ask me everything a

E VERYTHIN G A SK ME FACTS, statS, listS, records, AND MORe EVERYTHING ASK ME FACTS, statS, listS, records, AND MORe (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Contributors Samone Bos, Julie Ferris, Ian Graham, Susan Kennedy, Darren Naish, Jim Pipe, Carole Stott, John Woodward EVERYTHING ASK ME FACTS, statS, listS, records, AND MORe (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE, MUNICH, AND DELHI Senior editor Francesca Baines Senior designer Smiljka Surla Art editors Angela Ball, Dave Ball Editors Hazel Beynom, Carron Brown, Jenny Finch, Clare Hibbert, Phil Hunt, Ashwin Khurana, Fran Jones Designers Sheila Collins, Hoa Luc, Johnny Pau, Stefan Podhorodecki Managing editor Linda Esposito Managing art editors Jim Green, Diane Thistlethwaite Consultants Philip Parker, Richard Walker Commissioned illustrations Maltings Partnership Picture researchers Nic Dean, Mik Gates Publishing manager Andrew Macintyre Category publisher Laura Buller Production editor Andy Hilliard Senior production controller Angela Graef Jacket designer Hazel Martin Jacket editor Matilda Gollon Jacket manager Sophia M Tampakopoulos Turner First published in the United States in 2010 by DK Publishing, 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 Copyright © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited 10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 176246 – 07/10 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fundraising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 SpecialSales@dk.com A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-7566-6276-9 Colour reproduction by MDP, UK Printed and bound by Toppan, China Discover more at www.dk.com (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Contents Space 008 How big is the Universe? 010 Why are there telescopes in space? 012 FEATURE: Capturing space 014 Which star shines the brightest? 016 How does space technology affect me? 018 How do you get into space? 020 What is a spacewalk? 022 How long does it take to get to the Moon? 024 Who names the stars and galaxies? 026 Why is Mars red? 028 FEATURE: A guide to Mars 030 Why does Saturn have rings? 032 Why do comets have tails? 034 What is a meteorite? 036 Are we alone? Earth 040 What is geology? 042 Where do metals come from? 044 Why are there so many volcanic islands? 046 FEATURE: Galápagos Islands 048 What created the Himalayas? 050 How deep is the Grand Canyon? 052 What’s so strange about the Namib Desert? 054 How do caves form? 056 How does water shape Earth? 100 How can a cactus survive in the desert? 102 What on Earth are algae? 104 How big is a swarm? 106 Why is an octopus so spineless? 108 Why are sharks so scary? 110 Where can you find a parasite? 112 Why are beetles built like tanks? 114 FEATURE: Beetle adaptations 116 How can a frog leap so far? 118 How fast can a crocodile swim? 120 How big is a bird of prey? 122 What goes bump in the night? 124 FEATURE: Ten amazing bats 126 Why are whales so big? 128 Can all big cats roar? 130 How small is a mouse? Human body 134 How many body cells do you have? 136 What is your largest body organ? 138 What is a body system? 138 FEATURE: Body systems 142 What is DNA? 144 How do you think? 146 Why do you need to sleep? 148 Why do some smells trigger memories? 150 Why brush your teeth? 152 How do we communicate? 154 Why are your hands so handy? 200 Where is hot water always on tap? 202 How many canals does Amsterdam have? 204 Which is the largest country in the world? 206 What is the smallest country in the world? 208 Can you really ski in Dubai? 210 How many people live in India? 212 FEATURE: River Ganges 214 Where is the rice bowl of Asia? 216 How many people live in Tokyo? 218 What is the outback? 220 How many islands are there in the South Pacific? 222 FEATURE: Ten South Pacific islands 224 Does anyone live in the Arctic? Society and culture 228 How do people worship? 230 What are symbols? 232 Why do we have myths? 234 What is philosophy? 236 What’s news? 238 Why is pop music so popular? 240 Why do we dance? 242 Who decides what’s fashion? 244 Which country produces the most films? 246 FEATURE: How to make a film 248 Why do people love to paint? 250 What is architecture? (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Contents 004|005 058 Why do storms happen? 060 FEATURE: Hurricanes 062 What’s special about the River Nile? 064 Why is the Indian Ocean so beautiful? Dinosaurs and prehistoric animals 068 When did dinosaurs rule Earth? 070 FEATURE: Ancient four-legged creatures 072 How did dino giants hold up their necks? 074 Which dinos were super predators? 076 Why did some dinos have armor? 078 Which dinosaurs became birds? 080 Which reptiles ruled the skies? 082 Which ancient lizard looks like a fish? 084 Which animals lived in the Ice Age? 086 Where did the earliest humans come from? 088 Who brings fossil animals back to life? 090 FEATURE: Reading fossils Nature 094 What is evolution? 096 FEATURE: Nine incredible examples of evolution 098 Why do flowers look and smell so good? 156 How does your body fight illnesses? 156 FEATURE: Gallery of pathogens (germs) Science and technology 162 Why are numbers so useful? 164 Why do we need units? 166 What’s so great about wheels? 168 How fast can a car go? 170 What is the fastest plane in the world? 174 FEATURE: Aircraft takeoff 174 How does a submarine dive? 176 Why are there so many materials? 178 Why do magnets stick to fridges? 