Scientists think it rains diamonds on Neptune and Uranus
High-pressure experiments suggest that the ice giants turn methane into large amounts of diamonds. The diamonds are heavier than their surroundings, so they sink inward like rain.
Weird science and space facts
Diamond rain, space that smells like steak, radioactive bananas and golf on the Moon. Every fact here comes from the question bank of Bullshit, our bluffing party game, and each one was checked before it went into the game.
Astronauts back from spacewalks say space smells like seared steak
Astronauts say suits back from a spacewalk carry a sharp smell of seared steak, hot metal and welding fumes. Astronaut Don Pettit described it as metallic, sweetish and rather pleasant.
Bananas are naturally a little bit radioactive
Bananas naturally contain potassium-40, a radioactive isotope. The radiation from eating one banana is about one percent of the natural radiation a person gets on an average day.
In 1965, an American astronaut smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto his spacecraft
Astronaut John Young smuggled the sandwich onto Gemini 3. The two crew members took a few bites and put it away, because crumbs could mess with the instruments. They were reprimanded after landing.
Astronaut Alan Shepard used his visit to the Moon to play golf
It happened in 1971, on Apollo 14. Shepard attached a golf club head to the handle of a sampling tool and hit two balls. He joked that the second one went 'miles and miles'.
Since it was discovered in 1930, Pluto still hasn't finished one trip around the Sun
One orbit of Pluto around the Sun takes about 248 years. It was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh and reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
The colossal squid has the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom
The colossal squid's eye is estimated at 27 to 30 centimeters across, and even 40 centimeters in the largest one collected. These are the biggest eyes known in any creature.
Cultivated carrots were originally purple
In the tenth century, the carrot roots grown in western Asia, India and Europe were purple. Orange carrots were developed by Dutch growers only centuries later.
Botox, the stuff that smooths out wrinkles, is actually one of the deadliest poisons in the world
Botulinum toxin, made by a bacterium, is considered the most lethal natural substance ever recorded. In small controlled cosmetic doses it is used to smooth wrinkles.
Honey never expires: samples thousands of years old found in archaeological digs were still edible
Honey keeps indefinitely, and samples found at archaeological sites were edible even after thousands of years. The popular story about edible honey from Egyptian tombs, though, isn't true.
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