Did You Know? The sun orbits around the Milky Way at a speed of about 220 km (140 miles) per second. Yes, the Sun - in fact, our whole solar system - orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. We are moving at an average velocity of 828,000 km/hr. But even at that high rate, it still takes us about 230 million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way! The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. We believe that it consists of a central bulge, 4 major arms, and several shorter arm segments. The Sun (and, of course, the rest of our solar system) is located near the Orion arm, between two major arms (Perseus and Sagittarius). The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years and the Sun is located about 28,000 light-years from the Galactic Center. ?Learn Something New Every Day By Following My Channel!?

Did You Know? >Dark Energy< Humans can only see about 4% of the matter in the Universe. All the stars, planets and galaxies that can be seen today make up just 4 percent of the universe. The other 96 percent is made of stuff astronomers can't see, detect or even comprehend. These mysterious substances are called dark energy and dark matter. Astronomers infer their existence based on their gravitational influence on what little bits of the universe can be seen, but dark matter and energy themselves continue to elude all detection. ?Learn Something New Every Day By Following My Channel!?

Did You Know? Europe and Africa are only separated by 14.3 km (8.9 mi) of an ocean (Gibraltar) and there are talks of constructing a bridge between the two continents. The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Peninsular Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. The two continents are separated by 14.3 kilometres (8.9 miles; 7.7 nautical miles) of ocean at the Strait's narrowest point. The Strait's depth ranges between 300 and 900 metres (980 and 2,950 feet; 160 and 490 fathoms) which possibly interacted with the lower mean sea level of the last major glaciation 20,000 years ago when the level of the sea is believed to have been lower by 110–120 m (360–390 ft; 60–66 fathoms). Ferries cross between the two continents every day in as little as 35 minutes. The Spanish side of the Strait is protected under El Estrecho Natural Park. ?Learn Something New Every Day By Following My Channel!?

Did You Know? Russia and Japan are still at war, at least on paper. The two neighbours in the Pacific Ocean never signed a peace treaty officially ending World War II. The two countries have been military rivals in the Pacific for more than a century. And actually, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in the last month of World War II, so those hostilities were relatively short. But then came the Cold War. Japan was a key U.S. ally, and there really wasn't a lot of room for negotiation. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was talk of normalizing relations. But the sticking point here has been the Kuril Islands. It's a chain of islands between Russia and Japan. The Soviet Union seized them at the end of World War II and claims them now as their own, while Japan still considers them occupied territory. ?Learn Something New Every Day By Following My Channel!?