Light
from the sun takes a full eight minutes to cross the 150 million km to
Earth. It travels 5 hours longer to reach Pluto. After 4 years and 4
months it touches Alpha Centauri, our suns nearest stellar neighbour, 40
trillion km, or 4.3 light-years away.
In
an outlying arm our sun circles the galaxy's centre about every 200
million years, travelling at 220 km/sec.
At
take off, the space shuttle weighs 2,000 tons. It burns almost all of its
fuel in the first few minutes after launch then continues to coast into
its orbit 300 km above the surface of the Earth.
There
are at least 3,000,000,000 stars in the galaxy. And here is an idea of its
size. For light from the middle of the galaxy to reach the sun, it takes
about 27,000 years.
Pioneer
10 was the first manmade object to leave the Solar System. It carried
messages about life on earth to be read by any extraterrestrial travellers
who might find the probe
The
Trans-Siberian Railway offers the world's longest train journey. It takes
about 7 days to travel the 5,580 miles or 9,000 km between Moscow and
Vladivostok.
Matruschka
(little mother) are traditional Russian toys. Each painted wooden dolls
contains a series of smaller doll inside it.
Diamonds
are believed to cure leprosy, insanity, and nightmares. Agate is believed
to reduce fever. Amethyst is considered especially effective against
headache and toothache. Sapphire, it was thought, gave protection from
spirits of darkness.
In
the US, each person unintentionally eats up to 1 pound of insects per
year. Common foods such as tomato sauce, hot dogs, and chocolate all may
contain insect eggs and parts. But don't worry: health codes allow only
very low levels of these ingredients.
The
worst earthquake in history with a magnitude of 8 in the Richter scale
happened in 1976 in China killing 255,000 people.
India's
deadliest rail disaster happened on June 6, 1981 in Bihar, India when a
train plunged off a bridge into the river killing more than 800 people.
The
worst industrial accident in history happened on December 3, 1984 in
Bhopal, India when a pesticide factory explosion spread toxic gas killing
more than 15,000 people.
The
worst airline disaster ever was the collision of two Boeing 747s on March
27, 1977 in Canary island killing 582 people.
The
greatest ship disaster happened on January 30, 1945 in Baltic Sea when
Liner Wilhelm Gustloff carrying German refugees and soldiers sunk by
Soviet sub. It is the highest death toll for a single ship ranging from
6,000 - 7,000.
The highest known death toll from a
flood was the vast flooding on the Huang He River in China on December
1931 with 3,700,000 casualties.
There
are 152 million Mother's day cards given every year, compared to only 95
million Father's day cards.
150
million hot dogs are eaten by Americans every Fourth of July.
Odd
Holidays: July 16 is National Ice Cream Day (a.k.a. Sundae Sunday) and
July 22 is Rat-catchers Day.
The
Manas, the Kyrgyz national epic, is thought to be the world's longest
poem. The poem is more than half a million lines long.
More
than 30 million trees are cut down to produce a year's supply of
newspaper.
It
takes between 400 and 500 years for a Styrofoam cup to decompose.
Using
recycled glass uses 50% energy than making products from all new
materials.
The
Rose River is the world's shortest river located in Montana, USA measuring
201 feet or 61 meters long only.
The
deadliest volcano in the world is Tambora Volcano in Indonesia - killing
92,000 people during its eruption in 1815.
For hundreds of years the aloe plant has been known
for its amazing properties. Today this knowledge has
been harnessed into a range of Wellness and Skin care
products that are created from this "lily of the desert".
The soothing and .....
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