A Million Earths Would Fit Inside the Sun

If the sun were hollow, you could fit a million Earths inside it, according to Cornell’s Ask an Astronomer. That’s because the sun has a radius 100 times that of the Earth!

Michelangelo Hated Painting the Sistine Chapel and Wrote a Poem About It

There are plenty of stories about how painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was quite literally a pain for Michelangelo—the artist had to be in an incredibly awkward position to complete the work of art. He supposedly hated the task so much that he wrote a poem about it.

The sonnet, which was originally written in his native Italian in 1509, has been translated by American poet Gail Mazur. Here’s a sample: “My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beard’s pointing at heaven, my brain’s crushed in a casket, my breast twists like a harpy’s.”

At Any Given Moment, There Are Approximately 2,000 Thunderstorms Happening on Earth

Some areas of the planet experience extreme weather more often than others. But at any given time there are an estimated 2,000 thunderstorms happening in different locations on Earth, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

Annually, there are about 16 million thunderstorms across the globe and around 100,000 of them occur somewhere in the United States.

The Slinky Was Created by Accident

Inventor Richard James, a naval engineer, was trying to create a spring that could help stabilize equipment on boats in choppy waters. However, his spring’s ability to move seemingly on its own proved more interesting and became the prototype for the Slinky in 1943.

A Brewery in Canada Makes Beer Using Water from 20,000-Year-Old Icebergs

Everyone wants their beer to be cool and refreshing, but one Canadian brewery also wants their beer to be as pure as possible. That’s why Quidi Vidi Brewery in Newfoundland and Labrador harvests water directly from icebergs that are up to 20,000 years old and float down the area’s Iceberg Alley. According to NPR, “The ice formed tens of thousands of years ago from compacted snow … [which] means there are no minerals and lots of tiny bubbles trapped inside. It gives the golden beer a special, very light taste.”

Penguins Used to Be Six Feet Tall

Those tiny tuxedo birds we know and love today used to be the size of a high school linebacker. According to a 2017 report published in Nature Communications, there’s evidence that extinct Kumimanu biceae penguins once stood close to 6 feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds.

The Wizard of Oz’s Full Name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs

In the original 1900 Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel, written by author L. Frank Baum, the titular magic man revealed that his full name was actually much longer: Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

In the story, Oz, as he calls himself, explains, “It was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O.Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled ‘pinhead,’ which was a reflection on my intelligence.”