How fast does a cork pop out of a champagne bottle? Which animal is the fastest on earth? Are speeds faster than the speed of light possible? Today we'll talk about some amazing speed records.

NERVE IMPULSE IN THE HUMAN BODY

They move at a speed of about 90 meters per second.

THE BIGGEST TOY TRAIN SPEED

It is 10 km/h.

THE BIGGEST SPEED IN ANIMALS

The biggest speed in the animal kingdom - 322 km / h. This speed is developed by the peregrine falcon when diving for prey:

WATER MOLECULES

When water boils, its molecules move with speed 650 meters per second.

SLOWEST SPEED IN SPORTS

She was registered on August 12, 1889 - only 1.35 km/h. This sport was tug of war.

GOLF BALL SPEED

The next moment after hitting the golf ball, it speed instantly develops up to 270 km / h.

AIRCRAFT

When the aircraft is moving at 1,000 km/h, then its length increases by one centimeter relative to its rest length.

WINDIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Commonwealth Bay is officially recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and the eighth edition of the National Geographic Atlas as the windiest place on Earth. Moreover - it is located in Antarctica, so forget about short-term gusts of wind, the wind is constantly blowing here at a speed of 240 km / h.

THE SLOWEST MAMMALS

It is a three-toed sloth, it moves at a speed of about 2 meters per minute.

THE FASTEST SPEED RECORDED ON EARTH

Is superluminal speed possible? Probably everyone - even people far from physics - knows that the maximum possible speed of movement of material objects or the propagation of any signals is the speed of light in vacuum. It is denoted by the letter c and is almost 300 thousand kilometers per second; exact value With= 299 792 458 m/s.

In 2000, Lijun Wong and colleagues at a research institute in Princeton (USA) performed the following experiment. A laser pulse was passed through a chamber 6 centimeters long filled with cesium vapor. The result of the experiment: a light pulse entering a chamber filled with cesium vapor increases its speed by more than 300 times. Thus, the most high speed, ever recorded on our planet, 310 times the speed of light.

THE BIGGEST HUMAN SPEED

The fastest speed ever developed by man, is 39,897 km/h. It was reached by the astronauts of the Apollo 10 main module at an altitude of 122 km from the Earth's surface when returning to their home planet.

THE BIGGEST SPEED DEVELOPED BLIND DRIVER

The highest speed developed blind driver - 322.5 kilometers per hour. Driver Hein Wagner accelerated to this speed in a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG and managed to maintain this speed for a kilometer. With his record, Hein Wagner hopes to draw attention to the problems of blind people. His record was officially recognized by the representatives of the Guinness Book of Records.

READING SPEED RECORDS

The reading speed of a 16-year-old from Kiev Ira Ivachenko - 163,333 wpm with full reading comprehension. This achievement was officially registered in the presence of journalists.

Unofficial reading speed record - 416,250 wpm. The record was set on September 9, 1989 during testing under the direction of the Center in the presence of 20 course participants. Record holder - Evgenia Alekseenko. At the Kiev Center for Brain Research, a special test was prepared for Evgenia, which she underwent in the presence of several scientists. Eugenia read 1390 words in one-fifth of a second - the time it takes to blink. Eugene retells the content of what he read for hours, without missing the smallest details.

Another reading speed record was set by a Russian school student Svetlana Arkhipova - 60,000 characters per minute. The record is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

ABOUT CHILDREN

The highest rate of reproduction in humans is 58 children per year. The record was set by the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail (reigned from 1672 to 1727), who by the age of 31 had 525 sons and 342 daughters. Moulay Ismail kept 500 concubines.

FASTEST PRINT SPEED

The fastest print speed 2600 A4 pages per minute. The record belongs to the Hewlett-Packard Inkjet Web Press printer. It should be noted that the cost of one print is not more than 1 cent.

THE HIGHEST REEL SPEED

The record for the fastest drumming speed was set on October 24, 1991 by the famous English musician Rory Blackwell. He demonstrated his skills in Finlake Leisure Park, Devonshire (Great Britain). In one minute on one drum, he made 3,720 beats. chopsticks in 60 seconds. That is 62 beats per second! At that time, Rory Blackwell was already 58 years old.

