Antarctica

You’re on a spaceship flying through outer space at a speed of 180,000 miles per second. This is almost the speed of light. Make yourself comfortable, because the voyage is gonna be long. It will last a little more than 90 years. It’s better to use a cryo capsule to not get bored. In short, you need to fly for almost a century at the speed of light to get to a mysterious exoplanet that scientists have recently discovered.

If you could dive right into the mysterious darkness of the ocean depths, who knows what you’d come upon? Legends that are hundreds of years old mention some giant sea monsters hiding deep down below the ocean waves, like the Kraken, the Loch Ness monster, The Hydra, Leviathan, and so many more. Okay, no one has ever seen such monsters, but there are still weird and unusually big sea spiders, squid, worms, and many other animals that grew way more than we’d expected. Take a look at the colossal squid from subantarctic waters. It’s around 14 times longer than the arrow squid that lives near New Zealand. And deep down in the Pacific Ocean, there’s a sea sponge as big as a minivan.

Let’s check out one interesting town surrounded by mountains and woods in upstate New York. This place sits right on a big lake, and the city is called Lake George. People like to come here to go fishing, boating, and take up other water activities. You can meet many fishers, athletes, and a screaming man standing by the shore. Lake George is one of the most popular places in the northern part... Wait a minute. What? A screaming man? What does it mean?

Do you know that NASA explores not only stars, planets, galaxies, or black holes? Hard to believe, but yes! The agency also works on discoveries here on our home planet Earth. So what has NASA recently discovered? Is there life under the ice? While they were analyzing data recently, they discovered something unbelievable hiding under Antarctica’s ice! And this discovery not only changes everything we know about the whole water system of the Earth, but it may also help with research about life in space! Humankind’s existence might depend on understanding Antarctica and its secrets! So, the recent discoveries reveal vital information about our survival!

You find yourself in Africa. Land of unique wildlife, home to a great variety of cultures and languages, and, first and foremost, host to the world’s largest hot desert: the Sahara.

Now, what would Earth look like if it was the only planet in the Solar System? Or what would happen to our planet if the Moon went missing? Or what if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? We’ve all heard the story: over 66 million years ago, a big asteroid hit Earth. Almost 75% of creatures that roamed the planet at that time were wiped out in mass extinction. Amongst them, dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Velociraptor... All gone. But because of that, we’re all alive! According to science, the human race was developing more safely without these gigantic creatures hunting us. But what if that asteroid had crashed to the ground a few miles away from the place where it fell? What would the world be like today? Imagine walking down the street to your local supermarket and coming across a truck-sized T. rex. Could that ever happen in this alternate universe we’re talking about?

Have you ever felt so happy that you were up on Cloud Nine! In truth, they don’t actually number these guys, but they’re cool nonetheless, and I can show you super rare phenomena related to clouds.Hey, what time is it? Hmm, I see Hector, so it must be 3 pm. Umm, who is Hector? Oh, Hector isn’t a person. It’s a thundercloud cluster. It forms almost every afternoon from September to March over the Tiwi Islands in northern Australia. Since Hector has this consistent timing, airline pilots and boat captains have used it as a navigational guide for decades.

Discovering hidden places on our planet is extremely exciting! Today, I’m taking you on a trip you aren’t going to forget anytime soon. But suit up! This is about to get very cold.

A study published in 2013 showed that dolphins and humans had one little thing in common — apart from being mammals — they have names! In particular, bottlenose dolphins, which have their own special whistles, just like human names. Not only do they develop this type of whistle to present themselves to other dolphins, but they can also learn other “names” so that they can better communicate with one another.

Next time you jump into a yacht, you should worry not about the wind but about the waves. An average storm can’t cause enough damage on its own, as the wind is unlikely to tilt the boat over. A wind-driven wave, however, might destroy a lot of equipment and even sink the yacht altogether. Don’t worry, though; it’s not that common to come across a bad storm — or worse, a hurricane — while at sea. You’d really have to be looking for it. Most people with over 20 years’ worth of experience at sea have never encountered extreme weather.

Antarctica is the most remote continent on the planet. It has 90% of the world’s ice, but it’s considered a desert because the annual rainfall is only about 8 inches. You’d probably never think it was a desert if you look at it since it’s white and full of wildlife. But Antarctica is not only what it appears to be on the surface — there is so much hidden beneath it. And even above it.

Question for you: Does the island of Hy-Brasil [hai bruh·zil] sound familiar? You’ve surely never seen it on a vacation brochure. Not because it’s exclusive or hard to reach, but because it’s like the ultimate mash-up of myth and reality. Some people believe it’s just a figment of imagination, while others swear they’ve seen it with their own two eyes! According to historians, the island of Hy-Brasil has been noted in both travelers’ records and ancient Irish legends. It makes this location an Irish version of Atlantis! Although it’s known by several other names too, the island takes its most famous name from Breasal [Breh-zahl], an important figure from Celtic folklore. It’s also been spotted on maps dating back to 1325. One cartographer for example placed it west of Ireland, while subsequent sailing charts have shown it more specifically southwest of Galway Bay.

