- The universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.
- Although the universe is very old, we can still detect a signal from its birth today. This signal is called the cosmic microwave background (or fossil radiation). In 1965, two scientists, Penzias and Wilson, accidentally discovered that microwaves were detectable in all directions of the sky.
- The largest mountain in our solar system is located on Mars; it's called Olympus Mons. This Martian mountain is a gigantic shield volcano, 26 kilometers high and 600 kilometers in diameter. That's nearly three times the height of Mount Everest. Astronomers predict that the reason behind this is the difference in size between volcanoes on Earth and those on the surface of Mars. Volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars are 10 to 100 times larger than those anywhere on Earth.
The image shows the Olympus Mons compared to the Arizona.
- The universe is constantly expanding (growing) every second, so we cannot define its center. The new estimate of the Hubble constant is 74 kilometers per second per megaparsec. This means that a galaxy located 3.3 million light-years away from us appears, from Earth, to be receding at 74 kilometers (46 miles) per second, due to the expansion of the universe.
- Near the Milky Way galaxy, exactly 26,000 light-years from Earth, lies a vast molecular cloud of gas and dust, 463 billion kilometers in diameter. Even more fascinating is that this cluster of molecular and dust clouds contains 10 billion billion billion liters of ethenol (vinyl alcohol), which is essentially alcohol. Imagine if you could be there!
- Saturn's magnificent rings are not "solid" (consistent). They are made up of particles of ice, dust, and rock—ranging in size from grains of sand to large skyscrapers. These rings are even visible from Earth with a small telescope. Furthermore, Saturn's atmosphere is much more turbulent than Earth's. Winds around Saturn's equator can reach speeds of 1,800 kilometers per hour. By comparison, the fastest winds on Earth only reach about 400 kilometers per hour.
- One hemisphere of Saturn's moon, Iapetus (ai-AP-eh-tuss), is covered with a material darker than black velvet, while the other side is covered with a material lighter than snow.
A 3D model of Iapetus, a moon of Saturn:
Image credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)
- The most distant known object from Earth is the galaxy EGS8p7. EGS8p7 is located 13.2 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). This update dates from September and May 2015. The research was conducted by scientists at the California Institute of Technology.