SPEED OF FLIGHT CORK FROM CHAMPAGNE

German physicist Friedrich Balk of the Technical University of Clausthal in Lower Saxony has calculated the speed of a cork from a bottle of champagne. With the help of photoelectric and acoustic devices, the scientist found that traffic jam speed reaches 40 km/h, flight height - up to 12 meters. Theoretically, the speed of the cork can reach 100 km / h, but this is only possible in bottles that have spent a certain time under direct sunlight and were well shaken before opening.

It was obtained in the center of the explosion of a thermonuclear bomb - about 300...400 million °C. The maximum temperature reached in the course of a controlled thermonuclear reaction at the TOKAMAK fusion test facility at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, USA, in June 1986, is 200 million °C.

lowest temperature

Absolute zero on the Kelvin scale (0 K) corresponds to -273.15° Celsius or -459.67° Fahrenheit. The lowest temperature, 2 10–9 K (two-billionth of a degree) above absolute zero, was achieved in a two-stage nuclear demagnetization cryostat at the Laboratory low temperatures Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, by a group of scientists led by Professor Olli Lounasmaa (b. 1930), which was announced in October 1989.

The smallest thermometer

Dr. Frederick Sacks, a biophysicist at the State University of New York, Buffalo, USA, has designed a microthermometer to measure the temperature of individual living cells. The diameter of the thermometer tip is 1 micron, i.e. 1/50 of the diameter of a human hair.

The largest barometer

The 12 m high water barometer was constructed in 1987 by Bert Bolle, curator of the Barometer Museum in Martensdijk, The Netherlands, where it is installed.

The biggest pressure

As reported in June 1978, at the Carnegie Institution Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, USA, the highest constant pressure of 1.70 megabars (170 GPa) was obtained in a giant diamond-coated hydraulic press. It was also announced that in this laboratory on March 2, 1979, solid hydrogen was obtained at a pressure of 57 kilobars. Metallic hydrogen is expected to be a silvery white metal with a density of 1.1 g/cm 3 . According to the calculations of physicists G.K. Mao and P.M. Bell, this experiment at 25°C would require a pressure of 1 megabar.

In the United States, as reported in 1958, using dynamic methods with shock velocities of the order of 29,000 km/h, an instantaneous pressure of 75 million atm was obtained. (7 thousand GPa).

The highest speed

In August 1980, it was reported that at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, USA, a plastic disk was accelerated to a speed of 150 km/s. This is the maximum speed at which a solid visible object has ever moved.

The most accurate scales

The world's most accurate balance, the Sartorius-4108, was made in Göttingen, Germany, and can weigh objects up to 0.5 g with an accuracy of 0.01 µg, or 0.00000001 g, which corresponds to approximately 1/60 of the weight printing ink spent on the dot at the end of this sentence.

largest bubble chamber

The world's largest bubble chamber, costing $7 million, was built in October 1973 in Weston, Illinois, USA. It is 4.57 m in diameter, holds 33,000 liters of liquid hydrogen at -247°C, and is equipped with a superconducting magnet that generates a 3 T field.

The fastest centrifuge

The ultracentrifuge was invented by Theodor Svedberg (1884...1971), Sweden, in 1923.

The highest rotational speed obtained by man is 7250 km/h. At this speed, as reported on January 24, 1975, a 15.2 cm conical carbon fiber rod rotates in a vacuum at the University of Birmingham, UK.

The most accurate cut

As reported in June 1983, a high-precision diamond-turning machine at the National Laboratory. Lawrence in Livermore, California, USA, can cut a human hair 3,000 times lengthwise. The cost of the machine is 13 million dollars.

The most powerful electric current

The most powerful electricity was generated at the Los Alamos Science Laboratory, New Mexico, USA. With the simultaneous discharge of 4032 capacitors, combined into the Zeus supercapacitor, within a few microseconds they give twice the electric current than that generated by all the energy installations of the Earth.

The hottest flame

The hottest flame is obtained by the combustion of carbon subnitride (C 4 N 2), giving at 1 atm. temperature 5261 K.

Highest measured frequency

The highest frequency that the naked eye perceives is the frequency of oscillations of yellow-green light, equal to 520.206 808 5 terahertz (1 terahertz - million million hertz), corresponding to the transition line 17 - 1 P (62) of iodine-127.

The highest frequency measured with instruments is the green light oscillation frequency, equal to 582.491703 THz for the b 21 component of R(15) 43 - 0 of the iodine-127 transition line. By decision of the General Conference of Weights and Measures, adopted on October 20, 1983, for the exact expression of the meter (m) using the speed of light ( c) it is established that "a meter is the path traveled by light in a vacuum in a time interval equal to 1/299792458 of a second". As a result, the frequency ( f) and wavelength (λ) are related by the dependence f·λ = c.

