Lightning can heat the air it passes through to temperatures of about 30,000 °C (54,000 °F). That is regarded as 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. The discharge process, or return stroke, of the lightning is the most luminous part where the electric current moves through the channel. One observation found that the rate at which the return stroke current traveled was around 100,000 km/s (or one-third the speed of light). Global monitoring indicates that lightning on Earth occurs at an average frequency of approximately 44 (± 5) times per second.

You don't use AI in your project? Add your project here or reply to this page: https://noailist.org/add-your-project/
"Made without AI"

In the 17th century, Isaac Newton discovered that prisms could split up white light into a spectrum of colors. He also showed that the spectrum could be recombined to recreate white light. Newton was the first to use the word spectrum in describing his experiments. Today we call the band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye the visible spectrum. We call the colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet the spectral colors and they correspond to narrow bands of wavelengths. Light that has longer wavelengths than the spectral colors are called ultravoilet, while light that has shorter wavelengths are called infrared. Humans cannot generally see ultraviolet or infrared, but there are some animals that can. Most animals evolved to have a visible range that matches what is called the optical window, which is the range of light that can pass through the atmosphere.

Neptune’s winds in the equatorial region have speeds of around 1,200 km/h (750 mph), with some storm systems having wind speeds that reach up to 2,100 km/h (1,304 mph) making them near-supersonic. For comparison, the fastest wind gust ever recorded on Earth was 408 km/h (253 mph). The average airliner flies at around 500 mph. The speeds of the winds on Neptune show just how different weather systems can be on other planets, and highlights another way that Earth is rare in its habitability.

If you look at a gram of soil under a microscope, you will find that it can contain billions of organisms. Most of the organisms are microbial and unexplored by science. Some of the bacteria fix atmospheric nitrogen, while some fungi extract phosphorus and increase good carbon levels in the form of glomalin. Microbes make nutrients in the soil more available to plants. A more diverse soil microbiome results in fewer plant diseases. Scientists now use the term "Soil Health" to describe how well it sustains plant and animal activity, enhances biodiversity, maintains water and air quality, and sequesters carbon, among other aspects.

TON 618 is often cited, but the central supermassive black hole of the Phoenix Cluster (Phoenix A) is potentially the most massive black hole in the observable universe. Scientists use a unit of measurement called a Solar Mass to compare the mass of the black hole with our sun. A Solar Mass is approximately equivalent to the mass of our Sun. The models of the scale of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Phoenix Cluster suggested by the scientists paper indicate an estimated mass on the order of 100 billion Solar Masses. That’s 24,100 times the mass of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A*). This supermassive black hole has a size of approximately 2,000 astronomical units (1 AU = The distance between the Sun and Earth). That’s a size comparable to 50 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto (or if placed where the Sun is it could reach the inner limit of the Oort Cloud). That would make it have a circumference that would take 71 days and 14 hours to travel at light speed (c = 299,792,458 meters per second).

Archaeopteryx is an extinct genus of bird-like dinosaurs. Even though they were small, with broad wings, and had an inferred ability to fly or glide, they had more features in common with other small Mesozoic dinosaurs than with modern birds. Archaeopteryx shared dinosaur features such as jaws, sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes (killing claw), and feathers (among other features). Archaeopteryx is considered an intermediate between our modern day birds and predatory dinosaurs like Deinonychus. In other words, if you’ve ever wondered where birds came from, the Archaeopteryx fossils provide evidence. Archaeopteryx is one of the most famous transitional fossils and gives evidence for the evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs!

Just launched: https://noailist.org/ - support projects that don't use AI. This is a website that will be a list of projects that have specifically chosen not to use AI. Submit your project today.

The fastest-spinning neutron star known is PSR J1748−2446ad, rotating at a rate of 716 times per second or 42,960 revolutions per minute, it’s equator is spinning at approximately 24% of the speed of light, or over 70,000 km per second. As the star got compressed into a much smaller and denser star its rotation speed increased, just like a figure skater, this is called the conservation of angular momentum. Most neutron stars are observed as pulsars. Scientists have also shown we can use pulsars as a positional guide for spaceships.

Our Milky Way galaxy is estimated to contain between 100–400 billion stars. A detailed study observed over six years by the Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) collaboration found that the Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets. According to the study there is one planet for every star on average.

Our Moon is drifting away from the Earth at approximately 3.8cm per year. Scientists know exactly how fast because of the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. This effect is due to tidal interactions between the Earth and the Moon. The ocean closer to the Moon actually bulges toward it. Because of the planetary rotation of the Earth and the gravitational interplay between the Earth and the Moon, the Moon is pulled faster along its orbital path. This boost in speed slowly pushes the Moon into a larger orbit. It also means that the Earth’s rotation is ever so slightly slowing down.

How much DNA do humans really share with bananas? It is often repeated that humans share 60% DNA with bananas, but what is the important nuance of this statistic that gets left out? Genes, which are regions found in DNA that code for proteins, only make up less than 2 percent of your DNA. Scientists looked at that 2 percent and compared human and banana genes and found that 60% were a recognizable “match”, and even of those 60% match the protein similarity was found to be only 40% similar. So when it is mentioned that there is a 60% match, it is referencing the genes within the DNA. Even so, that is still a high percentage match for the genes, showing common ancestry. These are shared protein-coding genes that perform essential life functions such as cell growth, energy production, and DNA repair. All life forms originated from a single common ancestor. One evolutionary branch led to animals and humans, while another led to plants and bananas.