface of Sun.  The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 kelvins. 
  • Sun loses about a billion kilograms per second due to solar winds :  The solar winds are charged particles that are ejected from the surface of Sun due to its high temperature.  In this process Sun loses about a billion kilo grams per second.
  • The Big Dipper is not a constellation but it is an asterism :  The Big Dipper or the Sapthrashi mandal as it is traditionally called in India is not a constellation as considered by many people.  It is only an asterism.  An asterism is a pattern of stars in the sky which is not one of the official 88 constellations.  An asterism may consist of stars from different constellations.
  • Uranus was originally called George's Star : Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781.  At that time he was given the honor of naming the planet.  He has chosen to name it as Georgium Sidus ( George's Star) after the King George III.
  • Our planet Earth has at least four moons :  Even though it is not actually true, it is very close.  One Asteroid was discovered by Duncan in 1986.  This asteroid rotates in elliptical orbit around the sun with a period of revolution exactly equal to that of Earth.  For this reason, the asteroid and earth seems to be following each other.  The asteroid was named as Cruithne.  Because of its unusual relationship with earth, it was treated as second moon of earth.  After its discovery, three more asteroids were discovered. 
  • The Path of the moon's orbit around the earth will fit inside the sun :  The path of moon's rotation around earth would easily fit inside the sun.

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