The weakest friction

The lowest coefficient of dynamic and static friction for a solid body (0.02) has polytetrafluoroethylene (C 2 F 4n), called PTFE. It is equal to friction wet ice about wet ice. This substance was first obtained in sufficient quantity by the American firm E.I. Dupont de Nemours" in 1943 and was exported from the USA under the name "teflon". American and Western European housewives adore pots and pans with non-stick Teflon coating.

In a centrifuge at the University of Virginia, USA, a 13.6 kg rotor supported by a magnetic field rotates in a vacuum of 10–6 mm Hg at a speed of 1000 rpm. It loses only 1 rpm per day and will rotate for many years.

The smallest hole

A hole with a diameter of 40 angstroms (4 10 -6 mm) was observed on a JEM 100C electron microscope using a Quantel Electronics device at the Department of Metallurgy, Oxford University, UK, on ​​October 28, 1979. Finding such a hole is like finding a pinhead in a haystack with sides of 1.93 km.

In May 1983, an electron microscope beam at the University of Illinois, USA, accidentally burned a hole 2 x 10–9 m in diameter in a sample of sodium beta-aluminate.

The most powerful laser beams

For the first time, it was possible to illuminate another celestial body with a beam of light on May 9, 1962; then a beam of light was reflected from the surface of the moon. It was directed by a laser (a light amplifier based on stimulated emission) whose sighting accuracy was coordinated by a 121.9 cm telescope installed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. A spot about 6.4 km in diameter was illuminated on the lunar surface. The laser was proposed in 1958 by the American Charles Townes (born in 1915). A light pulse of this power with a duration of 1/5000 can burn through a diamond due to its evaporation at temperatures up to 10,000°C. This temperature is created by 2·10 23 photons. As reported, the Shiva laser installed in the laboratory. Lawrence in Livermore, California, USA, was able to concentrate a light beam with a power of the order of 2.6 10 13 W on an object the size of a pinhead for 9.5 10 -11 s. This result was obtained in an experiment on May 18, 1978.

The brightest light

The brightest artificial light sources are laser pulses, which were generated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA, in March 1987 by Dr. Robert Graham. The power of a flash of ultraviolet light with a duration of 1 picosecond (1 10 -12 s) was 5 10 15 W.

The most powerful constant light source is a high-pressure argon arc lamp with a power input of 313 kW and a light intensity of 1.2 million candela, manufactured by Vortek Industries in Vancouver, Canada, in March 1984.

The most powerful searchlight was produced during the Second World War, in 1939 ... 1945, by the General Electric Company. It was developed at the Hearst Research Centre, London. With a power consumption of 600 kW, it gave an arc brightness of 46,500 cd / cm 2 and a maximum beam intensity of 2700 million cd from a parabolic mirror with a diameter of 3.04 m.

The shortest pulse of light

Charles Shank and colleagues at the laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (ATT), New Jersey, USA, received a light pulse with a duration of 8 femtoseconds (8 10 -15 s), which was announced in April 1985. Pulse length was equal to 4 ... 5 wavelengths of visible light, or 2.4 microns.

Most durable light bulb

The average incandescent bulb burns for 750 ... 1000 hours. There is evidence that, released by Shelby Electric and recently demonstrated by Mr. Burnell at the Livermore Fire Department, California, USA, first gave light in 1901.

The heaviest magnet

The heaviest magnet in the world has a diameter of 60 m and weighs 36 thousand tons. It was made for a 10 TeV synchrophasotron installed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Moscow region.

The largest electromagnet

The world's largest electromagnet is part of the L3 detector used in experiments at the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) of the European Council for Nuclear Research, Switzerland. An octagonal electromagnet consists of a yoke made of 6400 tons of low-carbon steel and an aluminum coil weighing 1100 tons. The yoke elements, weighing up to 30 tons each, were made in the USSR. The coil, made in Switzerland, consists of 168 turns, electrowelded on an octagonal frame. A current of 30 thousand A, passing through an aluminum coil, creates a magnetic field with a power of 5 kilogauss. The dimensions of the electromagnet, exceeding the height of a 4-storey building, are 12x12x12 m, and total weight equal to 7810 tons. It took more metal to make it than to build it.

