10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Stars!!

There are lots of stars in this universe and we don't know much about them. Here are 10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Stars.

1)The Largest Star (radius)-

The largest star in the known Universe is UY Scuti. Its radius is 1,708±192 R_☉. It is a little larger than VY Canis Majoris in terms of radius. It is 10 times more massive than our Sun.

2)The Most Massive Star (mass)-

The most massive star in the known Universe is R136a1. It's mass is 315 Solar masses. It is about 163,000 light years away from the Earth.

3)Twinkling? 

Many people say that Stars twinkle. but that is not true. Stars appear to be twinkling because of our atmosphere. Our atmosphere deflects the light from the Stars which cause the effect.

4)Composition-

Most of the Stars are made up hydrogen. This hydrogen is converted to helium during a process called nuclear fusion. This process realises all the heat and light.

5)So many of them-

There are approximately 300-400 billion stars in the Milky Way alone! With our naked eyes we can see up to 30,000,000,000,000,000 km away very easily if the sky is clear without pollution. 

6)So Bright-

The Star R136a1 is the brightest star in the known Universe. It emits as much radiation in 5 seconds that our Sun does in a single day!

7)We can see the Past?
When we look at Stars, we look back in time! This is because it takes hundreds or even thousands of years for light from the stars to reach Earth!

8)Binary Stars-
Most of the Stars that we see in the sky are not single stars but binary stars. These are so far away that they appear as a single spec of light.

9)Always being big not good-
The larger the star is the shorter is it's life span! Massive stars have more hydrogen but they have shorter life spans because they use up the energy much faster than smaller stars.

10)So much energy-
The Sun produces energy equal to 100 billion hydrogen bombs every second!!! The Sun converts 4 million metric tons of hydrogen atoms to energy. If all of this energy could be harnessed, it would sustain the needs of humankind for 5,000,000 years!!!
10 Crazy Things You Didn't Know About The SUN !!!

Comment below which one of these your favourite one was :)

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10 Space Facts That Will Both TERRIFY And AMAZE You!

Space is vast and there is a lot that we don't know about space. I present to you 10 Space Facts That Will Both TERRIFY And AMAZE You!

1)Gamma Ray Bursts-

These are the most powerful type of explosions in the Universe. Gamma ray bursts are strong extremely high frequency bursts of radiation that carry as much energy as our Sun will give of in its entire life span. If one of these rays were to hit earth it could strip the atmosphere in seconds.

2)Rogue Planets-
Launched into space after the formation of their planetary system. Rogue planets are free to roam the universe. Because they do not orbit a star , rogue planets often have freezing surface temperatures.  however due to the molten core,  some scientists believe that they might have  oceans that support life.

3)Extreme Temperatures-
Depending on where you are in space , chances are that you will find yourself in extreme situations. The heat put of by a supernova can reach up to 50 million degree Celsius or more. Five times that of a nuclear bomb. On the other hand, some planets could be  as cold as -270 degree Celsius just above absolute zero!

4)Magnetars-
 Magnetars are extremely dense neutron stars . in fact they are an entire star crushed into a ball only 25 kilometres across! They are also the hosts of the strongest magnetic field in the known universe.  This field is so strong that if anything comes too close it is ripped apart at the atomic level!

5)Venus-
Despite getting it's name from the Roman goddess of  'love', is perhaps the most hellish planet in our Solar System. With surface temperatures of nearly 490 degree Celsius, atmospheric pressure of nearly 90 times that of Earth and constant sulfuric acid rain, simply landing there will kill you in seconds.

6)Dark Matter and Dark Energy-
 We know very little about our Universe . In fact, we've only seen less than 5% of the stuff that is made of . The Other 95 percent is dark matter and dark energy. About 25% of the universe is made of dark matter, mass that we cannot see or find but it  must be there due to its effects on its surroundings .The rest of the universe is dark energy, the true nature it is mostly unknown. however we are pretty sure that it plays a crucial role in the expansion of the universe.

  7)Expanding Sun-
Our Sun is constantly undergoing nuclear fusion to combine Hydrogen and Helium together in order to keep itself burning. However its hydrogen is not infinite. As it gets used up the sun will get hotter and hotter. Eventually it will get so hot that our atmosphere will burn away and our oceans will vaporize. once all the hydrogen is gone the sun will expand and become a red giant consuming the Earth once and for all.

