Facts that sound false but are true — Page 24
Our highest surprise rating: the facts people most often refuse to believe until they read the explanation. Every one of them is documented.
1017 facts
A day on Jupiter lasts only about 10 hours.
Jupiter is the fastest-rotating planet in the solar system, completing one rotation in about 9 hours and 56 minutes…
Mars is a completely dry planet with no water.
Mars has frozen water at the poles and underground. In 2018, scientists confirmed the existence of a lake of liquid…
There is a maximum limit for the mass of a star.
Stars with a mass greater than about 150 times the mass of the Sun would be unstable due to radiation pressure and…
The anglerfish attracts prey with a light it produces on the tip of its tail.
The anglerfish has a rod on its head with a luminous tip, not on its tail. The light is produced by bioluminescent…
Fugu, a Japanese fish, contains a deadly poison.
Fugu (pufferfish) contains tetrodotoxin, a poison that can be fatal if ingested. Only licensed chefs in Japan can…
The century egg is an egg fermented for decades.
The century egg, a Chinese delicacy, is preserved for weeks or months in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and lime. The…
Mount Thor in Canada has the largest vertical drop in the world.
Mount Thor, located in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, has a rock face with a vertical drop of about 1,250…
Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited place in the world.
Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic, is 2,400 kilometres from the nearest mainland. It has…
The deepest hole ever drilled by humans is in Russia and is about 12 kilometres deep.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole, on the Kola Peninsula in Russia, was drilled between 1970 and 1989 and reached about…
The Antikythera mechanism is considered the first analog computer.
The Antikythera mechanism, found in a Greek shipwreck in 1901, is a bronze device with more than 30 gears. It was…
Auroras are always green.
Auroras can be green, red, blue or purple, depending on the gas and altitude. Oxygen at different altitudes produces…
Volcanic lightning is a rare phenomenon observed only on Mount Etna.
Volcanic lightning, also called dirty thunderstorms, occurs in many volcanic eruptions around the world. It is caused…
Plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe.
Plasma is the fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid and gas. It is formed by ionised gas at very high…
Saturn's rings are made mainly of ice.
Saturn's rings are composed of millions of pieces of ice, rock and dust, ranging from tiny grains to house-sized…
A pulsar is a young star that emits visible light.
A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation. These beams are detected…
The first website was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991.
The first website, info.cern.ch, was created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991. It explained what the World Wide Web…
The Bitcoin whitepaper was published in 2008 by a person or group called Satoshi Nakamoto.
The document describing Bitcoin, titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, was published in 2008 by…
The osprey can detect fish from hundreds of metres above.
The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) has extremely sharp vision that allows it to detect fish from hundreds of metres above…
Spermaceti from the sperm whale is used for buoyancy.
Spermaceti, a waxy substance found in the sperm whale's head, helps the animal regulate buoyancy by being heated or…
Carbonised loaves of bread were found in the ruins of Pompeii.
In the bakeries of Pompeia were found loaves of bread carbonised by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Some still had…
A walrus's tusks can grow up to 1 metre long.
A walrus's tusks are canine teeth that continue to grow throughout life and can reach 1 metre in length. They help…
A mutation in the LRP5 gene can make bones extremely dense and difficult to break.
A mutation in the LRP5 gene can make bones extremely dense and hard to break. People with this mutation rarely suffer…
The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency.
The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency and a unit of exchange. A rabbit cost about 10 beans, and a slave could cost…
Casu marzu is an Italian cheese with live fly larvae.
Casu marzu, a traditional cheese from Sardinia, is left in the open for the cheese fly to lay its eggs. The larvae…