I learned this today. Quarks are elementary particles that make up the fundamental constituents of matter. Everything that has matter in the universe is made up of atoms. The screen you are reading this on is made of glass (probably), which is basically silica. Silica has one silicon atom with bonds to four […]
#214 What is a quark? Read More »
I learned this today. A dwarf galaxy is a galaxy with 1000 to a few billion stars. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has between 200 and 400 billion stars. Dwarf galaxies tend to orbit larger galaxies. There are at least 14 satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way right now. They are the most
#211 What is a dwarf galaxy? Read More »
I learned this today. The sun flips its magnetic field and its north south poles once every 11 years because its inner dynamo reorganizes itself. How does the sun get its magnetic field? The sun is made of hydrogen and helium gas. Inside the sun, the immense pressure turns that gas into a plasma. Plasma
#198 Why do the sun’s poles flip every 11 years? Read More »
I learned this today. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a high-pressure region in the atmosphere that causes the largest anticyclonic storm in the Solar System. An anticyclonic storm is a weather system with very high pressure in the center. The air around the high-pressure center circulates clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the
#197 What is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot? Read More »
I learned this today. Nobody actually knows what the core of Jupiter is like. The most predominant theory is that it has a rocky core surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is 1,321 the volume of Earth and is a gas giant. It is
#190 What is the core of Jupiter like? Read More »
I learned this today. Mars could be terraformed, but it would require more money than any government would be able to spend. Terraforming is the process by which an uninhabitable planet is transformed into a habitable planet. This would require modifying the atmosphere, temperature, ecology, and adding water. Carl Sagan came up with the idea
#183 Could Mars be terraformed? Read More »
I learned this today. The moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 3.78cm per year, but there will be a time when it will stop moving away and then it will start to fall in towards Earth. However, we are talking about a hundred billion years. The moon has been dated to
#168 Will we lose our moon? Read More »
I learned this today. Polaris is the star that is known as the North Star because it is usually over the North Pole. Polaris is not the brightest star in the night sky. That honor belongs to Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. However, Polaris is fairly bright, and it makes up the end
#150 What is Polaris? Read More »
I learned this today. There are two ways to work out the age of the universe. The first is to calculate the age of the oldest stars. The second way is to work out how fast the universe is expanding and cooling and extrapolate backwards. The universe is thought to be 17.772 billion years old,
#144 How do people know the age of the universe? Read More »
I learned this today. Venus and Uranus spin in the opposite directions to the other planets possibly because Venus flipped over and Uranus was hit by another planet. Our sun rotates anticlockwise, and it takes about 27 days to complete one rotation. Because the sun rotates anticlockwise, all of the planets in our solar system
#142 Why do Venus and Uranus spin the wrong way? Read More »
