When you step back and ponder the world, the nature of life, and our place among the stars you can end up having some pretty profound thoughts. There are huge questions that hang over us at all times: why are we here, what is the meaning of life, what should we have for dinner? Yet for all of those questions the facts consistently elude us. We decided to pull together 12 amazing facts that did not elude us. Listed below are 12 facts that will literally leave you speechless. They won’t tell you the meaning of life but they will give some meaning to your lunch break!
The moon is slowly pulling away from the Earth.
When you step outside tonight you need to take a second to appreciate the moon. For all that we don’t know about the celestial body above us, we do have quite a bit of knowledge regarding the moon. As it turns out the moon is actually slowly pulling away from Earth which means that in a few million years there will be huge tidal effects on our planet. Fortunately we won’t be around to deal with them. Still if you want to try and make it that long then you should consider investing in gold funds so that you can afford that chryo chamber that you always wanted!
The moon is slowly pulling away from the earth
Our planet’s oceans are unique thanks to the ‘Goldilocks’ zone we inhabit.
When your planet is 70% covered in water you tend to take it for granted. However, for those of us not busy an investment in gold thanks to fact #12, we can be made aware that our oceans are so rare and unique in the known universe. Earth essentially lives in the Goldilocks zone which means that our planet is just the right temperature to showcase vast, liquid oceanic waters. Whie there are undoubtedly more planets out there like us, with vast oceans on the surface of the planet, we haven’t found them yet.
Our planets oceans are unique thanks to the goldilocks zone we inhabit
A chicken lived for over a year without a head.
We’ve all heard the phrase ‘running around like a chicken with its head cut off’, right? Apparently one farmer brought this phrase to life when he improperly beheaded his chicken, missing the jugular vein. The chicken would go on to live for 18 months without a head as the farmer fed the creature with an eyedropper filled with milk. Where did the farmer feed the chicken? Why the opening where its esophagus was exposed. The farmer earned around $50,000 per month showing the chicken off as a sideshow attraction.
A Chicken lived for over a year without a head
Water will circumnavigate the globe in about 1,000 years.
It’s hard to think of the ocean as anything but a giant collective object that is largely immobile. However, the ocean is always moving and there is this thing called the ocean conveyor belt, otherwise known as the thermohaline current, which moves the water around. Ocean water flows through this belt, moving around the entire globe before returning back to its beginning. The trip takes around 1,000 years to complete, You will have time to make sure that you buy gold and make good on your gold investment for a chryo chamber, trust us.
Ater will circumnavigate the globe in about 1000 years
The CIA once tried to create ‘spy cats’.
Whenever you get caught up in conspiracies that paint the government out to be evil masterminds, just remember that the CIA once tried to train cats to become spies. Back in the ’60s the CIA was desperate to gather intel on foreign embassies, namely the the Soviet and Kremlin embassies, so the government spent $25 million training ‘spy cats’. The culmination of this experience was a sad display involving a microphone and antenna being strapped to a lazy cat. As cat owners we could have told them it was never going to work.
The cia once tried to create spy cats
Rogue waves exist and they are horrifying.
Sailors have so many things to be concerned about when they are out on the open water. Ancient sailors, the ones that didn’t have GPS and mobile communications, would frequently report mythical creatures and gigantic magical waves that would assault their ship. These sailors were likely talking about rogue waves: waves which would appear out of nowhere and for reasons we don’t understand. Rogue waves are dangerous and can be deadly in the right conditions. The largest recorded rogue wave was roughly 10 stories tall. Imagine that bearing down on your boat.
Rogue waves exist and they are horrifying
Space is completely silent.
Alright, so this isn’t mind blowing but we really need to stress that it should be. Space is vast and infinite and impossible to fathom – literally. Try to image an infinite amount of anything surrounding you. Now imagine that this ‘anything’ is vast and completely silent. It can creep you out a little it, can’t it? Space is completely silent because there is no atmosphere for sound waves to travel upon. That is why astronauts are forced to use radio waves to talk to one another.
Space is completely silent
You will waste weeks of your life waiting at the stop light.
We’re not sure you really needed to know this because it is so depressing. Over the span of your entire life you can add up all of the time that you’ve sat in traffic waiting for the light to change and you’ll end up with about two total weeks of wasted time. Imagine 14 full, round the clock, days just sitting and staring at the stoplight. Maddening. Why can’t we teleport yet?
Why cant we teleport yet
Saturn and Jupiter can rain diamonds.
Do you remember how much you spent on your significant other’s diamond ring? Too much, right? On Saturn and Jupiter you can watch as diamonds literally rain down from the sky. Apparently the reason for this is that the intense lightning storms on these planets turn methane gas into soot which then summarily hardens into graphite before turning into a diamond. Some people want to send out robotic ships to mine the ‘seas of diamonds’ that currently exist on these planets. We’re not sure it’ll ever actually happen because diamonds are of limited value in the grand scheme of things.
Saturn and jupiter can rain diamonds
Similar materials will blond together forever in space.
If two identical pieces of material touch each other in space they will then bond together forever. This is called ‘cold welding’. Cold welding, to keep things short, involves two similar materials bonding together whereupon their atoms forget where their ‘boundaries’ are. The reason that these boundaries cease to exist is because there is no air or water keeping the two pieces of material separate. Can you see how this would dramatically impact the way that we approach space travel?
Similar materials will blond together forever in space
The farthest away from land you can get is at Point Nemo.
Have you ever wondered where the most remote space on the planet is? Well, if you wanted to get as far away fro land as possible then you would want to head to Point Nemo. Point Nemo is located in the South Pacific and it is the farthest you can get away from land on Earth, located nearly 1,700 miles away from the nearest landmass. Point Nemo isn’t actually land, however, it is simply a spot in the ocean. The name of the location comes from the legendary Jules Verne classic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The farthest away from land-you can get is at point nemo
The Mongolian Navy is the cutest thing we’ve ever read.
When you think of the navy you probably instantly see gigantic warships, airship carriers, and crazy submarines. For Mongolia, however, the navy once consisted of seven men and a tugboat. Mongolia is landlocked but that didn’t stop their people from wanting a navy. So 7 individuals, only one of which could swim, decided to port a tugboat to the water and officially ‘launch’ back in 1938. If ever there were a situation where ‘points for trying’ counted, then this was it.
The Mongolian Navy