Leave it to people wandering on Google Earth to stumble upon the world’s newest — and weirdest — places ever! Like this mysterious pyramid discovered in Antarctica. Soon enough the internet blew up with all sorts of theories regarding this unusual shape. Could it be a sign from a different life form? Is this pyramid indeed natural, or is it man-made? For starters, it’s not the first time we’ve discovered a pyramid in the Antarctic. The first one was observed by the British Antarctic Expedition in the 1910s and kept secret for a long time. Its discovery being kept hidden only added to the mystery. A second such structure was discovered in 2016, which further increased the interest in the matter.

We’ve all dreamed of visiting the Arctic and witnessing the natural wonders of polar bears frolicking on ice floes or the aurora borealis dancing across the sky. Well, sorry to break it to you, but you won’t find any tourists flocking to Antarctica anytime soon. Why, you may ask? Let’s dive into it! First off, where is Antarctica? It’s located in the Southern Hemisphere, specifically at the South Pole.

Let’s try something together: open any world map you have available. It can be the one you find in your bookcase or even an online version. Take a look at the vast area covered by water. That’s 71% of the Earth’s surface! And all that is salt water in the world’s ocean. There aren’t any borders between the four oceans we’ve all come to know, but oceanographers and the world’s countries did traditionally split these waters into four distinct regions: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans.

If you’re into mushrooms and eat them a lot, you’ll love the honey mushroom. It’s larger than any plant out there: watermelon, pine tree, even baobab! It’s even bigger than an elephant... or a megalodon. The mushrooms cover miles and miles of the Malheur National Forest, Oregon, and it’s the oldest organism on our planet — some are up to 8,650 years old!

You’ve probably heard about the mysterious sea state of Atlantis. It was a high-tech utopia where people lived happily. But then something happened, and Atlantis disappeared from the face of Earth. Many believe that this city lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. But what if we’ve been looking in the wrong place all this time? What if it’s somewhere different from where they’re trying to find it? What if all this time, Atlantis was in the middle of the Sahara Desert? Well, this unexpected theory has some evidence. But to study this version, you first need to understand what Atlantis was and how we got to know about it. The very first mention of the mysterious city was in 360 BCE. Ancient philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis. His work “Dialogues” described Atlantis as a rich land with advanced technologies. Its inhabitants were powerful, intelligent, and beautiful, like superhumans.

Imagine swimming in a salty ocean deep beneath the icy shell of a moon. There are geothermal vents around you, and they provide the energy tiny microbes need to survive. Or exploring a moon covered in rivers of methane and ethane, where life could be hiding in the depths of craters. The point is — we may not need to leave our own Solar System to look for any sign of life outside of Earth.

They ruled the planet for over 170 million years... And then disappeared. History says it was a huge city-sized asteroid that came from space and hit the land of the Yucatán peninsula around 66 million years ago. It caused terrible environmental changes, debris in the air blocking the sunlight, so the plants couldn’t survive. Temperatures on Earth’s surface plunged, animals were struggling to survive — until they finally went extinct. At least, that’s something many paleontologists believe happened. Now they found out dinosaurs were about to go extinct even before the asteroid. Their diversity started to go down 10 million years before the asteroid — older long-living species didn’t evolve enough to adapt to all changes in the environment, such as higher sea levels, massive volcanic activity, cooler periods. Dinosaurs preferred a warm climate because it helped them to keep a stable body temperature.

A shadow is cast when you have an object in the path of light. Light travels in a straight line, which is why you always get a shadow when something’s in front of a light source — birds and airplanes are no exception. They DO cast shadows, but we can’t see them.The closer the object to a source of light, the denser its shadow, and vice versa: if the object is too far away, its shadow disperses. A commercial airplane flies at 35,000-40,000 [ft] [12,191 m] feet — at such a height, you barely see the plane, let alone its shadow. It’s too far from the Earth’s surface, so its shadow is scattered, and you can’t see it — the same goes for birds.

Attention! Attention! Residents of all countries and cities of the world! A massive asteroid is approaching the Earth. Now its speed is several times greater than the speed of sound, and each day it accelerates even more. Once it enters our solar system, it will fly past Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. The gravitational fields of these planets will also accelerate the asteroid. And our planet will be the final destination! A collision is inevitable. According to scientists, a meteorite the size of Mount Everest can destroy the entire planet. The disaster will happen in 350 days. There’s panic in the streets. People buy and build bunkers. Scientists and astronomers from all over the world were assembled to find a solution.

Hey, don’t we all love wintertime? Gingerbread cookies and sitting by the fireplace and... frozen methane bubbles? Freezing temperatures afford humanity the pleasure of some very weird winter phenomena. Let’s go take a look at some of them.

No matter how old you are, exercising your brain is vital to improve your memory and concentration. And it’s important to start the process at a younger age so your brain health doesn’t decline as you get older. Things like puzzles, riddles, tai chi, and learning a new language can all benefit your mind.

Bathroom traditions in foreign countries can differ, like when you come to Korea, for example, some things might amaze or shock you. Even the way some people wash their hands can be unusual and instead of a dispenser, you may see a weird device with soap in public toilets.