The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old.
163
When a massive power outage struck southern California in the 1990s, Los Angeles residents reportedly called 911 to express alarm about strange clouds hovering overhead; they were seeing the Milky Way for the first time.
31
The last time that the Sun was in its current position in space around the Milky Way, dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
10
Tidal forces between the Earth and Moon are slowing the Earth down and pushing the Moon further away.
46
The Space Shuttle main engine weighs 1/7th as much as a train engine but delivers as much horsepower as 39 locomotives.
147
It takes a photon 170,000 years to travel from the core of the Sun to the surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to Earth.
6