› added 6 years ago

257

TIL our Milky Way is home to the darkest planet ever discovered, TrES-2b, the coal-black planet which absorbs almost 100% of the light that falls on it

Read more news.nationalgeographic.com

via ift.tt

KrgQ TIL over 30% of pharmaceuticals sold in developing countries are counterfeit. Roughly 50% of malaria drugs and up to 30% of antibiotics are counterfeit, mostly originating from India. Over 700,000 people die every year from consuming counterfeit drugs.
8bwb TIL that Teddy Roosevelt Jr, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, stormed Utah Beach on D-Day. The only general to land by sea with the first wave of troops, he was 56 years old (the oldest person in the invasion), even though he suffered from arthritis and walked with a cane from injuries in WWI.
KO7lG TIL about Operation Wikinger, a battle between Germany and Britain in WW2 that resulted in the death of 578 German soldiers and the destruction of two German destroyers. The British won the battle, and didn’t suffer any casualties or damage because they didn’t show up.
wodaE TIL In 1969, Nixon appointed a Space Task Group which presented recommendations including building an Earth-orbiting space station, a lunar-orbiting space station, a base on the lunar surface, and a human expedition to Mars. They were too expensive, so Nixon directed NASA to build the Space Shuttle
ZpmRp TIL right after the WTC 1 was hit on 9/11, there was no evacuation order in WTC 2 and everyone in the building was supposed to stay put. Only some offices chose to defy this order. This only changed when WTC 2 was also struck by a plane.