Cosmic Curiosities
A day lasts longer than a full year on this scorchingly hot, cloud-covered planet.
Venus
This slow tree-dwelling mammal can take up to an entire month to digest a single leaf.
Sloth
Earth's deepest ocean trench could easily submerge this entire tallest mountain with over a mile remaining.
Mount Everest
You are slightly taller in the morning because gravity compresses the spongy discs in your what?
Spine (or back)
Sound waves travel roughly four times faster through this liquid than through open air.
Water
Saturn is so lightweight and low-density that it would float in a giant bathtub of this.
Water
To survive freezing winters, wood frogs let their bodies freeze solid, completely stopping their beating what?
Heart
Spanning 11 different time zones, this country is the largest in the world by land area.
Russia
Located deep inside your middle ear, the stapes (or stirrup) is the body's smallest what?
Bone
In a vacuum chamber with no air resistance, a heavy bowling ball and a feather fall how?
At the exact same speed
Because Mars has lower surface gravity than Earth, you could jump roughly this many times higher.
3 times
The mantis shrimp punches with the acceleration of a bullet, briefly creating temperatures as hot as this.
The Sun
The Dead Sea is so intensely dense with minerals that human swimmers naturally do this without effort.
Float
Just like your fingertips, this muscular organ has its own completely unique print.
Tongue
Diamonds and the soft graphite inside your pencil lead are made of the exact same element.
Carbon
Inside the atmospheres of Saturn and Jupiter, intense atmospheric pressure creates rain made of these gems.
Diamonds
Unlike all other birds, hummingbirds are the only species capable of sustained flight in this direction.
Backward
Home to active volcanoes and glaciers, Iceland heats nearly all its homes using this natural energy.
Geothermal energy
Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve zinc metal because it is made of this.
Hydrochloric acid
Commercial glass is made primarily by melting down this common beach mineral at extreme temperatures.
Sand (or silica)
Sunsets on Mars appear this surprising, cool color due to how fine atmospheric dust scatters light.
Blue
The axolotl can fully regrow lost limbs, spinal cords, and even parts of this vital organ.
Brain (or heart)
Due to Earth's equatorial bulge, this South American volcano is Earth's closest point to outer space.
Mount Chimborazo (in Ecuador)
Goosebumps are an ancient reflex where tiny skin muscles pull hair upright to do this.
Trap warm air (or body heat)
A raw egg wobbles when spun on a table, while this type of egg spins completely upright.
Hard-boiled egg