Archives: Useless Facts

What is the only major river on Earth that flows both north and south of the equator and is the only one that crosses the Equator twice?

In case you have forgotten . . . . Almost 800 Years Ago.

On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will appear in the night sky so close to each other, they will almost appear to merge. That hasn’t happened under a dark sky, visible from Earth for some 800 years.

You can also watch today (December 21, 2020), starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, courtesy of Lowell Observatory astronomers, who will livestream amazing images of the event through their observatory telescopes.

 

Hops give beer its bitter flavor and aroma.

Hops are flowers (sometimes called seed cones) from a member of the Cannabaceae family of plants and are used as a bittering and stabilizing agent in beer. Depending on the type of hops that are used, they can also give beer a floral, fruity or citrus flavor.

What gives beer its bitter taste and smell?

Earlier today, Legal Bytes posted the answer to which planet spins fastest . . . If you were surprised that Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System, is also the planet that spins fastest, and you are amazed by our universe, this little fact is likely to be even more interesting. The 2020 event will be visible are occurrence will happen after sunset on Dec. 21, 2020, at the beginning of the winter solstice.
If you are still interested or intrigued, read on . . .

In just a few weeks, towards the the end of this year a celestial event will occur and be visible that has not seen for almost 800 years. The two largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, will form what looks like a double planet – sometimes referred to as the “Christmas Star.” This celestial event has not been visible from Earth since the Middle Ages – March 4, 1226, to be more precise. Whether you are lucky enough to have a telescope or you are just curious and want to focus your eyes on the night sky, point your gaze towards the Western horizon starting around 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 21, 2020.  While you can see it anywhere from Earth, the farther North you are, the less time you will have to catch a glimpse.

The rare event occurs when Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in our Solar System, appear close to each other in the sky – separated by 1/5 of the moon’s diameter. In fact, if you do have a telescope you may also be able to see a number of the larger moons of both Jupiter and Saturn.

The overall effect is to make all of these celestial objects appear as a ‘double planet’  and to give you some idea of how rare this alignment is, the two planets won’t appear this close to each other until March 15, 2080 and then again, not until some time after the year 2400.

In our solar system, Jupiter (the 5th planet from the Sun) is the fastest spinning planet. Jupiter’s equator rotates at 28,273 miles an hour. Which means on average it completes one full rotation in under 10 hours!

Pretty fast considering its size. Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System, with a mass that is literally two and one half times that of all other planets in our Solar System combined!

Venus spins slowest at about 4.05 miles per hour, while here on Earth we are spinning along at about 1,037.6 miles an hour.  It takes Venus about 243 of our Earth days to complete one full rotation.

 

 

All of the planets in our solar system are spinning (each on its own somewhat tilted axis), but which planet spins fastest?

In the world of cannabis, the time 4:20 is slang for smoking marijuana (e.g. pot).

For those of you movie trivia buffs, there is a myth that all the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20. While the clocks on the wall in the pawn shop are indeed set at that time, there are at least two scenes where the clock is set at 7:22 and 8:15 respectively.

For those of you cannabis buffs, if you want an interesting summary of how 4:20 became slang for smoking pot, you can check out HuffPost for the scoop!

What is the significance of the time 4:20?

Google’s email service “Gmail” was launched on the 1st of April in 2004: April Fool’s Day!   Shortly before midnight on the 31st of March 31 in 2004, Google announced its launch of Gmail.  Although many thought it was a hoax (remember when there wasn’t any free web-based e-mail service with a gigabyte of storage?).  It was Google’s form of viral marketing.  Seems to have worked!