Magnetic fields

The most powerful constant field of 35.3 ± 0.3 Tesla was obtained at the National Magnetic Laboratory. Francis Bitter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, May 26, 1988. A hybrid magnet with holmium poles was used to obtain it. Under its influence, the magnetic field created by the heart and brain increased.

The weakest magnetic field was measured in a shielded room in the same laboratory. Its value was 8·10 -15 Tesla. It was used by Dr. David Cohen to study the extremely weak magnetic fields generated by the heart and brain.

most powerful microscope

The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented at the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich in 1981, makes it possible to achieve a magnification of 100 million times and distinguish details up to 0.01 atom diameter (3 10 -10 m). It is claimed that the size of scanning tunneling microscopes of the 4th generation will not exceed the size of a thimble.

Using field ion microscopy, the probe tips of scanning tunneling microscopes are made in such a way that there is a single atom at their end - the last 3 layers of this man-made pyramid consist of 7, 3 and 1 atom In July 1986, representatives of the Bell Telephone Laboratory Systems, Murray Hill, NJ, USA, announced that they were able to transfer a single atom (most likely germanium) of the tungsten probe tip of a scanning tunneling microscope onto a germanium surface. In January 1990, a similar operation was repeated by D. Eigler and E. Schweitzer from the IBM Research Center, San Jose, California, USA. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, they spelled out the word IBM single xenon atoms, transferring them to the nickel surface.

The loudest noise

The loudest noise obtained in the laboratory was 210 dB, or 400,000 ac. Watts (acoustic watts), NASA said. It was obtained by reflecting sound from a reinforced concrete test bench measuring 14.63 m and a foundation 18.3 m deep, designed to test the Saturn V rocket, at the Space Flight Center. Marshall, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, in October 1965. A sound wave of this magnitude could drill holes in solid materials. Noise was heard within 161 km.

The smallest microphone

In 1967, Prof. Ibrahim Kavrak of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, created a microphone for a new technique for measuring pressure in liquid flow. His frequency range- from 10 Hz to 10 kHz, dimensions - 1.5 mm x 0.7 mm.

highest note

The highest note received has a frequency of 60 gigahertz. It was generated by a laser beam directed at a sapphire crystal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in September 1964.

The most powerful particle accelerator

Proton synchrotron with a diameter of 2 km at the National Acceleration Laboratory. Fermi, east of Bateyvia, Illinois, USA, is the world's most powerful nuclear particle accelerator. On May 14, 1976, an energy of the order of 500 GeV (5 10 11 electron volts) was obtained for the first time. On October 13, 1985, as a result of the collision of beams of protons and antiprotons, an energy of 1.6 GeV (1.6 10 11 electron volts) was obtained in the center of mass system. This required 1,000 superconducting magnets operating at -268.8°C, maintained by the world's largest helium liquefaction plant with a capacity of 4,500 liters per hour, which went into operation on April 18, 1980.

The CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) goal of colliding proton and antiproton beams in the 270 GeV 2 = 540 GeV Super High Energy Proton Synchrotron (SPS) was achieved in Geneva, Switzerland, at 4:55 am on 10 July 1981 This energy is equivalent to that which is released during the collision of protons with an energy of 150 thousand GeV with an immovable target.

On August 16, 1983, the US Department of Energy subsidized research on the creation by 1995 of a superconducting supercollider (SSC) with a diameter of 83.6 km for the energy of two proton-antiproton beams of 20 TeV. The White House approved this $6 billion project on January 30, 1987.

The Quietest Place

The Dead Room, measuring 10.67 x 8.5 m at Bell Telephone Systems Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, is the most sound-absorbing room in the world, with 99.98% of reflected sound disappearing. .

The sharpest objects and the smallest tubes

The sharpest human-made objects are glass micropipette tubes used in experiments with living cell tissues. The technology for their manufacture was developed and implemented by Professors Kenneth T. Brown and Dale J. Flaming at the Department of Physiology at the University of California at San Francisco in 1977. They received conical tube tips with an outer diameter of 0.02 μm and an inner diameter of 0.01 μm . The latter was 6500 times thinner than a human hair.

smallest artificial object

On February 8, 1988, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, USA, announced that it had succeeded in making "quantum dots" from indium and gallium arsenide with a diameter of only 100 millionths of a millimeter.

