UNIVERSE FACTS

 

                          UNIVERSE FACTS

Crab Nebula.
Credit: NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)

The brightest astronomical event in historic times was the supernova of 1054, which produced the Crab Nebula. The supernova was far brighter than Venus. It was bright enough to be visible in daylight and to cast a shadow at night. We know of it through the astronomical records of China, Japan, and the Middle East.
Since the invention of the telescope, no supernovae have been observed within our galaxy. Supernovae were recorded in 1572 and 1604, while Hans Lippershey invented the telescope in 1608 and Galileo was the first to turn his telescope skyward in 1609. The telescope was invented in 1608 when spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey's apprentice was playing games. The apprentice was amusing himself with lenses and found a combination that made things seem closer. When Lippershey was shown this combination, he enclosed the lenses at two ends of a tube. The philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was the first person to propose that what we now call galaxies lay outside the Milky Way and were indeed galaxies (or "island universes", as Kant called them) in their own right.

Also found in: As late as 1820, the universe was thought by European scientists to be 6,000 years old. It is now thought to be about 13,700,000,000 years old. The Earth is rotating on its axis at a rate of 460 metres per second at the equator, and is orbiting the sun at a rate of about 30 kilometres per second. The sun is orbiting the centre of the Milky Way at a rate of about 220 kilometres per second. The Milky Way is moving at a speed of about 1000 kilometres per second towards a region of space 150 million light years away called the Great Attractor.

Globular cluster M22.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Kailash Sahu (STScI)

It is possible that many planets in the galaxy may not orbit around stars. Recent work by Kailash Sahu found six gravitational lenses in the star cluster M22 from objects smaller than brown dwarfs, the smallest type of star. Only one gravitational lensing event by a star was found in the same work.

The Large Zenith Telescope (LZT), located near Vancouver, has a mirror made out of mercury. The telescope features 28 litres of mercury in a pan which spins, causing the mercury to assume a parabolic shape. The telescope only cost $500,000, about ¹/₁₀₀^th as much as a similarly-sized telescope with a glass mirror would cost. Its main disadvantage is that it can only look straight up - otherwise the poisonous mercury would spill.

A "light year" is a measure of distance, not time. It is defined as the distance light travels in one year. Light moves at a velocity of about 300,000 kilometres each second, so in one year, it travels about 9,500,000,000,000 kilometres.

Also found in:

While astronomers used to believe that galaxies were distributed more or less evenly through space, they have now found regions where galaxies are rare or absent. The largest of these regions is located in the direction of the constellation Bootes, and measures more than 300 million light years across.

The matter in the universe is so thinly dispersed that the universe can be compared with a building twenty miles long, twenty miles wide, and twenty miles high, containing only a single grain of sand.

The term "Big Bang" started as a putdown. In the 1940's, there were many competing theories about the nature of the universe. British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang" as a snide putdown of his competitors, only to have the term find its way into the general consciousness as the description of the correct theory.

A massive star has a shorter lifetime than a less massive star. The more massive a star, the more tightly its gravity pulls it together, the hotter it must be to keep it from collapsing, and the more rapidly it uses up its hydrogen fuel. The reason there are so few really massive stars is that they do not live very long, as little as a million years. For comparison, our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11,000 million years.

According to string theory, the universe has not just three or four dimensions, but eleven dimensions, ten of space and one of time. We do not observe the extra spatial dimensions because they are curled tightly around each other.

It is not possible to hear in space. Because there is no atmosphere in space to conduct the sound, it would not carry. So, the object would make a noise, but it would not carry to any receiver, and no one would hear it.

About 25% of the universe consists of "dark matter", and about 70% consists of "dark energy", leaving only about 5% of the universe visible to us.

The word arctic is derived from the ancient Greek word for bear, arktos. The reason is that the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, lies in the northern sky.

INTRESTNG FACTS-THE UNIVERSE

                                                        INTRESTNG FACTS-THE UNIVERSE

[- Astronomy -]

Astronomers believe that the universe contains one atom for every 88 gallons of space.

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[- Comets -]

A Comet's tail always points away from the sun.

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[- Comets -]

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.

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[- Debris -]

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.

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[- Earth -]

The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph.

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[- Gold -]

According to scientists, Gold exists on Mars, Mercury, and Venus.

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[- Gravity -]

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.

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[- Gravity - Weight -]

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.

