Astronomer Percival Lowell believed that he was the first person to observe canals on Venus, but because of a faulty adjustment of the eyepiece on his telescope, he was in fact looking at the blood vessels in his own eye.
4
Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere around 4 billion years ago
13
The population of the Earth has more than doubled since 1950.
151
The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
178
The last time that the Sun was in its current position in space around the Milky Way, dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
10
The heart of an astronaut actually gets smaller when in outer space.
216
There's a mysterious dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter called 'Ceres' which has never been visited by spacecraft or photographed in detail, however, Earth-bound telescopes reveal a large bright shining spot on the surface of this planet, the origin and nature of which are unknown.
5
Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!
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