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Some days, a good dose of fiction will blow your mind, but today your mind can be blown with a good old dose of truth, brought to you by science. These fascinating facts lend credence to the saying that truth is stranger than fiction. Here are 16 strange tidbits that even a master writer couldn’t think up on his or her own. |
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Rogue planets |
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Did you know there are millions of rogue planets hurtling through the galaxy? They do not orbit stars, and drift through empty space. There are supposedly billions of these in the Milky Way galaxy. |
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Giant dragonflies |
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The Meganeura dragonfly lived 300 million years ago and was no small pest. It had a wingspan measuring over 2 feet wide. |
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Slow coach moon |
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The moon slows down Earth. Every century the moon’s rotation adds 1.7 milliseconds onto a day. If you do some math, 350 million years back the year was 385 days long. |
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Marijuana bullseye |
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The system in charge of regulating human mood, appetite, pain sensation and memory is called the endocannabinoid system. This is the same system that the THC in marijuana targets. |
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Oranges that aren't orange |
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Some orange species growing close to the equator stay green, despite becoming ripe. These species are exposed to direct sunlight, causing them to retain their green chlorophyll. Farmers use ethylene gas, cold shocking or wax to remove the chlorophyll because consumers won’t buy green oranges. |
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Tallest cliff in the solar system |
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The tallest cliff in our solar system is called Verona Rupes. Located on Uranus’ moon Miranda, this staggering tall cliff is 6.2 miles high. |
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The Tunguska Event |
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In 1908, an asteroid exploded 5 miles above Earth’s surface. The reason? Earth’s thick atmosphere. Fortunately, it landed in a remote part of Russia so nobody was hurt. Unfortunately, it knocked over some 80 million trees. |
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The Great Flood |
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5.3 million years back, the Mediterranean Sea had been cut off and dried up. A massive flood, The Zanclean Flood, caused water from the Atlantic Ocean to spill through the Gibraltar Strait over several months, refilling the sea. |
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Corona heat |
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The plasma surrounding the sun, called the Corona is actually hundreds of times hotter than the sun’s surface. This baffles scientists, who are still trying to figure out why. |
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Where lightning is likely to strike twice |
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Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo has the most lightning on the planet. There are 150 nights of lightning per year, 10 hours a day and approximately 280 times per hour. |
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Best toaster in the world |
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A single bolt of lightning has enough power to toast 100,000 slices of bread. Now that’s what I call efficient cooking. |
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The oval planet |
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In 2004, a dwarf planet called Haumea, was discovered, named after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth. This small planet has been spinning so quickly it has become oval-shaped. |
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Multiple genitalia |
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Nature has given marsupials such as koalas and kangaroos genitalia to spare. The males have two penises while the females have three vaginas, one for giving birth and the other two for sex. |
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Russian Planet |
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Pluto’s surface area is smaller than Russia’s. Russia measures 6.6 million square miles while little Pluto only measures 6.4 million square miles, hence its dwarf planet classification. |
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The Devil’s Kettle |
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The Devil’s Kettle, an unusual waterfall in Minnesota, remains a mystery to many. Geologists are still trying to figure out how deep the hole in the waterfall is and where the surge flows. They have tried dyeing the water, dropping ping-pong balls, and other objects into the river, with no sufficient answers. |
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Saber-toothed cat |
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The saber-tooth cat’s teeth took three years to mature. They would grow at an astounding rate of a ¼ inch per month! |
H/T: thechive.com
