It’s not easy getting to know the entire Universe because it is full of complexities that can’t even be explained. Us humans know merely the surface of this gigantic thing and whenever we get the opportunity to see images and learn new facts, we can’t stop our endless contemplation. Due to so many worldwide organizations that seek to explain things about space, we are able to find out what really goes on in our world that goes on beyond planet Earth.
One cool fact relates to the sky that we are so eager to watch whenever we’re in a nostalgic or romantic mood. In case you didn’t know, the stars you see at night are so far away from you that it has taken a long time for them to travel across the entire space, before letting us engage in a stargazing session.
Basically, whenever we look up at the ski we are looking in the past because this is how stars looked then. For instance, Vega is a bright star that is somewhat close to the Earth, at only 25 light-years distance. This means that we get to see the light that left Vega 25 years ago. Many stars that we admire are so further away that the image in front of our eyes is way deep in their past.
Another interesting fact is that thanks to the Hubble telescope, we are allowed to look back almost billions of years into the Universe past. This remarkable piece of tool developed by NASA has given us so many amazing images that display a small patch of the sky in full detail. We now know a lot about more than 10,000 objects such as small galaxies and we can be transported 13 billion years back, which is quite fascinating.
Believe it or not, but the biggest mountain in our solar system is located on Mars. Known as Olympus Mons, this tall mountain is, in fact, a gigantic volcano quite similar to the ones from the Hawaiian Islands. It is 16 miles tall and sprawls at a distance of almost 400 miles. If you’re not certain how much is this, just imagine a mountain that is 3 times bigger than the Everest.
We all complain about the time and how we barely manage to get our things done in one single day. Crazy as it may sound, a year on the planet Venus is shorter than one day spent there. Because Venus has a slow rotation in our Solar System, it takes less to complete its orbit that to make a full rotation. This translates to days that are longer than an actual year. If you’re planning to move to Venus, think twice. You’ll have to get used to electronic storms, clouds with sulfuric acid, and high levels of CO2.