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Venus
  • Venus is the only planet in the solar system to spin backwards (clockwise). But really cares?

Uranus
  • Uranus was originally called Georgium Sidium, in honour of King George III of Britain
  • Uranus’ axis is at 97 degrees. which means that it orbits on its side. (Most of the planets spin on an axis nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic but Uranus’ axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic.)
  • Summer on Uranus lasts for 21 years

telescope
  • The telescope on Mount Palomar, California, can see a distance of 7,038,835,200,000,000,000,000 miles
  • NASA’s GLAST main telescope weighs 3 tons but uses less than 1/2 the power of a hair dryer

solar eclipse
  • It is impossible for a solar eclipse to last for more than 7 minutes 58 seconds
  • There is an interesting phenomenon that occurs just before an eclipse called ‘shadow bands’. If you place several square feet of white paper on the ground, you can see ripples of shadows dancing on the paper. This varies from eclipse to eclipse and the amazing fact is that it is the sun causing this.

sun
  • All the coal, oil, gas, and wood on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for a few days
  • An area of the Sun’s surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles
  • The sun’s average period of rotation is 27 days. (as if you’d care)

pens
  • In the 1960′s, the US spent millions developing a zero gravity pen for use in space, and the Russians…., they used pencils. :)

stars
  • A teaspoon of neutron star material weighs about 110 million tons
  • A Red Giant(a kind of exploded star) has a lower density than any vacuum here on earth

metric
  • The metric system was to blame for the loss of the Mars Climate orbiter.

moon
  • The moon has the coldest crater in our entire solar system. It is even 20 degrees colder than Pluto
  • Every year, the moon moves 3.82 cm away from the Earth
  • The moon actually has mirrors on it. They were left there by astronauts who wanted to bounce laser beams off them, so that the distance to the moon can be measured

Mercury
  • A day on the planet Mercury is twice as long as its year.


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