› added 7 years ago

159

TIL It can take a photon 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to the surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to earth.

Read more sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov

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LkBeZ TIL some maritime history and the word “quarantine” originates from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian ‘quaranta giorni’, meaning “forty days”.
L7BZ TIL Mona Lisa is far from unique. There were several contemporary versions made by Da Vinci’s presumed male lover Salai, including a nude version.
d8yLQ TIL of Gef, an apparent spirit that haunted a family on the Isle of Mann in the 1930s, which took the form of an 'extra extra clever' 'ghost in the form of a mongoose'.
R7MP6 TIL: Researchers hypothesize that the European Bison originated as a result of a hybrid between two other species. They refer to this hypothetical ancestor as the "Higgs Bison".
ANrVw TIL the Great Pyramid of Giza is not the one with the ‘cap’, but rather the one behind it in most pictures. There is only a 6ft/2m height difference between the two.