8)Hypernova-
It has 100 times the energy of a standard Supernova. These only occur after the death of a massive star. We know that the result of this often a black hole or neutron star. 

9)Time Dialation-
Lets imagine an astronaut traveling in space at speeds near that of light. Now imagine a person on Earth. Einstein’s theory of special relativity says that, the astronaut will experience time much slower than the person on Earth. When the astronaut returns home, even if it has been years on earth since he left, he will have only aged a little. This is known as time dilation, we have seen instances of it while studying high-speed particles in a lab.

10)The Big Crunch/Big Rip-
Everything has to come to an end. Scientists agree that there will most likely be a determinate end to the universe, but how it will happen is still not known. Some scientists say that there will be a big crunch, in which the gravitational forces in the universe will reach its limit , dark energy will overthrow gravity and cause the entire universe to stop expanding eventually converging into a single, infinitely tiny point before disappearing into nothingness. Some scientists have devised a  theory, known as the big rip, which states that the universe will expand to the point that gravity loses all meaning and the cosmos literally gets torn to pieces, even the subatomic particles eventually will get separated from each other.

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7 Impossible Things That Can Happen On Other Planets!

There are some things that are just not possible on our planet. You would think that if it is impossible
on Earth , it would also be on other planets. But its not true , the Universe is far stranger than anyone can believe. Lets begin.

1)Shadows-

You have a lonely shadow. You're also used to seeing everyone else with one shadow. But it is not a universal thing that would be experienced everywhere. You have one shadow because our primary source of light is the Sun . But if a planet would be orbiting 2 Stars , it would experience 2 shadows.

This was considered science-fiction until Kepler 16-B was discovered. It orbits 2 stars! It would mean that you would have 2 different shadows if you were teleported there!

2)A Water Ball-

GJ1214-b is a water planet which is likely completely covered in water! The ocean planet is several times larger than the Earth. We know that water covers 70% of the Earth's surface but is only 0.05% of the Earth's total mass. On GJ1214-b , water may account for more than 10% of the planet's mass!

Our ocean's are only 11km deep but their could be up to 100s of km deep!!

3)Ice 7-

Again we take GJ1214-b. At the ocean bed would be an exotic form of ice known as Ice 7 . Due to the extreme pressure of the ocean the water would be compressed to a solid state . But it wouldn't be like normal ice . It wouldn't be cold! We are unlucky that this doesn't happen on Earth.

4)Rock Rain!- 

The weather on Earth may seem violent but it is nothing when compared to other planets. Lets take COROT-7b for example, where instead of raining water it rains Rocks!!! This is because the temperature on one half of the planet is 2600℃ , whereas the other side is only 177℃ . The temperature on the hot side is enough to vaporize rocks. And when the 'rock clouds' reach the cool side , the rocks solidify and fall down . Just like on Earth , but instead of water , rocks.  

5)Glass Rain!-

The planet HD189773-b is a little larger than Jupiter. Winds on this plants reach up to 5,600 mph or 2km/s of speed. It is 7 times the speed of sound itself! But that's not the thing that you should be sacred about. The planet rains glass sideways in it's extremely violent winds of 2km/s. It is so fast and scary that if a storm like that happened on Earth , it would travel across the entire planet in just 5 hours and 53 minutes!

6)Wicked wind- 

The planet HD1897734-b has extremely, wickedly, fast wind, possibly up to 22,000mph or 10km/s or nearly 29 times the speed of sound itself!!! For reference , the fastest wind recorded on Earth was only 301 mph or 73 times less than that nightmare storm!

7)Methane for days!- 

Titan which is a moon of Saturn, has rivers , lakes  and it even rains like on Earth. But its temperature is only -179℃ , which is so cold that water would be as hard as rocks. Methane exists in a liquid state filling all the lakes , rivers and clouds. It is the main component of Natural Gas. There is 100 times more Natural Gas and Oil on Titan than it is on Earth! 

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7 Sneaky Lies You Were Told About Space !

You might think that your knowledge of space is true , is it? Lets find out.

1) Lie-The Sun is Yellow.

    Truth- The Sun is actually white. The reason why it appears to be yellow most of the times is                           because of the distortion from our atmosphere.

2) Lie-Your Mobile uses Satellites. 

    Truth- No, 99% of the communications travel via land based towers or undersea cables.

