By Dr Paul Bundi Human beings are endowed with remarkable resilience, which can only be broken when they choose to give up. Says Viktor Frankl in his seminal book, Man's Search for Meaning; ''it is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future-sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in thd most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.'' Man's life is primarily driven by the desire for future, the unshakable belief that the future holds promise. We invariably cease to live when we think we have hit a dead end, or that there's nothing more to be had by living. Theoretically, there is no limit to man's achievement, and that is what drives men to wake up and strive day after day. The opposite is spiritual, psychological death, which manifests way ahead of physical death. Lesson? Losing today doesn't mean losing always. You can lose 10 times and win the 11th time. Or, you
1. Amazing fact is that Sun is 99.86 % mass in the solar system.
2. All other planets with moons, comets , asteroids etc just make up just 0.14 % most of which is in Jupiter.
3. Amazingly in spite of Sun being average sized star , 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the sun.
4. If you consider sun’s surface , about 109 planet Earths would fit on the surface.
5. Sun as a star is classified as G2 dwarf.
6. The largest known star UY Scuti is 5 billion times the size of the Sun and it takes 2.2 hours to cross its diameter at the speed of light.
7. Sun’s composition is about 75 percent hydrogen, 23 percent helium, and 2 percent heavier elements.
8. The sun has a diameter that is more than 100 times that of Earth.
9. The sun is the closest star to Earth and is 149.60 million kilometers (92.96 million miles) away.
10. The sun is orbited by nine major planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto which is no longer an official planet.
11. All planets orbit the sun in the same direction, counter clockwise, and on roughly the same plane, known as the ecliptic.
12. Amazingly it would take brightness of 4,00,000 moons to equal the brightness of the Sun.
13. The Sun creates energy through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium.
14. Amazing fact is that only half the billionth of energy released by Sun reaches the earth.
15. The sun is actually white but perceived as yellow because of the atmospheric scattering.
16. The sun is 4.6 billion years old and is in its midlife since it is capable of maintaining a life-bearing Earth for about 11 billion years.
17. In another 5.4 billion years, it will become a Red Giant and planet Earth will not be able to escape engulfment.
18. Presently the sun will continue to burn hydrogen collected in its core but helium will become its primary fuel when it becomes red giant.
19. Amazing fact is that the sun looses 4 million tonnes of material every second and also shrinks five feet every hour but has enough in it to last for another 5 billion years.
20. Amazingly 100 billion tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to match the energy produced by the sun.
21. At its core, the sun’s temperature is about 15 million degrees Celsius (about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit).
22. The average temperature of the sun is only 5700 degrees Kelvin.
23. There are loops of super heated plasma on the surface of the sun called Coronal Loops that can reach up to 1 million degrees Kelvin. In fact one recorded loop reached the size of 10 Earths.
24. Amazingly if a piece of a sun the size of pinhead was to be placed on earth , you could not safely stand within 90 miles of it.
25. If the sun were the size of the dot over the letter I , the nearest star would be a dot 10 miles away.
26. If our Sun was just an inch away from earth, the nearest star would be 445 miles away.
27. If the Sun was to be scaled down to the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way would be the size of the continental United States.
28. The sun rotates on its axis once every 25.38 Earth days or 609.12 hours.
29. Sun travels at the speed of 250 Km per second and it takes amazing 230 million years to complete revolution of the galaxy which is about 100,000 light years.
30. The Sun is thought to have completed about 20 orbits of the galaxy during its lifetime and just 1/1250th of an orbit since the origin of humans.
31. The last time the sun was in its current position, dinosaurs were on the Earth, and would be for another 180 million years or so.
32. In fact the solar system is currently travelling through an interstellar cloud that is as hot as the surface of the sun and 30 light years long.
33. The largest known star UY Scuti is 5 billion times the size of the Sun. Amazingly it would take 2.2 hours to cross its diameter at the speed of light.
34. Every 11 years, solar activity surges. The sunspots that pepper the sun explode, hurtling massive clouds of gas known as “CMEs” through the solar system. This is called “solar maximum.”