180 What’s so special about lasers? 182 How does science catch criminals? 184 How do microscopes magnify things? 186 FEATURE: Under the microscope 188 Why is uranium dangerous?? Places 192 Where do most people live in Canada? 194 Which is the highest capital in the world? 196 Does anything grow in the Sahara? 198 Where can you find ostrich farms? 252 What can you play with a ball? 254 FEATURE: Spot the ball 256 Which sports are hot in winter? 258 When does an animal become a pet? 260 When was ice cream invented? History 264 Who built Stonehenge? 266 When did people start to write? 268 Why would you want to be a mummy? 270 Who built the first cities? 272 FEATURE: Greeks vs. Romans 274 Why did medieval people build castles? 276 What was the Black Death? 278 What is gunpowder made of? 280 How did trade change the world? 282 What was the Scientific Revolution? 284 FEATURE: Leonardo da Vinci 286 How did life change in the 1800s? 288 What is the American Constitution? 290 When did two million people leave Ireland? 292 What was the Cold War? 294 What was the March on Washington? 296 What is globalization? 298 Index (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Space (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Atoms 4.6% Dark matter 23% Dark energy 72% U n i v e r s e p i e How big is the universe? The universe is very big; in fact, it is bigger than anything else we know about. We can see that it exists as far as around 13.7 billion light-years (ly) from us. We also know that there is more beyond the edge of the observable universe, but we don’t know how much. The universe is expanding all the time—it is bigger now than when you started reading this sentence! The largest structure in the universe is the Sloan Great Wall. Around one billion ly away from Earth, it is a giant wall of galaxies that stretches for 1.37 billion ly across the universe. RECORD BREAKER Expanding Universe 01: When the universe started in the explosive event called the Big Bang around 13.7 billion years ago, it was smaller than a period on this page. 02: Within one trillionth of a second it ballooned to around the size of a soccer field. 03: The young universe was incredibly hot and made up of tiny particles of matter. It has been expanding, cooling, and changing ever since. 04: In 1998, astronomers discovered that the universe’s expansion rate is not slowing down as they thought, but accelerating. 05: For the past 5–6 billion years, the universe has been getting bigger at a faster and faster rate. Calculating the scale 7 We can’t see the universe’s large-scale structure easily because we are inside it. 6 Computers have been used to simulate a cube-shaped region (above) that is two billion ly across and populated by around 20 million galaxies. 7 Superclusters are groupings of galaxy clusters, which are themselves collections of galaxies. 6 The universe is made of a huge weblike network of chains and sheets consisting of superclusters separated by huge voids. Galaxy gang Barnard’s galaxy 10,000 ly wide Milky Way galaxy 100,000 ly wide The most distant object that most people can see with the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million ly away. In good conditions, some people can see the Triangulum galaxy, 3 million ly away. What about me? (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. Galaxy size w Galaxies are huge collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter all bound together by gravity. w The biggest galaxies are around 300,000 ly across and contain around one thousand billion stars. w The smallest galaxies, known as dwarf galaxies, measure a few thousand ly across and have around ten million stars. Earth is in the Milky Way galaxy, which is part of the Local Group of galaxies—one of the galaxy clusters that make up the Local Supercluster. In turn, the Local Supercluster is one of the superclusters that make the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex, which is around one billion ly long and 150 million ly wide. I don’t believe it ! 1781 William Herschel discovers Uranus, a planet twice as far from the Sun as Saturn, which until now is the most distant known planet— the known solar system doubles in size overnight 1916 Harlow Shapley measures the size of the Milky Way and finds that it is much larger than previously thought 1924 Edwin Hubble proves that small, dim patches of light are distant galaxies outside the Milky Way and so the universe is more than just our galaxy 1989 The Great Wall, the first huge, flat sheet of superclusters, is discovered by Margaret Geller and John Huchra 2003–2004 The Hubble Space Telescope looks farther into ultra-deep space than ever before and sees thousands of galaxies—the most distant are 13 billion ly away Blasts from the past The Milky Way galaxy belongs to a collection of more than 40 galaxies known as the Local Group. They exist in a dumbbell-shaped volume of space ten million light-years across. These are some of the group’s best-known members. Triangulum galaxy 50,000 ly wide Large Magellanic Cloud 20,000 ly wide Mass interest J Astronomers are often more interested in an object’s mass than they are in its size. J Mass is the amount of material that something is made of. J In a star, mass determines how a star lives and for how long—the greater the mass, the shorter the life. J The most massive stars are around 100 times the Sun’s mass and the least are one tenth of the Sun’s mass. 1.3 million The number of Earths that could fit inside the Sun 864,000 The width of the Sun in miles (1.4 million km) 3.26 million The universe expands by around 45 miles (72 km) per second for every 3.26 million ly 27 The distance in light-years from the Sun to the center of the Milky Way 125 billion The minimum number of galaxies in the universe In numbers Galaxies have been changing in size, mass, and shape since they first formed billions of years ago. Universe size 8|9 Astronomers have found a huge void: a 3.5 billion ly-wide region of space that is empty of both normal matter, such as stars and galaxies, and of dark matter (material that we know is there but scientists don’t know what it is yet). (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. [...]