"Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world" - Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith

July 30, 2016

Which one is more: the number of cells in human body or stars in Milky Way galaxy?

Some human cells
magnified 10 million times
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter containing 200–400 billion stars. The human body … consists of an estimated 20 to 30 trillion cells. This means there are approximately 75 times more cells in a human body than stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Amazing! 
(Adapted from Wikipedia Encyclopedia and Encarta Encyclopedia)

July 27, 2016

Our Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth. This name derives from its appearance as a dim "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. 

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter containing 200–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets, with an estimated 10 billion of those orbiting in the habitable zone of their parent stars. The Solar System is located within the disk, around two thirds of the way out from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust called the Orion–Cygnus Arm. The Galaxy rotates differentially, faster towards the center and slower towards the outer edge. The rotational period is about 200 million years at the position of the Sun. The Galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of 552 to 630 km per second, depending on the relative frame of reference. It is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe. Surrounded by several smaller satellite galaxies, the Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which forms a subcomponent of the Virgo Supercluster.
(Adapted from Wikipedia Encyclopedia)

July 24, 2016

How the world of existence came into being

The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure. Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof. Verily thy Lord is the Expounder, the All-Wise. 
- Baha'u'llah  (‘Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas’)

July 21, 2016

Lightning

It’s the form of visible electric discharge between rain clouds or between a rain cloud and the earth. The discharge is seen in the form of a brilliant arc, sometimes several kilometers long, stretching between the discharge points. The discharge also sets up a sound wave that is heard as thunder. How rain clouds become charged is not fully understood, but most rain clouds are negatively charged at the base and positively charged at the top.

Studies with high-speed cameras have shown that most lightning flashes are multiple events, consisting of as many as 42 main “strokes,” each of which is preceded by a “leader” stroke. All strokes follow an initial ionized path, which may be branched, along with the current flows. The average interval between successive lightning strokes is 0.02 sec and the average flash lasts 0.25 sec. Because the duration of one powerful stroke is no more than 0.0002 sec, the intervals between strokes account for most of the duration of a lightning “flash.” So-called sheet lightning is simply the reflection of an ordinary lightning flash on clouds. Ball lightning is a rare phenomenon in which the discharge takes the form of a slowly moving, luminous ball that sometimes explodes and sometimes simply decays.

July 18, 2016

Watermelon

A succulent fruit of the gourd family, native to tropical Africa, but under cultivation on every continent except Antarctica. Its vines grow prostrate, with branched tendrils, deeply cut leaves, and flowers borne singly in the axil of a leaf. Each light yellow flower produces either pollen or fruit.

The sweet, juicy flesh may be reddish, white, or yellow. Flesh colour, shape of the fruit, and thickness of the rind depend on the variety. Weight varies from 1 to 2 kg (2.5 to 5 pounds) to 20 kg or more. The number of fruits per vine varies from 2 or 3 to 15. There are about 145 varieties of watermelon – based on their sweetness, color, weight, and days to maturity.

Watermelon contains vitamin A and some vitamin C. It is usually eaten raw. The rind is sometimes preserved as a pickle.

The history of watermelons is a long one; there is a Sanskrit word for watermelon, and fruits are depicted by early Egyptian artists, indicating an antiquity in agriculture of more than 4,000 years. 
(Adapted from Britannica encyclopedia and Online resources)

July 14, 2016

Angel Waterfall

It is the world’s highest uninterrupted water fall. It’s located in southeastern Venezuela, on the Rio Churún. It has a height of 979 m (3,212 ft) and a plunge of 807 meters (2, 648 ft). It was discovered in 1935 by the American aviator and adventurer James C. Angel, after whom it is named. 
(Adapted from Encarta and Wikipedia encyclopedias)

July 11, 2016

Hyperion: the world's tallest living tree

The tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), named Hyperion after a person in Greek mythology. The tree is no less than 115.72 m (379.7 feet) tall! This enormous tree was discovered only in August 2006 in a remote part of Redwood National Park, California by naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. Their first preliminary measurements were done with professional laser measurement equipment based on goniometry.
In September 2006 the tree was remeasured by Steve Sillett. This was done in the most accurate way: he climbed to the top of the tree to drop a tape from there straight to the ground. This tape drop was filmed for National Geographic.

In July 2006 some other record tall trees were discovered: "Helios" (named after the Greek God of the sun), the world's tallest known tree as of June 2006 (114.09 m), "Icarus" (113.14 m), and "Daedalus" (110.76 m). 
(Source: Monumental Trees)

July 8, 2016

Bees

There are about 20,000 species, or kinds, of bees. Bees live everywhere in the world except on high mountains, in the Arctic and Antarctic, and on some small islands in the ocean.

Some bees are as small as 0.08 inch (2 millimeters). Some bees are as big as 1.6 inches (4 centimeters). Bees come in many colors—black, gray, yellow, red, green, or blue. Most bees live alone. They are called solitary bees. Some bees live in groups called colonies. They are social bees. 
(Encarta Encyclopedia)

July 6, 2016

Canadian Rockies

A segment of the Rocky Mountains, extending southeastward for about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from northern British Columbia, Canada, and forming to the south nearly half of the 900-mile (1,500-kilometre) border between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The Mackenzie and Selwyn mountains farther north along the border between the Northwest and Yukon territories are often included in the Canadian Rockies. To the west, the Rocky Mountain Trench (a geologic depression) separates the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies from the Columbia Mountains, which include the Cariboo, Selkirk, Monashee, and Purcell mountains and are also often considered part of the Rocky Mountain system.

July 3, 2016

Acacia tree

The genus Acacia is any of about 800 species of trees and shrubs native to tropical regions of the world particularly Australia (there called wattles) and Africa. Acacias' distinctive leaves take the form of small, finely divided leaflets that give the leafstalk a feathery or fernlike appearance. Acacias are also distinguished by their small, often fragrant flowers, which are arranged in compact globular or cylindrical clusters. The flowers are usually yellow but occasionally white and have many stamens apiece, giving each one a fuzzy appearance. About 600 species are native to Australia and various Pacific Ocean islands, with the rest native to either Africa or the Americas. Acacias are especially numerous on the plains of southern and eastern Africa, where they are well-known landmarks on the veld and savanna.