35. Approximately every 11 years, the sun reverses its overall magnetic polarity: its north magnetic pole becomes a south pole, and vice versa.
36. During a period from 1645 to 1720 A.D., astronomers detected almost no sunspot activity on the sun. Called the “Maunder Minimum,” this event coincided with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a 350-year cold spell that gripped much of Europe and North America.
37. The sun radiates heat and a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind, which blows about 280 miles (450 kilometers) per second throughout the solar system.
38. The sun is about three million miles closer to the earth on January 1st than it is on June 1st.
39. The sun is 400 times bigger and also 400 x further away than the moon resulting in almost identical in size in our sky.
40. Amazing fact is that the light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old. It started out in the core of the sun 30000 years ago. It spent most of the time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it left the sun.
41. Amazingly Solar flares reach temperatures of 10 million °C and have the energy of a million atom bombs.
42. All satellites orbiting Earth must complete an orbit in less than 7 months. Otherwise, they will fall out of Earth orbit and orbit the Sun instead.
43. Comet tails always face away from the Sun.
44. Amazing fact is that Kilogram for kilogram, the human body generates 8000 times more power than the Sun.
45. Jupiter’s Magnetosphere (strength of the magnetic field) is larger than the entire Sun and nearly 20,000 times greater than Earth’s.
46. Neptune has only completed one orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 1846.
47. A person weighing 100 Kg on Earth would weigh 2,800 Kg on the sun because the sun’s gravity is 28 times that of Earth.
48. A piece of Apollo 12 floated around the sun for 31 years only to return to orbit around the earth in 2002 and managed to leave earth’s orbit again. It may return to orbit the Earth in the mid-2040s.
49. The Greek philosopher Aristarchus is credited as being the first person to claim that the Earth orbited the sun.
50. In the 16 th century, Nicholas Copernicus also argued that it was the Earth that travelled around the sun but nobody believed him until Newton formulated his laws of motion.
51. There is a town in the Italian Alps that does not get any direct sunlight for 84 days which has been fixed by installing a giant mirror on the side of the mountain.
52. In ancient Egypt, the sun god Ra was the dominant figure among the high gods. He achieved the highest status because he was believed to have created himself and eight other gods.
53. Japan’s flag is called Hinomaru, which literally means Disk of the Sun.
54. The characters which make up Japan’s name mean “sun origin” and its flag depicts the rising sun.
55. In Libya, both male and female mummies have been discovered with tattoos symbolizing sun worship.
2. All other planets with moons, comets , asteroids etc just make up just 0.14 % most of which is in Jupiter.
3. Amazingly in spite of Sun being average sized star , 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the sun.
4. If you consider sun’s surface , about 109 planet Earths would fit on the surface.
5. Sun as a star is classified as G2 dwarf.
6. The largest known star UY Scuti is 5 billion times the size of the Sun and it takes 2.2 hours to cross its diameter at the speed of light.
7. Sun’s composition is about 75 percent hydrogen, 23 percent helium, and 2 percent heavier elements.
8. The sun has a diameter that is more than 100 times that of Earth.
9. The sun is the closest star to Earth and is 149.60 million kilometers (92.96 million miles) away.
10. The sun is orbited by nine major planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto which is no longer an official planet.
11. All planets orbit the sun in the same direction, counter clockwise, and on roughly the same plane, known as the ecliptic.
12. Amazingly it would take brightness of 4,00,000 moons to equal the brightness of the Sun.
13. The Sun creates energy through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium.
14. Amazing fact is that only half the billionth of energy released by Sun reaches the earth.
15. The sun is actually white but perceived as yellow because of the atmospheric scattering.
16. The sun is 4.6 billion years old and is in its midlife since it is capable of maintaining a life-bearing Earth for about 11 billion years.
17. In another 5.4 billion years, it will become a Red Giant and planet Earth will not be able to escape engulfment.
18. Presently the sun will continue to burn hydrogen collected in its core but helium will become its primary fuel when it becomes red giant.
19. Amazing fact is that the sun looses 4 million tonnes of material every second and also shrinks five feet every hour but has enough in it to last for another 5 billion years.