3) Lie-It would be dangerous to fly through the asteroid belt.

    Truth-However, the truth is that if you did actually fly through an asteroid belt , you wouldn't  

                even notice. Between each asteroid there is approximately 600,000 km of empty space.

4) Lie-Space is cold.

    Truth-Space is actually temperature-less i.e. it doesn't have temperature. You see temperature of                     an object is actually how much its atoms are excited. There are no atoms in Space , making                 it temperature-less.

5) Lie-You can hear explosions in space.

    Truth-Actually you can't hear anything in space because there is no medium for the sound to                          travel through.

6)Lie-The Sun is a big ball of fire.

   Truth- Nope , there isn't any fire in the Sun. Fire requires oxygen , but the Sun is mostly comprised                 of hydrogen and helium. The heat of the Sun comes from Nuclear Fusion in the Sun. The                     pressure and temperature in the Sun's core cause the hydrogen atoms to fuse together into                     helium atoms. This process gives of the intense heat and light of the Sun.

7)Lie- All the planets orbit the Sun!
   Truth-Every object exerts force on every other object, which means that not only does the Sun's                    gravity affect the Earth's motion but the Earth's gravity affects the Sun's motion.                                  Technically both objects orbit around a point called the barycenter. For Earth this point is so                close to the Sun's core that it doesn't make much difference. For Jupiter, however, the                          barycenter is roughly 50,000 km away from the Sun's surface. So in some sense we're all                      orbiting around each other.  

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5 Incredible Things You Didn't Know About Our Moon!

Below we have 5 incredible things about our Moon !

1)Moonbows!-

Moonbows or lunar rainbows are rainbows caused by light reflecting off the moon. They often appear white , as the light is too faint for the human eyes.

2)Bye bye -

The moon is actually moving away from the earth. It spins away at 3.78 cm a year - the rate at which your fingernails grow.

3)Formation-

It is believed that when Theia, a mars like planet crashed into Earth , the Moon was created , as it is very unlikely for an Earth sized planet to have a Moon this big!

4) Very Far !-

The Moon is 384,400 Km away from the Earth. It might not seem much , but all the planets can fit in that gap!!.

 5)Weight-

On the moon , you weigh just 16.5% of what your weight is on Earth. For example, if you weigh 60 kg on Earth you would just weigh 9.9 kg on the moon!

Thanks for reading this post , comment below which one you liked the most!

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10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About The Milky Way Galaxy!!

Below we have 10 amazing things about the Milky Way Galaxy! 

1) Shape -

There are 4 types of galaxies. Elliptical, Lenticular, Irregular and Spiral. The Milky Way is a
Barred Spiral Galaxy. It has a band of stars in its centre which makes it different from a Typical Spiral Galaxy.

2)Supermassive Black Hole-
In its centre lies Sagittarius A*, a Supermassive Black Hole with the mass of 4.6 million suns!!!

3)Age-
Some astronomers say that the Milky Way Galaxy is 800 million years old , while some believe that it is 13.5 billion years old!

4)Size-
Its's diameter is considered to be 120,000 light years! In simple terms , it takes light 120,000 years to go from one end of the galaxy to the other! The thickness of the disc is assumed to be 1,000 light years.

5)Number of Stars-
There are between 100 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy! At night there are about 2,500 stars visible to the naked eye , considering there is no pollution.

6)Death- 
The Milky Way is set to collide with the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy in 4 billion years.There is a 12% chance that our Solar System will be ejected from the merged galaxy.

Below is a simulation of that happening.
In the simulation the blue galaxy is our Milky Way. While the yellow one is Andromeda.

Note: This simulation is running with the speed of 1 Million years per second.




7)Galactic Year-
It is the amount of time taken for our Solar System to orbit the Milky Way. 1 orbit takes 226 million years! Just 0.0008 orbits have been completed since humans evolved from apes.

8)The Drake Equation-
The Drake Equation is used to estimate the number of intelligent alien species in the galaxy. Recent calculations indicate somewhere between 0 to 15,786 potential alien societies.

9)So much Alcohol-
The Milky Way galaxy contains Sagittarius B2 cloud which has 10 billion , billion, billion litres of alcohol!!
It may also smell like rum and taste like raspberries as it contains ethyl formate.

