By ANN LUST
November 6, 2017
“This cloud is several million times the mass of our sun, 20-40 times denser than the typical molecular cloud, and is particularly fascinating to humankind because it is known to taste of raspberries and smell of rum!”
Space Facts You Probably Didn’t Know!
Sagittarius B2 is a colossal cloud of dust (spanning across 150 light years) that is located at about 390 light years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and surrounds a newborn star. The complicated internal structure of Sagittarius B2 is divided into three main parts- north (N), middle (M) and south (S). This cloud is several million times the mass of our sun, 20-40 times denser than the typical molecular cloud, and is particularly fascinating to humankind because it is known to taste of raspberries and smells of rum!
Raspberries and Rum- Sagittarius B2
- Did you know there is a planet whose surface is made of ice and just inside that surface there exists a volcano
Gliese 436 b, or the Planet of Burning Ice, is one of the most exotic contradictions within the realm of human knowledge, for it is known to literally be a planet coated by flaming ice! However, this apparent contradiction is not entirely unfounded- the planet Gliese 436 b has been placed in certain circumstances that make this seemingly impossible scenario a reality- a wondrous, extraordinary reality.
Gliese 436b, The Planet of Burning Ice
READ: These Cool Facts About Outer Space
- Did you know that there exists a planet of marijuana?
Marijuana supporters will definitely find this latest “discovery” relatively interesting. It has been reported by a website that a new planet covered with marijuana was recently discovered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). According to NewsWatch 28, a statement about the new planet, identified as “Planet X637Z-43,” was reportedly released by NASA’s Astrophysics Division director Mr. David Charbonneau.
NASA Discovers New Planet Covered With Marijuana
- Diamond’ Super-Earth Planet
Planet 55 Cancri e is what’s known as a super-Earth because it is likely a rocky world orbiting a sun-like star, but it has a radius twice as large as that of our own planet, and a mass eight times greater.
READ: Space Debris: What’s the Big Deal?
The Diamond Planet is estimated to be worth $26.9 nonillion (26.9 plus 30 zeros) which makes the Diamond Planet worth 384 quadrillion times as much as planet Earth’s GDP ($70 trillion), according to Forbes.
‘Diamond’ Super-Earth Planet May Not Be So Glam
- Largest, Most Distant Reservoir of Water
Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world’s ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away.
“The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” said Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.”
Bradford leads one of the teams that made the discovery. His team’s research is partially funded by NASA and appears in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A quasar is powered by an enormous black hole that steadily consumes a surrounding disk of gas and dust. As it eats, the quasar spews out huge amounts of energy. Both groups of astronomers studied a particular quasar called APM 08279+5255, which harbors a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much energy as a thousand trillion suns.
Astronomers Find Largest, Most Distant Reservoir of Water
Large Quasar Group(LQG)
A large quasar group (LQG) is a collection of quasars (a form of supermassive black hole active galactic nuclei) that form what are thought to constitute the largest astronomical structures in the known universe. LQGs are thought to be precursors to the sheets, walls, and filaments of galaxies found in the relatively nearby universe