20. Amazingly 100 billion tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to match the energy produced by the sun.
21. At its core, the sun’s temperature is about 15 million degrees Celsius (about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit).
22. The average temperature of the sun is only 5700 degrees Kelvin.
23. There are loops of super heated plasma on the surface of the sun called Coronal Loops that can reach up to 1 million degrees Kelvin. In fact one recorded loop reached the size of 10 Earths.
24. Amazingly if a piece of a sun the size of pinhead was to be placed on earth , you could not safely stand within 90 miles of it.
25. If the sun were the size of the dot over the letter I , the nearest star would be a dot 10 miles away.
26. If our Sun was just an inch away from earth, the nearest star would be 445 miles away.
27. If the Sun was to be scaled down to the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way would be the size of the continental United States.
28. The sun rotates on its axis once every 25.38 Earth days or 609.12 hours.
29. Sun travels at the speed of 250 Km per second and it takes amazing 230 million years to complete revolution of the galaxy which is about 100,000 light years.
30. The Sun is thought to have completed about 20 orbits of the galaxy during its lifetime and just 1/1250th of an orbit since the origin of humans.
31. The last time the sun was in its current position, dinosaurs were on the Earth, and would be for another 180 million years or so.
32. In fact the solar system is currently travelling through an interstellar cloud that is as hot as the surface of the sun and 30 light years long.
33. The largest known star UY Scuti is 5 billion times the size of the Sun. Amazingly it would take 2.2 hours to cross its diameter at the speed of light.
34. Every 11 years, solar activity surges. The sunspots that pepper the sun explode, hurtling massive clouds of gas known as “CMEs” through the solar system. This is called “solar maximum.”
35. Approximately every 11 years, the sun reverses its overall magnetic polarity: its north magnetic pole becomes a south pole, and vice versa.
36. During a period from 1645 to 1720 A.D., astronomers detected almost no sunspot activity on the sun. Called the “Maunder Minimum,” this event coincided with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a 350-year cold spell that gripped much of Europe and North America.
37. The sun radiates heat and a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind, which blows about 280 miles (450 kilometers) per second throughout the solar system.
38. The sun is about three million miles closer to the earth on January 1st than it is on June 1st.
39. The sun is 400 times bigger and also 400 x further away than the moon resulting in almost identical in size in our sky.
40. Amazing fact is that the light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old. It started out in the core of the sun 30000 years ago. It spent most of the time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it left the sun.
41. Amazingly Solar flares reach temperatures of 10 million °C and have the energy of a million atom bombs.
42. All satellites orbiting Earth must complete an orbit in less than 7 months. Otherwise, they will fall out of Earth orbit and orbit the Sun instead.
43. Comet tails always face away from the Sun.
44. Amazing fact is that Kilogram for kilogram, the human body generates 8000 times more power than the Sun.
45. Jupiter’s Magnetosphere (strength of the magnetic field) is larger than the entire Sun and nearly 20,000 times greater than Earth’s.
46. Neptune has only completed one orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 1846.
47. A person weighing 100 Kg on Earth would weigh 2,800 Kg on the sun because the sun’s gravity is 28 times that of Earth.
48. A piece of Apollo 12 floated around the sun for 31 years only to return to orbit around the earth in 2002 and managed to leave earth’s orbit again. It may return to orbit the Earth in the mid-2040s.
49. The Greek philosopher Aristarchus is credited as being the first person to claim that the Earth orbited the sun.
50. In the 16 th century, Nicholas Copernicus also argued that it was the Earth that travelled around the sun but nobody believed him until Newton formulated his laws of motion.
51. There is a town in the Italian Alps that does not get any direct sunlight for 84 days which has been fixed by installing a giant mirror on the side of the mountain.
52. In ancient Egypt, the sun god Ra was the dominant figure among the high gods. He achieved the highest status because he was believed to have created himself and eight other gods.
53. Japan’s flag is called Hinomaru, which literally means Disk of the Sun.
54. The characters which make up Japan’s name mean “sun origin” and its flag depicts the rising sun.
55. In Libya, both male and female mummies have been discovered with tattoos symbolizing sun worship.
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