The highest vacuum

It was obtained at the IBM Research Center. Thomas J. Watson, Yorktown Heights, New York, USA, in October 1976 in a cryogenic system with temperatures up to –269°C and was equal to 10–14 Torr. This is equivalent to the fact that the distance between molecules (the size of a tennis ball) has increased from 1 m to 80 km.

Lowest viscosity

The California Institute of Technology, USA, announced on December 1, 1957, that liquid helium-2 at temperatures close to absolute zero(–273.15°C), does not have viscosity, i.e. has perfect fluidity.

The highest voltage

May 17, 1979 at National Electrostatics Corporation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA, the highest electrical potential difference was obtained in the laboratory. It amounted to 32 ± 1.5 million V.

Guinness World Records, 1998

Almost everyone likes speed. The idea that you can move faster than anyone else inspired man to create ever more perfect things.

The fastest person

Usain St. Leo Bolt is an outstanding Jamaican sprinter, three-time Olympic champion in 2008, five-time world champion. The current holder of world records in the 100 (9.58 seconds, Berlin 2009) and 200 meters (19.19 seconds, Berlin 2009), as well as in the 4 × 100 meters relay as part of the Jamaican team (37.04 seconds, Daegu 2011) ). He is the first person in the history of athletics to set world records in these three distances at the same Olympics. For his name and achievements, he received the nickname Lightning.

The fastest land animal

The fastest land animal is the cheetah, a marvel of evolution. He is able to run at a speed of 115 km/h. The body of a cheetah, flexible, with long limbs, is simply made for speed.

The fastest computer

IBM Roadrunner is a supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. Was the world's fastest supercomputer in 2009.

The fastest fish

The sailboat is the only species in the genus of sailboats and the fastest swimming fish in the world. The sailboat lives in the warm waters of all oceans. Has a blue and blue color and has hallmark a sail-like fin running along the entire length of the back. Another sign is an oblong protrusion on the muzzle. These fish develop speeds up to 110 km/h.

The fastest train

A test site was built in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan, where on December 2, 2003, an experimental train of three MLX01 modification cars set an absolute speed record for rail transport of 581 km / h. JR-Maglev uses electrodynamic suspension with superconducting magnets (EDS) installed both on the train and on the track. Residents of the prefecture can ride the train for free, and 100,000 people have already done so.

The fastest water slide

Insano is the fastest water slide in the world with a height of 41 m. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. In height, the slide can catch up with a 14-story building. Insano provides a very fast descent in 4-5 seconds, the speed develops up to 105 km / h.

The fastest underwater vehicle

K-222 is a second-generation Soviet nuclear submarine armed with P-70 Amethyst cruise missiles, the only ship built according to project 661 Anchar. The fastest submarine in the world, reaching speeds of over 80 km / h (42 knots) underwater. However, for such a speed had to pay a lot both in terms of money and high level noise and great damage to the hull.

The fastest manned aircraft

The X-15 is an experimental US rocket-propelled aircraft equipped with rocket engines. The aircraft holds the record as the fastest in the world. He reached speeds of up to 7273 km / h under the control of pilot Pete Knight.

The fastest helicopter

Westland Links is a British multipurpose helicopter. On August 6, 1986, during demonstration flights on Lynx with a modified engine and special rotor blades, a world speed record for helicopters (400.87 km / h) was set.

The fastest wind

On May 3, 1999, during a tornado in Oklahoma, scientists measured the speed of the fastest wind. It amounted to 511 km / h. That day, the tornado killed 4 people and destroyed 250 houses.

from helicopters and spaceships to elementary particles - in front of you are the 25 fastest things in the world.

25. The fastest train

The Japanese train JR-Maglev reached a speed exceeding 581 kilometers per hour using magnetic levitation.

24. The fastest roller coaster


Formula Rossa (Formula Rossa), recently built in Dubai, allows adventurers to reach speeds of 240 kilometers per hour.

23. The fastest elevator


Elevators in the Taipei Tower in Taiwan transport people up and down at speeds of 60 kilometers per hour.

22. The fastest production car


Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 (Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4), accelerating to 430 kilometers per hour, is the world's fastest car approved for use on public roads.

21. The fastest non-serial car


On October 15, 1997, a Thrust SSC rocket-powered vehicle broke the sound barrier in the Nevada desert.

20. The fastest manned aircraft


The US Air Force X-15 not only accelerates to an impressive speed (7,270 kilometers per hour), but also soars so high that several of its pilots received astronaut "wings" from NASA.