... shuttle The rocket’s cargo is known as the payload and usually consists of a satellite, an interplanetary spacecraft, or a craft with astronauts Around 250 payloads are launched into space each year How do you get into space? Kourou, French Guiana Kennedy, U.S .A Vandenberg, U.S .A Seven launch sites Sriharikota, India Jiuquan, Inner Mongolia Baikonur, Kazakhstan Tanegashima, Japan Name: Endeavour Flights:... an astronaut goes outside a spacecraft, it is described as extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or more simply, a spacewalk The astronaut doesn’t walk but hovers and floats and pulls to move around To make sure that the astronauts don’t float away, they are attached to their craft What is a spacewalk? Spiders Rabbits Crickets Newts Spacesuits used to be custommade for particular astronauts, but now they are... as a hairdryer! The wavelengths of energy are of specific length and have their own names Short wavelengths such as x-rays cannot travel through Earth’s atmosphere Radio wavelengths, which are longer, pass readily to Earth’s surface Tell me more: energy from space Galex: Looks at galaxies in ultraviolet wavelengths Chandra: Collects x-rays from space objects X-rays Spiral galaxy M81 seen at x-ray wavelengths,... world’s top astronomers as its members WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Sombrero galaxy (below) gets its nickname from its passing resemblance to the Mexican hat We see this spiral galaxy edge-on: its core is the hat’s crown, and its disk is the hat’s rim Barcelona Beethoven Chicago Elvis Eros Helsinki Hitchcock James Bond Karl Marx Kleopatra Mark Twain Michelangelo Rembrandt Sinatra Tolkien Asteroids are numbered... discovery and also given a name, usually suggested by the discoverer These are all asteroids: Objects are identified by names, letters, and numbers, or a combination of these Some have a nickname, but most are known by their official identification The brightest stars in a constellation are known by a letter of the Greek alphabet— alpha, beta, and so on—along with the constellation name Around 350 of these have... have an actual name, too, such as Sirius Parts of solar system objects, including mountains and craters, are given names Even small rocks, such as the one on Mars named after the cartoon character Yogi bear (below), need identification Asteroids Tell me more: naming celestial objects I can see that! Black Eye galaxy The Mice (a pair of galaxies) (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley All Rights Reserved Cat’s... 32|33 What is a meteorite? WHAT’S IN A NAME? A meteorite is a lump of space rock that survives a fiery passage through Earth’s atmosphere and hits the planet’s surface Air friction slows down the meteorite and much of the rock’s surface is boiled away, leaving behind a very bright trail of gas and dust This is seen from Earth and called a fireball Types of meteorites Stony meteorites Asteroid meteorites... been taking satellites and interplanetary spacecraft from sites in the U.S .A Soyuz FG These Russian rockets take astronauts to the International Space Station Long March 2F China’s first astronaut was launched on-board a Long March 2F rocket in 2003 Ariane 5 This European rocket launches satellites and spacecraft from French Guiana Saturn V Thirteen U.S Saturn V rockets were launched between 1967 and... Neptune a vitational influence o mets that by the gra ts The co ese plane than th y are less exist toda dth of those n one thousa lly existed a that origin How to: land on a comet 01 Launch a spacecraft to a comet The European Rosetta spacecraft is already on its way to meet Comet ChuryumovGerasimenko 02 Orbit the nucleus of the comet In 2014, Rosetta will meet up with the comet outside the asteroid belt and... the ages Scottish-Aust ralian astrono mer Robert (Bob) McN works at the S aught, who Observatory in iding Springs New Australia, has South Wales, dis 54 comets, covered more any other perso than n Blasts from the past RECORD BREAKER Halley’s comet is a rare example of a comet not being named after its discoverer It is named after the astronomer who predicted its return – Edmond Halley The comet appears . craft, such as the space shuttle. The rocket’s cargo is known as the payload and usually consists of a satellite, an interplanetary spacecraft, or a craft with astronauts. Around 250 payloads. kilowatts of power to work—that’s about the same as a hairdryer! Gamma rays The shortest wavelengths collected from space objects are gamma rays. Space telescopes such as the Compton Gamma Ray. names. Short wavelengths such as x-rays cannot travel through Earth’s atmosphere. Radio wavelengths, which are longer, pass readily to Earth’s surface. X-rays Spiral galaxy M81 seen at x-ray