About 1500 stars are visible at night with the naked eye in a clear, dark sky. There are 88 canstellations altogether; the smallest star measuring about 1700km across, it is a white dwarf called LP 327-16!
In ancient Rome only important people wore purple clothes; this is because the purple dye came from a particular kind of shellfish and was very expensive!
Lava from an erupting volcano may be as hot as 1200 degrees celsius!
Some of the oldest mountains in the world are located in Scotland; they are estimated to be about 400 million years old!
Blue whales weigh up to 7 tonnes at birth!
The longest jail sentence till date was passed in the United States; 10,000 years for a triple murder charge!
Astronauts become a little taller in space; there's less gravity, so their bones are less bonded together!
About 20% of all volcanoes are underwater!
The Amazon 'Jesus Christ Lizard' can run across water!
The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the valley of death; because of its pollution, which has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby!
The loudest noise ever known till date was produced by a volcanic eruption at krakatoa, near Japan in 1883; the sound was heard in Australia, 5000km away!
The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, from the USSR; in june 1963!
Some animals can grow new parts of their body if damaged; starfish can grow new arms, lizards can grow broken-off tails!
The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus; it can grow up to 10 meters in a year!
Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of gasoline/petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugarcane!
The world's largest recorded gathering of people till date was at a Hindu religious festival in India in 1989; it was attended by about 15 million people!
Sharks, in their 400 million years on earth have shown an extraordinary ability to resist cancer and other diseases. This has raised hopes among medical researchers that the ocean's most feared predator might turn out to be the cancer patient's best friend; investigators continue to study the immune system of sharks to see if it can provide the answer to stop the spread of cancer in humans!
Yuri Gagarin survived the first manned space flight but was killed in a plane crash seven years later!
The first animal in space was the soviet dog, Laika, in November, 1957; it died on the flight!
The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in california; it is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk!
Abraham Lincoln went to school for less than a year; he taught himself how to read and write!
The world's largest palace till date has 1788 rooms; it was built for the Sultan of Brunei!
There is no land at all at the North pole; only large mass of water with ice covering it!
A mayfly only lives for a day; but a tortoise can live up to 100 years!
Levi Strauss (Levi's) made the first pair of jeans in 1850; they were intended as work trousers for American miners looking for gold!
With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S market. --Business week, 1958--!
The oldest living tree is a California bristle cone pine named 'Methuselah'; it is about 4600 yrs old!
Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana was formed in a hollow made by a meteorite!
The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish from freezing in icy sea!
The cries of South American howler monkeys can be heard 16km away!
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