- Light is the fastest thing in the universe and allows us to see back in time. In October 2009, a gamma ray burst was detected 13 billion light-years away, an event that occurred 630 million years after the Big Bang.
- Light may have helped shape life on Earth. Trilobites, the earliest known arthopods, from 540 million years ago, were marine predators with complex eyes, enabling them to successfully chase their prey. They were one of the first creatures to harvest the light that filled the universe.
- A fossil field found at the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, is one of the most important in the world due to its age. At 540 million years old, there’s no record of complex, multi-cellular life before this time.
- The static between radio stations is actually stretched light from the Big Bang and is the sound of the first light released at the beginning of the universe. Scientists call it the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and it fills every part of the universe.
- Colour can unlock the secrets of our universe due to its wavelengths. Blue light has a relatively short wavelength, whilst red light has a relatively large one. So when light reaching us from distant stars and galaxies is red, it means that they are further from us than blue ones.
- In 2004, we saw further back in time than ever before and captured the light from the most distant galaxies in the universe. The image, taken by the Hubble space telescope, called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, was taken over a period of 11 days, focussed on an area of sky just below the Orion constellation.
- The Andromeda galaxy, roughly the same size as the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy with two ringed arms, circling a light-filled centre. The core is packed with millions of old, red stars, whilst its arms are filled with clusters of new, blue stars.
- The light we see today from the Andromeda galaxy has travelled 2.6 million light years to reach us.
- At the Event Horizon (the ‘edge’ of a Black Hole), space is moving at the speed of light, and light is moving at 300,000 km/sec. At the centre, (the Singularity), space and time become infinitely curved and the centre becomes infinitely dense. This is where our understanding of the universe ends.
- Affectionately known as the ‘Vomit Comet’, this aeroplane is designed to simulate zero gravity. At 15,000m the aeroplane stalls and falls to earth, allowing its occupants to float, temporarily defying the pull of gravity.
- Gravity is scaleable with mass, meaning the bigger the planet or star, the stronger its gravitational pull.
- Gravity on Neptune is only marginally stronger than on Earth, whilst Jupiter (1,300 times more massive than the Earth) is 2.5 times stronger. An exoplanet, called Ogle 2TRL9B, has a gravitational pull 4 times that of the Earth, strong enough to distort human vision and make any movement almost impossible.
- All the elements - the ingredients of life - are made in the heart of a star. Deep in its core, the star is fighting a futile battle against its own gravity. As it stops itself collapsing under its own weight, new elements are made in a sequence of separate stages.
- When you burn the different elements, they each give off their own unique set of colours. Sodium is yellow, potassium is lilac and copper is blue. It is this property that tells us from which elements the stars are made.
- By photographing a star and using spectroscopy (an in-depth study of the colours emitted), we know that our sun is made up of about 70% Hydrogen, 28% Helium and 2% the rest of the elements.
- Vega, the second brightest star in our skies, has only about a third of the metal content of our sun.
- Sirius, the Dog Star, contains three times as much Iron as the sun, whilst Proxima Centauri is rich in Magnesium.
- Wherever we look in the universe, we find the same 92 elements that there are on Earth.