The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped area of the solar system found further from the Sun than Neptune. This area is filled with many small bodies including comets, asteroids and icy objects. The Kuiper Belt lies near Pluto. This belt has millions of icy comets which circle the Sun very fast. The Kuiper Belt is […]
The Oort Cloud is a spherical cloud of icy objects. It extends 13,950,000,000,000 miles from the Sun. The Oort Cloud is not really a cloud. It is a mass of comets which circle the Sun at a great distance. The comets in the Oort Cloud circle the Sun in every direction. These objects break the
Space Junk is human-made object orbiting the Earth without a purpose. Scientists say that about 500,000 pieces of Space Junk orbit in the sky. Any time spaceshuttles travel into space, they leave junk behind. It might be tools, old engine parts, fuel tanks or even an astronaut’s gloves. Satellites eventually wear out and stop working.
The East Cape in New Zealand has the world’s first sunrise each and every day. Cape Mulinuu on the small South Pacific island of Samoa is the place to see the sun before it sets every day. Both New Zealand and Samoa are the two countries located closest to each side of the International Date
Where does the Sun Rise First and Set Last in the World? Read More »
Stars don’t disappear from the sky. But as the Sun appears in the sky, the sunlight falls on the Earth. Therefore, we are unable to see the tiny stars that we see in the night sky. When the sun is up, the blue colour in sunlight gets scattered all over the atmosphere, turning the sky
The Sun is our nearest star. It is located 1.4 million kilometres away from the Earth at the centre of the solar system. The Sun provides us with light and heat. Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth. From the Earth, the Sun looks like it moves across the sky. This
A comet is a big ball of ice, dust and rock. The word ‘comet’ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘hair of the head’. It came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle who observed comets as ‘stars with hair’. Comets come from two major areas of our solar system: the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
The Nile River is the longest river in the world at 6,650 kilometres. Located in Africa, the Nile River lies in the following countries: Kenya, Eritrea, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. It flows through the tropical climate of eastern Africa and into the Mediterranean Sea. The river’s average discharge is approximately
The Dead Sea is the world’s saltiest lake that borders Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. It is almost 3 million years old. The Dead Sea is 304 metres deep. With a salinity of 342 g/kg, it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean. It is called ‘dead’ because of its high salinity which
The Adak National Forest is America’s smallest forest. Located in the southernmost city in Alaska, this forest is tiny with just 33 trees. In 1943, General Buckner had tons of trees planted in this forest. All died but only one tree was left standing. Somehow, a few other pine trees managed to grow back. In
The Ganges Delta is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world’s largest delta. This delta empties into the Bay of Bengal. The delta stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east.
Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest lake. It is located in Siberia, Russia. It is 5,387 feet (1,642 metres) deep, and its bottom is 3,893 feet (1,187 metres) below the sea-level. It is also the world’s largest freshwater lake. It contains 20 per cent of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve. There are more than
At 2,166,086 square kilometres, Greenland is the world’s largest island but it also has one of the smallest populations. It has less than 57,000 inhabitants of whom about 15,000 live in the capital Nuuk. It is geographically part of North America, but politically is part of Europe. It is the third largest country in North
Rainbow Bridge is a rainbow-shaped natural bridge of reddish-brown sandstone. It is situated at the feet of Navajo Mountain in southern Utah near Lake Powell in the United States. Rainbow Bridge is the largest natural bridge in the world at 88 metres tall and 83 metres across. The sandstone at the top of the Arch
The world’s largest peninsula is the Arabian Peninsula located in Southwest Asia. Spanning at 3,237,500 square kilometres, it is the largest and longest peninsula. It contains the countries of Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is the original homeland of the Arabs. It is also the birthplace