The Earth Is Not Round
From the time that we are in grade school, we are taught that our planet is round. However, this is not exactly true. Planet Earth is not, in fact, perfectly round. Rather, mass is distributed unevenly within the planet. This makes Earth look bit like a bumpy, deflated ball.
Mountains and valleys dot the surface of the planet due to plate tectonics. Occasionally, meteors crater the surface with gaping holes. The changing weight of the oceans and atmosphere cause deformations in the crust. And the gravitational pull of the moon and sun cause earth tides.
We haven't Explored 95% of the ocean
The ocean is an amazing place. It helps drive Earth's weather, is home to a vast assortment of species, and it covers over 70% of the planet. However, despite its central positioning on Earth-for all of our reliance on the ocean-95 percent of this realm remains unexplored, unseen by human eyes. In face, the number of experts
deployed to study the ocean is not even 2% of the people deployed on land. Scientists estimate that we have explored about 5 to 7 percent of the ocean floor and about a half a percent of the ocean itself.
The Largest Planet Has The Fastest Rotation
Jupiter has the most mass of any planet in the Solar System. In fact, Jupiter's mass 318 times the mass of the Earth. It is also two and a half times the mass of All the planets in the Entire Solar System. And this planet is big. Over 1,300 Earth's could fit inside Jupiter. Since it is so massive and huge, you might expect it to be a bit slow-but you'd be wrong. Jupiter has the fastest rotation of all the planets in the Solar System, completing one rotation on its axis every 9.9 hours (at 24 hours, Earth takes more than twice as long).
Neptune's winds Reach 2,100 kmh
It takes Neptune 165 years to complete a single orbit. Since its discobery in 1846, Neptune has only completed one full orbit around the sun, a feat it accomplished in 2011. Of the eight planets, Neptune is the only one you cannot observe with the naked eye. And its storms are out of this world (literally). The winds on Neptune reach at least 2,100 km per hour (1,300 mph ) and are capable destroying any structure on earth. The strongest hurricanes on our planet have winds of about 250 km/h (155mph), meaning that Neptune's winds could whip all our creations from the surface of the Earth.
Gliese 436 b is coated in Hot Ice
The Neptune-sized planet orbits a red-dwarf star, Gliese 436, and completes one full orbit in just 2 days and 15.5 hours. This short orbital period indicates that the planet in question is located very close to Gliese 436, perhaps orbiting its star from a distance that is roughly 13 times closer than Mercury (the innermost planet of our solar system ) is from the Sun. Amazingly, astronomers believe the planet may host a large concentration of an exotic from of hot water-ice (now dubbed "Ice-x"). The water substance can remain solid despite the blisteringly hot temperatures exceeding 400C / 700F.
