50 Times People Learned Something So “Fascinating” They Had To Share With Others

Tragically, this was one of the astronauts who died in the Challenger.

This should be higher

I just assumed they were like skin-balloons

After some research, it seems he repainted it because he wasn't satisfied with the colors and overall mood of this one, as he felt he didn't capture the true beauty and majesty of the night sky. In fact, he didn't even like the famous repainting we all know, because he felt it was too abstract. Reminder that your art and everything you put into this world is probably much more beautiful than you think. 💙

Wild

Even longer will be the decay of the last proton. Protons have a half-life of 1.67x10^34 years. Now that's a half-life so in that many years HALF the protons in the whole universe will have decayed. So by the time that half-life has happened enough for every last proton to decay we're talking a whole order of magnitude beyond 10^106. I think you actually need to use a second exponent to get there. Also, a good estimate as to how many protons there are in the ENTIRE universe.

I’d appreciate it if y’all would stop making me feel small and insignificant. Thanks.

What I think happens when we die is we recarnate on a different world cuz it would be Way more fun than just nothingness

Makes me want to start a holy war to bide my time in forgetful entertainment.

...and once the extreme gravitational pull of all those black holes into a single mass, the instability of such massive forces will result in (another) big bang.

Thanks to AI, I was able to discover why, when I read things like this (or any description of ∞), I feel awfully panicky. In a nutshell, our brains aren’t able to comprehend numbers this big, so they can spaz out. Gonna go try to reboot it now!

Thank goodness! I thought they said 120 QUADrillion years. What a relief!

The real gift is life itself, everything else is of no importance whatsoever. Peace.

Then the black holes will eat each other up and POW...next big bang

A prediction based on complex math, not observations or experiments.

This is beautiful

Our entire existence is lived in the flash-bang of a firecracker.

ooops,,, I blinked....

Sheesh! Thanks?

Except it's all really speculation. Our model of the universe will likely change.

bull. i mean without offending anyone who can be sure this is correct

We couldn't have live anywhen else.

We are so lucky and so insignificant

I like to think that within 120 trillion years, some intelligent life will arise far enough to stop the heat death of the universe. It won't be us but someone somewhere.

White dwarf stars, remnants of stars that have run through all their hydrogen and shrunk into a hot dense nugget roughly the mass of our sun will eventually cool and become Black dwarves approximately 10^15 years after they are formed. Even when dead cold, their density alone will cause the heaviest ones, about 1.3 solar masses, to create iron through Pycnonuclear fusion and will collapse and create runaway nuclear fusion and blow up in a supernova in about 10^1100 years. The lightest, about 1.1 solar masses, will go supernova in ~ 10^32,000 years. That's 32,000 zeros.

If you want to see what that looks like watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA

I mean I'd be more impressed if we lived, as a one planet species, in the time after stars.

gorgeous. could be used as an album cover

It's like a negative of the Eye of Sauron

Wow. I had no idea there was such a massive difference in size.

Looks like a rock thrown into snow.

She looks happier than a bridezilla wearing a $2000 dress.

As some who has only ever lived in flats lands, this is haunting in a way I don't have words for.

Skye

Well, not quite. It's the oldest known living, non-clonal tree. There are a number of things older though. Expessially if you count clonal colonies, which can be in the 10s of thousands, and doubly so if you get into microorganisms that are potentially revivable, with at least one successful revival of a million year old organism and candidates for revival over 100 million years old.

its so cute and fuzzy!!

Ammonite

This is after polishing. Straight after the lightning strike it looks like opaque branching coral because it's coated in sand grains that have stuck to the surface.

had to zoom in!

That’s an amazing photograph

i didn’t really realize this was a thing in the US until i read an article a while ago about it and it really made me wonder how you guys consider this to be “fair”, like i’m genuinely really curious.

NO

So fluffy.

Need more info. For example, the measurement you're taking is probably blood flow, in which case obviously exercise increases blood flow. Also, without further information we don't know if this extra activity is due to damage repair, cleaning out the lactic acid toxins produced by the exercise.

There are a few more than four actually. 8 billion to be precise

Big bada-boom.