Category: Life on Earth

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Animals Life on Earth

10 Amazing Kangaroo Facts

Hopping kangaroo
A hopping kangaroo. Image source: Deposit Photos

Kangaroo is an iconic marsupial that is indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. Marsupials are mammals that carry their young in a pouch. Here are 10 amazing kangaroo facts.

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Animals Life on Earth Oceans

10 Amazing Mobula Ray Facts

Two mobula rays jumping out of water
Two mobula rays jumping out of water. Image source: Deposit Photos

Mobula is a genus of Batoidea, which is commonly known as rays. Mobula rays (scientific name: Mobula tarapacana) are also known as “flying mobula”, “flying rays”, “eagle rays”, or “devil rays”. Here are 10 amazing Mobula ray facts.

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Insects Life on Earth

Giant Weta: the heaviest insect on Earth [10 amazing giant weta facts]

The Giant Weta
The Giant Weta is the heaviest insect on Earth. There are eleven species of giant weta, most of which are larger than another weta, despite the latter already being large by insect standards. The largest species is the Little Barrier Island giant weta. Large species can be up to 10 centimeters (4 in) not inclusive of legs and antennae, with body mass usually no more than 35 grams. But rarely, a female filled with eggs can reach up to 70 grams or more: one captive female reached a mass of about 70 grams (2.5 oz.), making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world and even heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant weta is the Little Barrier Island giant weta, also known as the wētāpunga, which means the "god of ugly things" in the Maori language. One example reported in 2011 weighed 71 grams, and a 72 grams specimen has been recorded.

In the small islands of New Zealand, the world’s heaviest insect lives – The Giant weta. There are 70 types of species of weta in the genus Deinacrida of the family Anostostomatidae.

Giant weta is the heaviest insect on Earth. Fully grown species can even be heavier than a mouse or sparrow.

Giant weta is endemic to New Zealand and is an example of island gigantism, which is a biological phenomenon leading to a larger size than their mainland relatives because of their isolation and lack of large predators. A female giant weta filled with eggs can reach up to 70 grams (2.47 oz.) or more!

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Earth from Space Astronomy Life on Earth Solar System Space Exploration

Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot
This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed 'Pale Blue Dot', is a part of the first ever 'portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. Image: NASA Probably the most iconic photo of Earth from space. It is known as "Pale Blue Dot". At the request of Carl Sagan, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space. In the photograph, the Earth is shown as a fraction of a pixel (0.12 pixel in size) against the vastness of space. The photo was taken about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40 AU) from Earth. "Consider again that dot [Earth]. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."  --Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

The farthest spacecraft from Earth, NASA’s Voyager 1 (see notes 1) probe took a photo of planet Earth on February 14, 1990, from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40 AU (see notes 2) from Earth. The photo is known as the Pale Blue Dot. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a fraction of a pixel (0.12 pixel in size) against the vastness of space. It was a part of the Solar System Family Portrait series of images.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan (see notes 3).

It quickly became the most iconic photo of Earth taken from space.

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