19. The fastest tornado


The tornado near Oklahoma City was the fastest in terms of wind speeds, reaching 480 kilometers per hour.

18. The fastest man


In 2009, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set the 100m world record in 9.58 seconds.

17. The fastest woman


In 1988, American Florence Griffith-Joyner ran the 100m in 10.49 seconds, a record that no one has yet broken.

16. The fastest land animal


In addition to the fact that cheetahs run fast (120 kilometers per hour), they are also able to accelerate faster than most production cars (from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3 seconds).

15. The fastest fish


Some individuals of the sailboat species can accelerate up to 112 kilometers per hour.

14. The fastest bird


The peregrine falcon is also the fastest animal in the world overall and can exceed speeds of 325 kilometers per hour.

13. The fastest computer


While this record will most likely be broken by the time you read this article, Milky Way-2 in China is the most fast computer in the world.

12. The fastest submarine


It is difficult to record records in such things, since information about submarines is usually kept secret. However, according to some estimates, the Soviet submarine K-162 developed the highest speed in 1969. The speed was about 44 knots.

11. The fastest helicopter


In July 2010, the Sikorsky X2 (Sikorsky X2) set a new speed record over West Palm Beach - 415 kilometers per hour.

10. The fastest boat


The world water speed record is the officially recognized maximum speed developed by water transport. At the moment, the record holder is the Spirit of Australia, which has reached 511 kilometers per hour.

9. The fastest racket sport


In badminton, the shuttlecock can reach speeds of over 320 kilometers per hour.

8. The fastest land transport


Military missile skids reach speeds in excess of Mach 8 (9800 kilometers per hour).

7. The fastest spaceship


In space, speed can only be measured relative to other objects. Given this, the fastest spacecraft moving from the Sun at a speed of 62,000 kilometers per hour is Voyager 1 (Voyager 1).

6. The fastest eater


Joey “Jaws” Chestnut is currently recognized as the world champion by the International Federation of Competitive Eating after eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

5. The fastest crash test


To determine the safety rating, EuroNCAP usually conducts its crash tests at speeds of 60 kilometers per hour. However, in 2011, they decided to increase the speed to 190 kilometers per hour. Just for fun.

4. The fastest guitarist


John Taylor set a new world record by perfecting Flight of the Bumblebee at 600 bpm.

3. The fastest rapper


No Clue earned the title of "fastest rapper" in the Guinness Book of World Records when he spoke 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds. He spoke about 14 syllables per second.

2. The biggest speed


Technically, the fastest speed in the universe is the speed of light. However, there are a few caveats that bring us to the first point...

1. The fastest elementary particle


Despite the fact that this is a controversial statement, scientists from the European Center for Nuclear Research recently conducted experiments in which the neutrino muon bridged the distance between Geneva, Switzerland and Gran Sasso, Italy for several nanoseconds. faster than light. However, for now, the photon is still considered the king of speed.

Our universe is so huge that it is extremely difficult to comprehend its entire essence. We can try to mentally embrace its vast expanses, but each time our consciousness flounders only on the surface. Today we decided to bring some intriguing facts that are likely to cause bewilderment.

When we look into the night sky, we see the past

The first presented fact is able to amaze the imagination. When we look at the stars in the night sky, we see starlight from the past, a glow that travels through space many tens and even hundreds of light years before reaching the human eye. In other words, whenever a person glances at the starry sky, he sees how the luminaries looked once before. Thus, the brightest star Vega is located at a distance of 25 light years from Earth. And the light that we saw tonight, this star left 25 years ago.

In the constellation of Orion there is a remarkable star Betelgeuse. It is located at a distance of 640 light years from our planet. Therefore, if we look at it tonight, we see the light left during the Hundred Years War between England and France. However, other stars are even further away, therefore, looking at them, we are in contact with an even deeper past.

The Hubble telescope allows you to look back billions of years

Science is constantly evolving, and now humanity has a unique opportunity to consider very distant objects in the universe. And it's all thanks to NASA's remarkable engineering development of the Hubble Ultra-Deep-Field Telescope. It is thanks to this that NASA labs have been able to create some incredible images. So, using images from this telescope between 2003 and 2004, a tiny patch of sky containing 10,000 objects was displayed.

