Here are 25 Kickass and Interesting Facts About Universe – Part 2. For part 1, click here.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Universe
1. UY Scuti is one of the leading candidates for being the largest known star by radius and is also one of the most luminous of its kind. It has volume 5 billion times that of the Sun. If placed at the center of our Solar System, it would engulf the orbit of Jupiter, although the radius is not known for certain and may be larger than the orbit of Saturn. – Source
2. We can only see planets up to 13.8 billion light years far, because the universe is 13.8 billion years old. – Source
3. If you could fold a piece of paper in half 103 times, it would be as thick as the observable universe. – Source
4. Our current model of physics only works for 4% of the matter/energy in the universe. – Source
5. Over time a white dwarf will cool into a black dwarf. Given the length of time it takes for this to happen (10s-100s of billion years) and because our Universe’ age (13.8 billion years old), none are expected to exist yet. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Universe
6. The common spiral depiction of the Milky Way Galaxy used in media is actually another galaxy: Messier 74. Because we dwell within the Milky Way Galaxy, it is not yet possible for us to take a picture of its spiral structure from the outside. – Source
7. According to Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, you can be arrested for a crime committed anywhere in the known universe. – Source
8. The largest galaxy in the observable universe is elliptical galaxy, IC 1101. It has 100 trillion stars and is 6 million light years across. By comparison, the Milky Way has a mere 100 billion stars and is 120,000 light years across. – Source
9. If you watched an object slip into a black hole, no matter how long you watched, you would never actually see the object enter it due to time dilation. – Source
10. A region near a black hole is called a photon sphere where the gravitational pull is so strong that light photons orbit it, meaning if you were at that point and turned to the side, you could see the back of your own head. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Universe
11. The fastest spinning Neutron stars known to man, rotate at 716 complete rotations per second. – Source
12. The largest known black hole has a diameter of 1 trillion km, more than 190 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto. – Source
13. The Oh-My-God particle was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray that was detected on 15 October 1991 by the University of Utah. It was travelling so absurdly fast that time dilation dictates that it would have experienced only 16 days of time since the beginning of the universe. – Source
14. The coldest known natural place in the Universe is the Boomerang Nebula. At −272.15°C it is 1°C warmer than absolute zero, and 2°C colder than background radiation from the Big Bang. – Source
15. The observable universe is far too small to contain an ordinary digital representation of Graham’s number, assuming that each digit occupies one Planck volume. – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About Universe
16. The SN 1006 supernova was the brightest star event in recorded human history. It widely seen on Earth beginning in the year 1006. Some historical sources state that it was bright enough to cast shadows. – Sourc e
17. Neutron star is so dense that if an object was dropped from one meter above the star’s surface, it would hit the surface at a speed of 7.2 million km per hour. – Source
18. Not only are there rogue planets floating through space completely alone, not orbiting any stars, but it is possible that these pitch-black lonely planets can support life. – Source
19. The sun is brighter than about 90% of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. – Source
20. On May 20, 1964, two astronomers working at a New Jersey laboratory turned a giant microwave antenna toward what they thought would be a quiet part of the Milky Way. When they heard static, they thought they were hearing interference from pigeon poop on their antennae. They were actually hearing microwave background remains of the beginnings of the universe. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Universe
21. According to the string theory, black holes have the potential to be shaped like rings, helices, or even like the planet Saturn, but no one actually knows their true shape. – Source
22. Hubble has captured a set of galaxies that have such a strong gravitational pull that they warp time and light, an effect known as gravitational lensing and this specific set of galaxies creates the appearance of a smiley face. – Source
23. Europe is building European Extremely Large Telescope that will produce images 15 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope, possibly enabling it to observe Earthlike exoplanets. First light is planned for 2024. – Source
24. Mira, a dying star zipping through our universe is shedding its matter, each bit of which may one day grow into a new, individual star of its own. NASA has called it “The Johnny Appleseed of The Universe.” – Source
25. The edge of the observable universe is ~46 billion light years away despite the universe being only ~13.8 billion years old. – Source
The universe can’t be “13.8 billion light years old,” since a light year is a measure of distance, not time. It is the distance light travels in an earth year. That is like saying something is “65 miles an hour old.” Sounds confusing, and it is.
it was a typo due to repeating light years so many time they mean it is 13.5 billion years old
Sorry, it was a typo.