Things You Probably Didn't Know

[IceWizard]

About The Universe





In 4977 B.C. the universe was created, according to German
mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler,
considered a founder of modern science. 
Check out these crazy facts you probably didn't know about the universe.




Kepler Was Wrong

Seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler should have stuck with
his theories about the motion of the planets, because it turns out that he
was wrong about the age of the universe to the tune of billions of years.
Astronomers now estimate the age of the universe at around 13.7 billion years,
give or take a few million. The age was calculated by measuring the density of
energy and matter in the universe, which determined how fast it expanded
billions of years back into the past. 



When You Look At the Stars,
You Are Looking Back In Time

The light shining from the stars in the sky has taken years to reach our eyes.
That means we're looking into the past when we gaze at the stars in the sky
at night. For example, the bright star Vega is relatively close to us at 25
light-years away, so the light we see left the star 25 years ago; while
Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion is 640 light-years away, so the
light left the star around 1381 during the time of the Hundred Years’ War
between England and France.







There's a Massive Diamond in the Sky

Astronomers have discovered the largest known diamond in our galaxy is a
massive lump of crystallized diamond called BPM 37093, otherwise known as
Lucy after The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It can be found
50 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Its size? A staggering
10 billion trillion trillion carats, which makes the largest natural diamonds on
planet earth seem invisible by comparison. 







A Year On Venus Is Shorter Than Its Day

Venus is the slowest rotating planet in our Solar System. Venus spins so slowly that
fully rotating takes longer than completing its orbit, which means the planet has
days that last longer than its years. It’s also home to one of the most inhospitable
environments imaginable, with constant electronic storms, high CO2 readings,
and it’s shrouded by clouds of sulfuric acid.



There Are More Stars In The Universe
Than Grains of Sand on Earth

The universe extends far beyond our own galaxy, which is why scientists can only
estimate how many stars are in space. 
However, scientists estimate the universe contains approximately 
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a septillion. 
While no one can actually count every single grain of sand on the earth,
however the estimated total from researchers at the University of Hawaii,
is somewhere around seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains. 
That is an awfully big sand castle!



The Voyager 1 Spacecraft is the Furthest
Man-Made Object From Earth

In 1977, two spacecraft were launched through the Voyager Program to
explore planets and moons located on the outer edge of our Solar System.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have been orbiting for many decades and are
now traveling through the heliosphere to probe into interstellar space.
Voyager 1 is now considered the furthest man-made object from the earth
after departing the Solar System in 2013. It is now at a distance of 124.34
Astronomical Units away. That's the equivalent of approximately
1.15581251×1010 miles away from earth.