10)Earth's twin-
The most Earth like planet in the galaxy was discovered in 2014 and is called Kepler-186f. It is 10 % bigger than Earth and is in the habitable zone , it could have liquid water !

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10 Strange things you didn't know about Earth !!

Below we have 10 strange about Earth-

1)There are not 24 hours in a day!-

Ever since you were in school , you where taught that there are 24 hours in a day. Well that's not true . The Earth completes its rotation in 23 hours 56 minutes. Eventually the time will catch up and the days will last longer because the Earth's rotation continues to slow down.

2)How was the Ocean Salt created?-

Everyone knows that there is salt in the oceans but how was it created? The salt comes from the rocks on the shores of the ocean. Rainwater is naturally acidic and it causes the rocks to break down. The components are then distributed into the water.

3)Earth had a twin!-

There is a theory that when the earth was developing there was a smaller twin planet nearby named Theia . It was about the size of Mars . 4 billion years ago it crashed into the Earth and most of it was absorbed into the Earth's crust . The rest of the planet drifted off and eventually became our Moon.

4)There are Exploding Lakes on Earth!-

There are 3 lakes in Cameroon, Nyos and Kivu. They're located on the border of the Congo and they are often know as the exploding lakes. Carbon Dioxide still explodes from these lakes!

5)Supercontinent -

When dinosaurs roamed the Earth there was a supercontinent called the Pangaea.It was a landmass that joined all of the countries. It later got separated because of Earthquakes. After 250 million years there will be another supercontinent called Pangaea Ultima!

6)The Earth is not round - 

No I'm not saying that the Earth is flat. It is not a perfect circle . There is a bulge in the Equator that stretches about 32 Kilometers/ 20 miles out. This gives the Earth a roundish shape. Don't worry you wont fall of.

7)There is Gold Underwater-

At the bottom of the Earth's ocean there are 20 Million Tons of Gold!!! The only reason that nobody attempted to get the gold is that 1 litre of water contains just 13 billionths of a gram of gold. If it was possible to get gold from the ocean there would be enough for every person on Earth to get 4 kgs of it.

8)Uneven Gravity -

Some people believe that Gravity is distributed equally on Earth , but there are some places like the 

Hudson Bay in Canda that actually experience less gravity than other places around the Earth.

9)Underwater Mountain Range-

The longest mountain range on Earth is actually 90% underwater. It is called the mid-ocean ridge system and was formed by the movement of plate tectonics. It stretches for 80,000 kilometres!

10)Geomagnetic Reversal-

Earth's inner core is slowly growing , as the outer core cools and solidifies, resulting in more frequent flips on the Earth's Magnetic Field. This means that North shown in the compass would be actually 

South and South on the compass will be North!

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10 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn't Know About Black Holes !

Below we have 10 mind-blowing facts about black holes -

1)You can’t directly see a black hole -

 Because of it's immense gravitational force- no light can escape from it . It is impossible for us to feel the hole directly through our instruments, regardless of the type of electromagnetic radiation you use (light, X-rays, whatever.) The key is to look at the effects of the black hole on the neighbouring environment, stresses NASA. Let's say a star is too close to the black hole, for example. The black hole shoots naturally on the star and rips it into shreds. When the matter of the star begins to move towards the black hole, it becomes faster, gets hotter and glows brightly in the X-rays.

2)Look out! Our Milky Way has a black hole -

A subsequent natural question is given how dangerous a black hole is, is the Earth in imminent danger of being swallowed? The answer is no, astronomers say, although there is probably a huge supermassive black hole lurking in the middle of our galaxy. Fortunately, we are far from this monster, we are about two thirds of the way out of the center, compared to the rest of our galaxy, but we can certainly observe its effects from afar. For example: the European Space Agency says it is 4 million times more massive than our sun, and is surrounded by surprisingly hot gas.

3)Dying stars create black holes-

Let's say you have a star that is about 20 times more massive than the sun. Our sun will put an end to its life quietly; When its nuclear fuel burns, it will slowly fade into a white dwarf. This is not the case for much more massive stars. When these monsters run out of fuel, gravity will overwhelm the natural pressure of the star maintains to keep its shape stable. When the pressure of nuclear reactions collapses, Gravity submerges violently and collapses the nucleus and other layers are thrown into space. It's called a supernova. The remaining nucleus collapses into a singularity - a spot with infinite density and almost no volume. It is another name for a black hole.