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[- Halley's Comet -]

In 1910, when it was announced that Halley's Comet would once again pass the earth, hysteria broke out in Europe, based on the belief that the arrival of this comet always heralded catastrophe. The war of 66 A.D. that brought about the fall of Jerusalem, the devastation of Rome by the Huns in 373, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (it is Halley's Comet that can be seen in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, announcing the death of Harold), and many other tragic events did in fact coincide with the comet's appearance. Whether or not these occurrences actually had anything to do with the comet, anxiety spread throughout Europe as soon as its impending arrival was announced, and thousands of people fled to the mountains for safety. A group of French scientists published a paper claiming that the earth would be poisoned by fumes from the comet's tail. Reports of "comet insanity" and suicide attempts filled the newspapers, and "anticomet pills," guaranteeing protection from the comet's noxious fumes, were bought up eagerly. The comet, however, came and went without much incident though, it might be noted, World War I began four years later.

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[- Light -]

It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun's surface to the Earth.

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[- Mass -]

99% of our solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun.

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[- Moon -]

The moon weighs 81 billion tons.

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[- Proportions -]

-More than 1 million earths would fit inside the sun. -If our Sun were just inch in diameter, the nearest star would be 453 miles away.

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[- Pulsar -]

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.

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[- Quasar -]

A galaxy of typical size, about 100 billion suns produces less energy than a single Quasar.

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[- Spanse -]

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. 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 If our whole galaxy were the size of a quarter, our solar system would be less than the size of a molecule. Other galaxies would be from a foot to 1,000 feet away.

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[- Spanse -]

Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the Universe.

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[- Spanse -]

Our galaxy has approximately 250 billion stars and it is estimated by astronomers that there are 100 billion other galaxies in the universe.

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[- Stars -]

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.

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[- Sun -]

The Sun provides our planet with 126,000,000,000,000 horsepower of energy every day. This means that 54,000 horsepower is delivered to every man, woman and child on earth in each twenty four hour period. This amount of energy equals only about two billionths of the total energy broadcast into our solar system by the Sun each day.

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[- Venus Transit -]

Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882). The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2004 June 08 and 2012 June 06.

The latest Venus transit occcured in 1882, 122 years ago. So no human alive on Earth has ever witnessed a Venus transit! Venus takes more than six hours to track across the Sun.

Amazing Facts about the universe

• The Sun is always losing weight in fact Scientists have worked out that it loses  around 4 Million tonnes every second, this is the amount of hydrogen gas that the sun turns into energy every second.

• The universe extents from the Earth for at least 10 Billion Light Years and its probably still expanding.

• A Human being living on Neptune would never live for one "Neptune Year". The Neptune Year is the time it takes Neptune to travel once around the sun.(165 Earth Days)
• From Edge To Edge the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across.  
• The Moon is moving slowly away from the Earth at the rate of 3cm per year.  
• Every Star would explode if the Gravity did not hold its material together.  
• If the Sun became a Black Hole, it would be only a few kilometers across but it could swallow the Earth.

Interesting Facts About the Universe

So you think you know your universe? We’ve got our own top 10 list on the most interesting facts about the Universe.

1. It was hot when it was young

The most widely accepted cosmological model is that of the Big Bang. This was proven since the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation or CMBR. Although, strictly speaking, no one knows exactly what ‘banged’, we know from extrapolation that the Universe was infinitely hot at birth, cooling down as it expanded.
In fact, even only within minutes of expansion, scientists predict its temperature to have been about a billion Kelvin. Moving backward to 1 second, it is said to have been at 10 billion Kelvin. For comparison, today’s universe is found to have an average temperature of only 2.725 Kelvin.

2. It will be cold when it grows old

Observations made especially on galaxies farthest from us show that the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. This, and data that show that the Universe is cooling allows us to believe that the most probable ending for our universe is that of a Big Freeze.
That is, it will be devoid of any usable heat (energy). It is due to this prediction that the Big Freeze is also known as the Heat Death.Accurate measurements made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) on the current geometry and density of the Universe favor such an ending.

3. The Universe spans a diameter of over 150 billion light years

Current estimates as with regards to the size of the Universe pegs it at a width of 150 billion light years. Although it may seem peculiarly inconsistent with the age of the Universe, which you’ll read about next, this value is easily understood once you consider the fact that the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.

4. The Universe is 13.7 billion years old

If you think that is amazing, perhaps equally remarkable is the fact that we know this to better than 1% precision. Credit goes to the WMAP team for gathering all the information needed to come up with this number. The information is based on measurements made on the CMBR.
Older methods which have contributed to confirming this value include measurements of the abundances of certain radioactive nuclei. Observations made on globular clusters, which contain the oldest stars, have also pointed to values close to this.

