interesting facts about space and the universe
Mind blowing facts about the universe
1. The position of the North Star will change over time
Navigation will be weird when Polaris stops being the North Star in about 13,000 years. In case you didn't know, Earth's axis goes through a motion called "precession" which means that the planet's axis will change, and trace out the shape of a cone—even if it's slightly.
When this occurs, it takes around 26,000 years for the axis to trace out a complete cone shape. To add to this, Polaris, the Earth's current "North Star" will eventually begin to shift positions as the Earth undergoes precession.
In 3,000 B.C., it's believed that the North Star was the star Thuban, otherwise known as Alpha Draconis. In about 13,000 years, the star Vega will be the new North Star — but in 26,000 years, Polaris will return in its original position as the Earth continues to go through precession.
2. One of Saturn's moons has a distinct two-tone coloration
Iapetus, one of Saturn's 62 moons, is actually a pretty unique celestial object. This moon has a very distinct two-tone coloration, with one side be much darker than the other.
As of 2018, this strange occurrence isn't present on any other moons in the Solar System. Iapetus' color has to do with its position in relation to the rest of Saturn's moons. It turns out that Iapetus is way outside of Saturn's rings, and because of this, it gets hit with a lot of space debris from objects that might be passing through its orbit, explaining the dark areas, according to Forbes.
Furthermore, another moon Phoebe, which is completely dark and farther out than Iapetus, revolves clockwise around Saturn and "emits a steady stream of particles." Iapetus revolves counterclockwise, meaning that only one side of Iapetus gets hit with the particles coming off of Phoebe when they revolve past each other. This explains why Iapetus isn't fully dark, but only partially.
3. More energy from the sun hits Earth every hour than the planet uses in a year
The use of solar energy has increased at a rate of 20 percent each year for the past 15 years. According to Yale Environment 360, the world added 30 percent more solar energy capacity in 2017, meaning that 98.9 gigawatts of solar energy was produced that year.
Despite seemingly large number, this amount of energy only accounts for 0.7 percent of the world's annual electricity usage.
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