Portal:Stars/Did you know/archive

• ... that, if the Voyager spacecraft travelled at its current speed in the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, it would take around 80,000 years to arrive?

• ... that the one of the largest known star, VY Canis Majoris, is nearly 1800 times bigger than our Sun?

• ... that our galaxy is estimated to contain 200-400 billion stars, more than the number of humans that have ever lived?

• ... the brightest stellar event in recorded history was a supernova in the year 1006, which was bigger and brighter than Venus for three months?

• ... Sirius's name probably comes from a Greek word meaning “sparkling”, or “scorching”?

• ... the Great Red Spot — a storm on Jupiter that has been going on for 300 years — is so big that dozens of Earths would fit into it?

• ... Earth is the only planet not named after a Roman or Greek god?

• ... the temperature on Mercury varies so extremely that it will rise up to 430 °C during the day and drop as low as -140 °C at night?

• ... a neutron star has such density that a pinhead of its matter would weigh more than biggest of supertankers?

• ... the Sun loses 360 million tonnes of material each day, yet it will glow for 5 billion more years?