5. The Earth is not flat – but the Universe is

Based on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, there are three possible shapes that the Universe may take: open, closed, and flat. Once again, measurements by WMAP on the CMBR have revealed a monumental confirmation – the Universe is flat.
Combining this geometry and the idea of an invisible entity known as dark energy coincides with the widely accepted ultimate fate of our universe, which as stated earlier, is a Big Freeze.

6. Large Scale Structures of the Universe

Considering only the largest structures, the Universe is made up of filaments, voids, superclusters, and galaxy groups and clusters. By combining galaxy groups and clusters, we come up with superclusters. Some superclusters in turn form part of walls, which are also parts of filaments.
The vast empty spaces are known as voids. That the Universe is clumped together in certain parts and empty in others is consistent with measurements of the CMBR that show slight variations in temperature during its earliest stages of development.

7. A huge chunk of it is made up of things we can’t see

Different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum such as those of radio waves, infrared, x-rays, and visible light have allowed us to peer into the cosmos and ‘see’ huge portions of it. Unfortunately, an even larger portion cannot be seen by any of these frequencies.
And yet, certain phenomena such as gravitational lensing, temperature distributions, orbital velocities and rotational speeds of galaxies, and all others that are evidence of a missing mass justify their probable existence. Specifically, these observations show that dark matter exists. Another invisible entity known as dark energy, is believed to be the reason why galaxies are speeding away at an accelerated rate.

8. There is no such thing as the Universe’s center

Nope. The earth is not the center of the Universe. It’s not even the center of the galaxy. And no again, our galaxy is not the entire universe, neither is it the center. Don’t hold your breath but the Universe has no center. Every galaxy is expanding away from one another.

9. Its members are in a hurry to be as far away from each other as possible

The members that we are talking about are the galaxies. As mentioned earlier, they are rushing away from each other at increasing rates. In fact, prior to the findings of most recently gathered data, it was believed that the Universe might end in a Big Rip. That is, everything, down to the atoms, would be ripped apart.
This idea stemmed from this observed accelerated rate of expansion. Scientists who supported this radically catastrophic ending believed that this kind of expansion would go on forever, and thus would force everything to be ripped apart.

10. To gain a deeper understanding of it, we need to study structures smaller than the atom

Ever since cosmologists started to trace events backward in time based on the Big Bang model, their views, which focused only on the very large, got smaller and smaller. They knew, that by extrapolating backward, they would be led into a universe that was very hot, very dense, very tiny, and governed by extremely high energies.
These conditions were definitely within the realm of particle physics, or the study of the very small. Hence, the most recent studies of both cosmology and particle physics saw an inevitable marriage between the two.
There you have it. Feel free to come up with a longer list of your own.

Pluto: The Dark Planet

Pluto is the farthest planet in our solar system from the sun. It was discovered through mathematics before there were telescopes. Pluto is about 39 times as far from the sun as earth is. It takes 248 earth years to orbit the sun, in twenty of them in moves inside Neptune's orbit becoming the eight planet from the sun for that period. It is currently inside Neptune's orbit and will remain that way until March 15, 1999. (the picture is an artist's rendition, not an actual photograph)

General information on Pluto:

• Diameter (miles)= 1,420
• Mass (trillion trillion lbs)= .026
• Density (earth=1)= .36
• Gravity (earth=1)= .0637
• Period of Rotation (hours)= 6.4
• Escape Velocity (mph)= 2,640
• Major Atmospheric Gas= Methane
• Inclination of Equator (degrees)= 62
• Known Moons= 1
• Mean Orbital Velocity (mph)= 10,604
• Minimum Distance From Sun= 2,756 (millions of miles)
• Maximum Distance From Sun= 4,555 (millions of miles)
• Mean Distance From Sun= 3,656 (millions of miles)
• Period of Revolution (earth years)= 247.70

Detailed information on Pluto:

Unfortunately, very little is known about the planet Pluto because of its great distance from the earth. It has an estimated diameter of 4,000 miles which is about half of earth's. The temperature on Pluto may be as low as -360 degrees Farenheit. In 1905, it was discovered that some gravitational force seemed to be affecting the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. Percival Lowell, and American astronomer predicted that it was a new planet. Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by any spacecraft and even the Hubble Telescope can only pick up the major features of Pluto's surface.