4)Black holes come in a range of sizes-

There are at least three types of black holes, says Nasa, ranging from squeaks relative to those dominating a center of the galaxy. The primal black holes are the smallest, and range from the size of an atom to the mass of a mountain. Stellar black holes, the most common type, are up to 20 times more massive than our own sun and are probably sprinkled in the dozens in the Milky Way. And then there are the gigantic in the centers of galaxies, called "supermassive black holes". They are each more than 1 million times more massive than the sun. How these monsters formed is still being examined.

5)Weird time stuff happens around black holes.

This is best illustrated by one person (call him A) falling into a black hole while another person (call them B) watches. From B’s perspective, A's clock appears to be ticking slower and slower . This is in accordance with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which (in short) says that time is affected by how fast we go, when you’re at extreme speeds close to light. The black hole warps time and space so much that A’s time appears to be running slower. From B’s perspective, however, his clock is running normally and Lucky’s is running fast.

6)The first black hole wasn’t discovered until X-ray astronomy was used-

Cygnus X-1 was found during balloon flights in the 1960s, but wasn’t identified as a black hole for another decade. According to NASA, the black hole is 10 times more massive than our Sun. Nearby is a blue supergiant star that is about 20 times more massive than the Sun, which is bleeding due to the black hole and creating X-ray emissions.

Illustration of Cygnus X-1, another stellar-mass black hole located 6070 ly away. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

7)The nearest black hole is likely not 1,600 light-years away-

An erroneous measurement of V4641 Sagitarii led to a slew of news reports 10 years back saying that the nearest black hole to Earth was astoundingly close, just 1,600 light-years away. Not close enough to be considered dangerous, but way closer than we thought. Further research, however, shows that the black hole is likely further away than that. Looking at the rotation of its companion star , yielded a result of more than 20,000 light years.

8)We aren’t sure if wormholes exist-

A popular science-fiction theory concerns what happens if somebody falls into a black hole. Some people believe these objects are a sort of wormhole to other parts of the Universe, making faster-than-light travel possible. But as this Smithsonian Magazine article points out, anything is possible since we still have a lot to figure out about physics. “Since we do not yet have a theory that reliably unifies general relativity with quantum mechanics, we do not know of the entire zoo of possible spacetime structures that could accommodate wormholes,” said Abi Loeb, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Diagram of a wormhole, or theoretical shortcut path between two locations in the universe. Credit: Wikipedia

Fact 9: Black holes are only dangerous if you get too close-

It’s okay to observe a black hole if you stay away from its event horizon — think of it like the gravitational field of a planet. This zone is the point of no return, when you’re too close for any hope of rescue. But you can safely observe the black hole from outside of this area. By extension, this means it’s likely impossible for a black hole to swallow up everything in the Universe.

Fact 10: Black holes are used all the time in science fiction-

There are so many films and movies using black holes, for example, that it’s impossible to list them all. Interstellar‘s journeys through the universe includes a close-up look at a black hole. Event Horizon explores the phenomenon of artificial black holes — something that is also discussed in the Star Trek universe. Black holes are also talked about in Battlestar: Galactica, Stargate: SG1 and many other space shows.

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10 Crazy Things You Didn't Know About The SUN !!!

You probably didn't know about these things -

1)Tidal Energy-

   The Sun accounts for 44% tidal energy
 of the Earth!! The moon accounts for the remainder.

2)Comet Tails-

    If it weren't for the Sun then comets wouldn't leave a trail of icy particles that always points away  

    from the Sun.

3)1 Million Years-

   It takes 1 million years for the energy of the Sun to reach it's surface from the core because of it's 

   density.

4)Green flashes-

  The Sun can also be green . This phenomena is known as Green Flashes and it is very rare. 

5)3 Minutes-

   If all the Sun's energy were directed at Earth, it would only take 3 minutes to melt the Earth's crust!

6)Age-

   Did you know that our Sun is 4.5 billion years old!

7)3 Eclipses-

   There are 3 types of solar eclipse: partial, annular, and total.

8)State of Matter-

    It is Plasma (not a solid, liquid, or gas).

9)Temperature of the Core-

   The temperature of the core is  28 million degrees Fahrenheit!

10)Atmosphere-

    Yes! The Sun's atmosphere is called the chromosphere and the corona.

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