The largest Canyon in Mars

Huge valleys can survive for millions of years in Mars since there is no running water to wear away the rocky landscape.

The Valles of Marineris (Mariner Valleys) is the largest canyon, it was discovered by the space probe Mariner 9.

This valleys was most likely caused by erosion. It is 4,000 kilometers long and four times as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States.

The Ice of Saturn

Shining rings of Saturn are actually tiny chips of ice, rock and dust sorrounding the planet. The rings reflect light and often is seen through from the earth.

Venus

Conditions in the Planet Venus are too extreme for life. Though in the early times writers thought that life could have existed in the planet.

A study on the said planet showed that its atmosphere is mostly poisonous carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid. Is surface cannot be seen due to its thick atmoshphere. However, enough sunlight penetrates the planet and raises the temperature to 480 degrees centigrade.

Due to its atmosphere, the sun's light is reflected making the planet appear very bright when viewed from Earth.

The Red Planet - Mars

Mars is covered by a stormy desert that contains lots of iron oxide. This is the reason why it appears like a rusty red colour planet.

One time, Mars had an atmosphere which contains oxygen, it has valleys that water may have flowed. As of the present, the oxygen are locked up in the rusty iron deposits.

The Inner Planets

The Inner Planets are the four planets that are nearest to the sun. Namely, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are basically different from sun considering that they are made of rock.

The planets farther away from the sun are mostly composed of gas. Each of the inner planets has an atmosphere. Though the atmosphere of the other inner planets are very thin and would be poisonous to humans.

The Planet Mercury

The closest planet to the sun is Mercury. Based on studies the temperature of the planet facing the sun is as high as 430 degrees centigrad. Though the other side is literally cold at -180 degrees centigrade.

Mercury has no atmosphere because it has been burned off by the sun.

The Black Hole

A black hole is an area in space where the force of gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. Usually, black holes are created when burned out stars collapse. It will shrink into a tiny shere of material which gravity is so strong that it pulls everything around it.

Even light is sucked into it. Nothing that goes into the black hole comes out of it. Black holes cannot be seen, but sometimes they can be identified through the radio waves given off when a star is drawn into the black hole

How far are the Stars?

The nearest star to the Earth is our very own Sun. It is 152 million kilometers away. The next closest stars are Proxima Centauri and Barnards Star.

As the light from the star passes through the Earth's atmosphere, it is bent by changes in the air temperature, this makes a flickering appearance. Commonly we termed it as twinkle. But fact is most of the stars burn steadily, and if we look at them from space, there is no flickering or twinkling.

How Does a Star Die?

When the stars use up all their fuel, they burn out and eventually die. But the process would take millions of years.


The Stars usually consume all its hydrogen as it powers it nuclear fusion, it starts to cool, becoming a red giant. The red giant swells, and the pressure at the center becomes great that the star begins to absorb energy, in a matter of seconds, it will collapse and explodes into a supernova.


This supernova is a huge explosion of light and energy that can be seen across the galaxy.

How big is a star?

Some stars are called supergiants, the star Antares is 700 times bigger than the sun. The sun is basically 1,392, 530 kilometers across, which is 109 times more than the earth's diameter.

There is a star in the constellation of Auriga that may be 3,oo0 million kilometers in diameter or 4,000 million time bigger than the sun.

What is a star?

Stars are hug balls of burning gas that are scattered throughout the Universe. For millions of years they burn, thus giving light and heat. These stars produce energy by a process called nuclear fusion. The temparatures of the stars varies from 3500 degress centigrade to over 40,000 degress centigrade.

Stars are actually born when gas and dust are draw together by gravity, forming a huge clump. When it heats up, fusion begins and the new stars appears.

How does gravity work?

world facts

The law of gravity is like a magnet which pulls any matter or attracts any matter. Basically the force of gravity is the attraction between each piece of matter, even the smallest of particles.





The Sun's force of gravity holds the planet in its orbit, the Earth's gravity keeps the moon in its orbit.





The moon being a small object as compared to earth have weaker gravity. This explains why astronauts on the moon can jump high with very little effort.

world facts

The Milky Way

(photo courtesy of www.atlasoftheuniverse.com)

The Solar System including the Earth is part of the Milky way. Commonly known as the Galaxy. It would take nearly 100,000 years for light to travel from one side to another side since the Galaxy is so huge.

For a detailed description and more images of our galaxy, click here

A star is born

Stars are usually born when huge masses of interstellar gas condense. This will eventually enlarge and their gravity will force the molecules together creating a fusion reaction. This will power the young star for millions of years.

How old is the Universe?

The age of the universe can be calculated by analyzing and measuring how fast distant galaxies are moving away from us. Though this may not be that accurate, but somehow this can give us a good impression of how old the universe actually is.

Based on the estimates of the scientist, the universe is about 13,000 million years old.

all matter in the Universe is flying out at enormous speed from the central point where the bigbang took place

What makes the Universe

World Facts and Information

Hydrogen and Helium are the elements that make up the universe. Though there are elements like carbon, silicon and others, they are only a small fraction as compared to Hydrogen and Helium.

Hydrogen and Helium are the two lightest elements .

There are four invisible forces that hold together the universe. Among the four, ELECTROMAGNETISM AND GRAVITY seems to be the popular ones while the other two are STRONG AND WEAK NUCLEAR FORCES.

Encyclopedia of World Facts

The World Facts and Information

Welcome to the fascinating world of knowledge and information. This site will give you answers to your common questions about almost anything you will fine these world of ours.

You can use this site for education and research, as a tool for learning or simply for enjoyment.

Don't forget to bookmark this page and visit this from time to time as we continue to update the site and add more and more each day. As you have notice, new ideas, discoveries are always made and found each day.

The Universe

It was once thought that there were no other planet in the universe until recently, it was discovered through satellite technology that there are many other planets close to our to several stars and that the universe is such of great expanse.

Our solar system plays a great role in our life. We can measure the time as well as feel the seasons changing. But as far as the Universe is concern, it is still great mystery and scientist continue to argue time and time again the many unexplained mysteries of the distant parts of the universe.

How was the universe created?

How the universe was created is a continues debate. Science and religion seems to have collided. However, from among the theories The Big Bang theory seems to be the most popular.
This states that the universe was created by a huge explosion that occurred in a split of a second. According to the theory, all matter was squeezed together into a tiny super hot dense ball that was smaller than an atom. This ball expanded as it cooled and eventually exploded which released energy and matter in all directions.

This explosion happened billions of years ago, as stated in the theory. Yet until now it is observed that the Universe is growing steadily bigger. Galaxies are speeding away from each other