Composition--

The actual composition of Pluto is unknown but it is believed that the planet is about 70% rock and 30% water ice like Triton. Pluto has bright and dark areas on its surface. It is thought that the bright areas are covered by ices of nitrogen as well as smaller amounts of methane and carbon monoxide. The dark areas may be due to some sort of primordial organic material or photochemical reactions caused by cosmic rays.

Atmosphere--

Again, little is known about the atmosphere of the Dark Planet. For the majority of the planet's long year the atmospheric gases are frozen into ice. These gases are probably nitrogen with some methane and carbon monoxide.

Theories--

Due to Pluto's unusual orbital pattern, much like Triton (satellite of Neptune), it was once believed that Pluto may have been a moon to Neptune but this is now generally ruled out. The more generally accepted belief is that Triton was once like Pluto was captured in Neptune's gravitational force. Perhaps Pluto, Triton and Charon were once part of a class of objects that were separated by some force. The recent discovery of planetary-like objects beyond Pluto may help support this theory.

Neptune: The Blue Planet

Neptune is usually the eight planet from the sun, but every 248 years Pluto will move inside Neptune's orbit for about twenty years. Currently, Neptune is the ninth planet from the sun (it is the twenty year period) and will remain that way until March 15, 1999. Neptune is thirty times as far from the sun as the earth and cannot be seen without a telescope.

General information on Neptune:

• Diameter (miles)= 30,200

• Mass (trillion trillion lbs)= 227.1

• Density (earth=1)= .30

• Gravity (earth=1)= 1.13

• Period of Rotation (hours)= 17.7

• Escape Velocity (mph)= 52,794

• Major Atmospheric Gas= Hydrogen

• Inclination of Equator (degrees)= 29.0

• Known Moons= 2

• Mean Orbital Velocity (mph)= 12,147

• Minimum Distance From Sun= 2,771 (millions of miles)

• Maximum Distance From Sun= 2,819 (millions of miles)

• Mean Distance From Sun= 2,794.4 (millions of miles)

• Period of Revolution (earth years)= 164.79

Detailed information on Neptune--

Surface and Atmosphere:

It is believed that Neptune is made chiefly of hydrogen, helium, water and silicates . Silicates are the minerals that make up most of earth's crust. Astonomers believe the atmosphere is about 2,000 miles thick. The clouds of Neptune may consist of frozen ammonia, or combinations of crystals of ice, frozen methane and frozen ammonia. Temperatures on Neptune are much lower than that of earth and so animals that live on earth are not likely to be found there.

Satellites--

Neptune as two satellites which travel around it. One, Triton is close to 3,000 miles in diamter. It has a circular orbit and makes its revolution around Neptune in about six days. The other satellite, Nereid, is only 150 miles in diameter. It is three and a half million miles from the planet. It takes about 360 days to travel around Neptune; nearly one earth year.

Uranus: The Sideways Planet

Uranus was named after the earlisest god of the sky in Greek and Roman mythology. It is the seventh planet from the sun, only Neptune and Pluto are farther away. These last three planets are a great mystery and unfortunately, not too much is known about them because of the great distance that separates them from the earth. Uranus is known as the Sideways Planet because it is greatly inclined at its equator (see General Information), moreso than any other planet in the solar system.

General Information on Uranus:

• Diameter (miles)= 31,600
• Mass (trillion trillion lbs)= 190.95
• Density (earth=1)= .216
• Gravity (earth=1)= .79
• Period of Rotation (hours)= 17.2
• Escape Velocity (mph)= 47,470
• Major Atmospheric Gas= Hydrogen
• Inclination of Equator (degrees)= 82.1
• Known Moons= 15
• Mean Orbital Velocity (mph)= 15,234
• Minimum Distance From Sun= 1,699 (millions of miles)
• Maximum Distance From Sun= 1,868 (millions of miles)
• Mean Distance From Sun= 1,784 (millions of miles)
• Period of Revolution (earth years)= 84.01

Detailed information on Uranus:

Everything--

Little is known about the surface of Uranus though it is believed that the planet is surrounded by clouds. It's temperature is guessed to be about minus 357 degrees Farenheit. There are fifteen know satellites and Uranus also has at least eleven thin rings around it, but they are much fainter than Saturn's. They seem to be made of countless chunks of some unknown black substance. Most of the chunks are about one year in diameter. These rings are always parallel with Uranus' equator. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel, a British astronomer. By 1948 five small moons were detected orbitting Uranus. When the United States spacecraft Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1986, ten other moons, smaller than the first five, were discovered.