Amazing Facts about Space, Planets and Universe

 

125 Amazing Facts about Space, Planets and Universe

[Facts 1 to 25]

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• 1. Saturn's moon Titan has plenty of evidence of organic (life) chemicals in its atmosphere.

• 2. Life is known to exist only on Earth, but in 1986 NASA found what they thought might be fossils of microscopic living things in a rock from Mars.

• 3. Most scientists say life's basic chemicals formed on the Earth. The astronomer Fred Hoyle said they came from space.

• 4. Oxygen is circulated around the helmet in space suits in order to prevent the visor from misting.

• 5. The middle layers of space suits are blown up like a balloon to press against the astronaut's body. Without this pressure, the astronaut's body would boil!

• 6. The gloves included in the space suit have silicon rubber fingertips which allow the astronaut some sense of touch.

• 7. The full cost of a spacesuit is about $11 million although 70% of this is for the backpack and the control module.

• 8. Ever wondered how the pull of gravity is calculated between heavenly bodies? It's simple. Just multiply their masses together, and then divide the total by the square of the distance between them.

• 9. Glowing nebulae are named so because they give off a dim, red light, as the hydrogen gas in them is heated by radiation from the nearby stars.

• 10. The Drake Equation was proposed by astronomer Frank Drake to work out how many civilizations there could be in our galaxy - and the figure is in millions.

• 11. SETI is the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence - the program that analyzes radio signals from space for signs of intelligent life.

• 12. The Milky Way galaxy we live in: is one among the BILLIONS in space.

• 13. The Milky Way galaxy is whirling rapidly, spinning our sun and all its other stars at around 100 million km per hour.

• 14. The Sun travels around the galaxy once every 200 million years – a journey of 100,000 light years.

• 15. There may be a huge black hole in the very middle of the most of the galaxies.

• 16. The Universe is probably about 15 billion years old, but the estimations vary.

• 17. One problem with working out the age of the Universe is that there are stars in our galaxy which are thought to be 14 to 18 billion years old – older than the estimated age of the Universe. So, either the stars must be younger, or the Universe older.

• 18. The very furthest galaxies are spreading away from us at more than 90% of the speed of light.

• 19. The Universe was once thought to be everything that could ever exist, but recent theories about inflation (e.g. Big Bang) suggest our universe may be just one of countless bubbles of space time.

• 20. The Universe may have neither a centre nor an edge, because according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, gravity bends all of space time around into an endless curve.

• 21. If you fell into a black hole, you would stretch like spaghetti.

• 22. Matter spiraling into a black hole is torn apart and glows so brightly that it creates the brightest objects in the Universe – quasars.

• 23. The swirling gases around a black hole turn it into an electrical generator, making it spout jets of electricity billions of kilometers out into space.

• 24. The opposite of black holes are estimated to be white holes which spray out matter and light like fountains.

• 25. A day in Mercury lasts approximately as long as 59 days on earth.

source: http://www.amazingspacefacts.50webs.com 

 

Facts and figures about London Olympic opening ceremony

 

 

Sheep, nurses, Mr. Bean. With Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle at the helm of a creative team, the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony was held Friday at London's Olympic Stadium.

"This is for everyone" is the theme of the opening ceremony. Organizers said the ceremony celebrates the achievements of key figures from British history and the creativity, exuberance and generosity of the British people.

 

Following is the London Olympics opening ceremony by the numbers.

 

• Stage: 15,000 square meters of staging -- equivalent to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

 

• Audience: An estimated number of 4 billion global audience will watch the ceremonies (Olympic opening and closing, and Paralympic opening and closing).

 

• Volunteer: A total of 7,500 volunteers took part in a total of 284 rehearsals at two east London rehearsal sites and at the Stadium. The child volunteers were drawn from 25 schools. The 170 16-18 year olds, from six colleges.

 

• Animal: 40 sheep, 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 9 geese and 3 sheep dogs are involved in the scene -- looked after by 34 animal handlers.

 

• Music: 500 speakers and 50 tons of sound equipment were used in the ceremony.

 

• Costume: 40,000 recycled plastic water bottles and 10,000 recycled plastic bags are incorporated into the costumes.

 

• Technology: Among the most exciting new ideas are the "audience pixels." The pixel screen extends around the audience seating area and is made up of 70,799 small panels mounted between the seats. Each of these panels has nine LED pixels -- there are nearly 640,000 in total -- which are controlled by a central computer.

 

• Olympic Rings: The five Olympic Rings were launched into space carried by four balloons. By the end of the ceremony, the rings will have reached the stratosphere.

 

 

• British meadow: The meadow built at the center of the stadium uses 7,346 square meters of real turf, including crops.

 

• Beds: 320 beds were used in a segment of the show, which honored two of Britain's greatest achievements: its amazing body of children's literature and its National health Service. Almost all the 600 volunteer dancers in this segment work for the NHS.

 

• Mini Cooper: One Mini Cooper car was used in the opening show.

 

• Litter drop: A helicopter dropped 7 billion tiny pieces of paper on the stadium -- one for each person on the planet.

 

 

 

 

Did You Know? (height)

 

Did You Know?

(height)

 

• Did you know the typical wave height from Pacific tsunami is between 6 - 9 metres

 

• Did you know clouds fly higher during the day than the night

 

• Did you know when born a baby giraffe is 1.8m (6ft) tall

 

• Did you know Mount Everest is 8.9km (5.5 miles) high

 

• Did you know the tallest mammal is the giraffe

 

• Did you know a newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in tall

 

• Did you know the Eiffel Tower is over 300m (984 ft) tall

 

• Did you know banana plants can grow as high as 6 meters (20 feet) tall

 

• Did you know acrophobia is the fear of heights

 

• Did you know an astronaut can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space (the cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity)

 

 

Source: Did-You-Knows.com