The Flight To Australia Seems Short…
We know, we know— the 15-hour flight to down under is anything but short! But think about it like this, the Milky Way, that’s a walk in the park! The galaxy is in constant movement, and the last time it was in this exact position our friendly giant lizards were still around.
It takes 230 million years for everything to orbit the galaxy ONE SINGLE time. That’s so long we cannot even comprehend it. It truly puts into perspective the idea and feeling of the day never ending…
Earth Is Not as Fast as It Once Was
Yeah, you read that right. Not that Earth was really fast to begin with, but, as you know, one full rotation means one day. But, back in the day when the planet was all ruled by dinosaurs, the day was not 24 hours long, but rather 23. This happened because every century the rotation becomes slower by about 2 milliseconds.
It may not seem like much, but this means that the last time the day was exactly 24 hours was in 1820: 202 years ago! NASA is the one responsible for this new piece of information we have, and they have also made the calculation and figured it out that today the rotation is 2.5 milliseconds. We cannot blame the Earth— none of us are as fast as we were when young, and the planet definitely has more centuries on us!
After all, every second of daylight counts during the winter months!
Stand With Pluto
You may already know this, but compared to what we were taught in school back in the day, Pluto has been demoted from the full-sized planet team, leaving the rest to make up the solar system (which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). However, the choice had not been without controversy or backlash as the International Astronomical Union was faced with multiple complaints both from stargazers and astrologers.
The demotion from planet to dwarf planet happened because Pluto is way smaller than any of the other ones, as it is only half the width of the United States. This ended up convincing the people in the Union to take its title away and confused a lot of the people who were not aware of it. After all, not a lot of us bothered to stay up to date with what the planets are up to years after we finished school.
