NASA Sees Spectacular Sun Eruption Like Never Before (Video) Fact 71

A tiny NASA space observatory built to snap unprecedented view of the sun has captured its first video of a violent eruption of super-hot solar plasma from the surface of Earth's parent star. 



NASA's sun-watching IRIS spacecraft spotted the solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), surging off the sun on May 9. Video footage from IRIS shows the amazing explosion with a stream of charged particles and hot plasma spewing from the sun at speeds up to 1.5 million mph (2.4 million km/h). Read More

What is that red spot on Jupiter's surface? Fact 53

Jupiter's most distinctive feature is a giant red spot that can be seen on its surface. At its widest point, the diameter of the spot measures three times that of Earth. The spot is in fact a giant gas hurricane that has been raging for up to 350 years! The winds reach incredible speeds, up to 360 Km/h. In 1990, a satellite called the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit around Earth. Since then Hubble has sent pictures to Earth of two more red dots on the surface of Jupiter. 

The highest mountain Fact 18

Olympus Mons, on the planet Mars, is an enormous Volcano, the biggest in our Solar System in fact. It measures up to 600km (kilo-meters) across and rises approximately 27km above the surface of the planet, Making it 3 times the height of Mt. Everest! Olympus Mons is known as a Shield Volcano, as it is made up of a layer upon layer of cooled lava that make it round in shape, like a shield. It is not an active volcano though...