Incredibly, most of the objects displayed are young galaxies acting as a portal to the past. Looking at the resulting image, people are transported 13 billion years ago, which is only 400-800 million years after the Big Bang. It was he who, from a scientific point of view, laid the foundation of our universe.

Echoes of the Big Bang penetrate the old TV

In order to catch the cosmic echo that exists in the universe, we need to turn on the old tube TV. At that moment, while we have not yet tuned the channels, we will see black and white interference and characteristic noise, clicks or crackles. Know that 1% of this interference is made up of cosmic background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Sagittarius B2 is a giant cloud of alcohol

Not far from the center of the Milky Way, at a distance of 20,000 light years from Earth, there is a molecular cloud consisting of gas and dust. The giant cloud contains 10 to 9 billion liters of vinyl alcohol. By discovering these important organic molecules, scientists have gained some clues to the first building blocks of life, as well as their derivatives.

There is a diamond planet

Astronomers have discovered the largest diamond planet in our galaxy. This massive chunk of crystal diamond Lucy is named after the Beatles song of the same name about diamond skies. The planet Lucy was discovered at a distance of 50 light years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. The diameter of the giant diamond is 25,000 miles, which is much larger than the Earth. The weight of the planet is estimated at 10 billion trillion carats.

The path of the sun around the Milky Way

The Earth, as well as other objects in the solar system, revolve around the Sun, while our luminary, in turn, revolves around the Milky Way. It takes the Sun 225 million years to complete one revolution. Do you know that the last time our luminary was in its current position in the galaxy, when the collapse of the super continent Pangea began on Earth, and the dinosaurs began their development.

The largest mountain in the solar system

There is a mountain on Mars called Olympus Olympus, which is a giant shield volcano (analogous to the volcanoes found on the Hawaiian Islands). The height of the object is 26 kilometers, and its diameter stretches for 600 kilometers. For comparison: Everest, the largest peak of the Earth, is three times smaller than its counterpart from Mars.

Rotation of Uranus

Did you know that Uranus rotates relatively to the Sun practically "lying on its side", unlike most other planets, which have less axial deviation? This gigantic deflection results in very long seasons, with each pole receiving approximately 42 years of continuous sunlight in the summer and a similar time of perpetual darkness in the winter. The last time the summer solstice was observed on Uranus was in 1944, the winter solstice is expected only in 2028.

Features of Venus

Venus is the slowest rotating planet in solar system. It rotates so slowly that it takes longer to make a complete revolution than it does to orbit. This means that a day on Venus is actually longer than its year. This planet is also home to constant high CO2 electronic storms. Venus is also shrouded in clouds of sulfuric acid.

The fastest objects in the universe

It is believed that neutron stars rotate the fastest in the universe. A pulsar is a special type of neutron star that emits a pulse of light, the speed of which allows astronomers to measure the speed of rotation. The fastest rotation is recorded at the pulsar, which rotates at more than 70,000 kilometers per second.

How much does a neutron star spoon weigh?

Along with an incredibly high rotation speed, neutron stars have an increased density of their particles. So, according to experts, if we could collect one tablespoon of matter concentrated in the center of a neutron star, and then weigh it, then the resulting mass would be approximately one billion tons.

Is there life outside of our planet?

Scientists do not leave attempts to identify an intelligent civilization in any other place in the Universe than the Earth. For these purposes, a special project called "Search for extraterrestrial intelligence" has been developed. The project includes the study of the most promising planets and satellites, such as Io (moon of Jupiter). There are indications that evidence of primitive life may be found there.

Scientists are also considering the theory that life on Earth could have happened more than once. If this is proven, then the prospects for other objects in the universe will be more than intriguing.

There are 400 billion stars in our galaxy

Undoubtedly, the sun has great importance for us. It is the source of life, the source of heat and light, the source of energy. But it's just one of the many stars that populate our galaxy, centered on the Milky Way. According to the latest estimates, there are more than 400 billion stars in our galaxy.

Scientists are also looking for intelligent life among the 500 million planets orbiting other stars, with indicators of remoteness from the Sun similar to the Earth. The research is based not only on the distance from the star, but also on temperature indicators, the presence of water, ice or gas, the right combination of chemical compounds and other forms that can build life, the same as on Earth.

Conclusion

So, in the entire galaxy, there are 500 million planets where life could potentially exist. So far, this hypothesis has no concrete evidence and is based only on assumptions, however, it cannot be refuted either.