4. The moon is leaving Earth’s orbit!
The moon is gradually moving away from our planet. True, this happens at a very insignificant rate – 38 mm per year. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Columbia University calculated that 1.5 billion years ago, the Earth’s day lasted about 18 hours. At that time, the Moon was 44 thousand km closer to the Earth than it is now. According to astrophysicists, the increased distance affected the rotation of the planet around its axis, and at the same time the climate and length of the day. In a few billion years, the orbit of the Moon will approximately double, and the day will stretch for 870 hours. However, over time, they will cease to move away from each other, and the satellite will again begin to move towards the Earth, experts predict.
5. A powerful gravitational field slows down time!
Because of gravity, time in space proceeds differently. The more powerful the gravitational field, the more time slows down. This phenomenon is illustrated in the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan. When the heroes get to the planet Miller, the hour for them is equal to seven Earth years. Returning aboard the spacecraft after a little over three hours, the astronauts find a colleague who has been waiting for their return for 23 long years. Almost the same thing happens in reality. For example, for astronauts, time drags on a fraction of a second faster than for people on Earth. And near the black hole, it almost completely stops.
6. The winds on Venus blow at 500 km/h!
Venus is similar to Earth in composition and size, but very different in appearance and surface conditions. The atmosphere of the planet consists of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid vapor heated to high temperatures and has a very high density. Data from the SPICAV spectrometer installed on the Venus Express orbital station showed that in the mesosphere of Venus at an altitude of 85-100 km, ozone is 10 thousand times less than in the Earth’s atmosphere. And the content of sulfur dioxide varies significantly over several days. Thanks to a study using stellar transillumination, when the spectrometer tracked the stars as they rose and set below the horizon of the planet, scientists were able to determine the concentration of the main gas of the Venusian atmosphere. This distribution of ozone indicates that the gas interacts with chemical compounds that winds carry from the day side of the hemisphere to the night side. And due to the fact that the atmosphere of Venus rotates 60 times faster than the surface of the planet, the wind speed here can be up to 500 km/h.
