With almost 5 billion people using the Internet these days, it may seem hard to find information that will make you go "Wow!" That's why it's so amazing that there are still some facts that can surprise even the most knowledgeable people on the planet!  



1. The chances are that Earth once had not one but two moons! The second one was tiny just 750 miles across. But then the two moons crashed into each other, and the smaller one, sadly, ceased to exist.  

2. If you have an active Facebook account, you should know that you're among an astonishing 2 billion people who regularly use this social media platform! And that's more than the combined population of the US, Brazil, and China. 

3. Three most sold products of all time are: the Harry Potter books, with more than 500 million copies sold worldwide, iPhone with more than 1.5 billion devices sold since 2007, and Rubik's cube (often called the best-selling toy), with 350 million cubes sold in different parts of the world. 

4. If you want to burn some calories by clicking a computer mouse, you'll have to do it 10 million times.  

5. You can see the world's largest stalagmite(which is a rock rising from the floor of a cave) in Cuba. In Cueva San Martin Infierno, there grows a monstrosity that has already reached the height of 220 ft! 

6. The Canary Islands weren't named after canarybirds! This archipelago is a part of Spain, and in Spanish, it's called Islas Canarias, which is a variation of the Latin phrase Canariae Insulae — "island of dogs." 

7. Scientists predict that pretty soon, the number of people living on Earth will reach the mark of 8 billion. But even so, such a number may seem not that big once you get to know that there are 10 quadrillion (and that's 10 and fifteen zeros)ants on our planet. But what's even more amazing is that the total weight of all people on Earth is almost the same as that of all ants! 

8. The world-famous "Mona Lisa" (a painting created by Leonardo da Vinci sometime around the beginning of the 16th century) spent several years in Napoleon Bonaparte's bedroom. 

9. You won't find the world's longest mountain range anywhere on the surface of the planet. Because it's underwater! The Mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge, located in the Atlantic Ocean, is almost 26,000 miles long, which is as long as 5 Great Walls of China, located one after another! No wonder that makes it the longest mountain range on Earth! 

10. Animals stay clear of power lines because those give off flashes of ultraviolet light. And about 35 different animal species are also sensitive to UV radiation. But if we talk about all the mammals in the world, only apes and humans don't see ultraviolet rays. 

11. Snake Island is an island near the coast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean. This 110-acre piece of land houses more than 4,000 snakes, meaning that you could see a snake for every 6 square yards if people were allowed to set foot on this island.  

12. The largest city in the world is Tokyo — its population is more than 38 million people! It's more than three times the population of Belgium and almost 4 times the population of Sweden. 

13. The blue bird you can see on the Twitter logo has an official name! It's Larry the Bird, and the creator of the social network named it after the former NBA basketball player Larry Bird from Boston Celtics! 

14. There are more than 24 time zones in the world, which means that not all of them are exactly one hour apart from each other. And that's true: many time zones have only a 30 or 45 minute difference from the neighboring ones.  

15. Despite a popular misconception, when you lose weight, your fat cells don't just disappear into thin air. Nope, they just become smaller! And vice versa, when you gain some additional pounds, your fat cells grow in size.  

16. The Mimic Octopus has a perfect defense system: it can not only change its color but also take the shapes of other animals, for example, flounders, sea snakes, or lionfish. 

17. If you've decided to save a few bucks by charging your smartphone less often, let me disappoint you. To charge a cell phone, you use teeny amounts of electricity. That's why the maximum amount of money you can save within a year is less than $1. 

18. The world's population is constantly growing, and a lot of people find it a bit concerning. But what if I tell you that if all those 7 and a half billion people living on Earth right now stood shoulder-to-shoulder, they would occupy just 500 square miles which is the same as the territory of Los Angeles? Now this huge number sounds more manageable, right? 

19. McDonald's once created bubblegum-flavored broccoli to encourage kids to eat more healthily. Sadly, the experiment didn't end successfully: child testers were terribly confused by the taste. The weird broccoli was a failure. 

20. The microbes living inside humans turn out to be way more diverse than researchers previously thought. And what's even worse, almost 99% of the mare unknown to science. Well, that's disturbing.  

21. The first oranges that were brought from Southeast Asia weren't orange! It was a tangerine-pomelo hybrid, and its color was green! 

22. If you come to a zoo and see a giant panda there, then it has been borrowed from China. That's because every single panda in the world belongs to this country, even if it's a cub born in another part of the world! 

23. Octopuses lay up to 56,000 eggs at a time. After that, a super-devoted mother-octopus doesn't eat for half a year, protecting the eggs. When baby octopuses get born, they aren't bigger than rice grains. 

24. Scotland has more than 400 words to describe snow! Some of the most popular include "skelf" (a large snowflake), "sneesl" (to begin to rain or snow), flink drink in (light snow), and feefle(to swirl). 

25. Dogs can smell separately with each nostril— an ability no human possesses. 

26. The longest English word is still not in the dictionary, and experts keep arguing whether it's a word at all. These problems exist because the word has 189,819 letters. Yeah, I know. It's the full chemical name of titin, which is the largest known protein. It takes around 3 and a half hours to pronounce it. 

27. Sign language is recognized as an official language in 41 countries. By the way, there are more than 300 such languages, including International Sign Language. 

28. The only two parts of the body that never stop growing are your nose and ears. They get bigger even when the rest of your body has reached its pre-planned size. 

29. Instead of using good old water, fire fighters extinguish fires with "wet water." They add special wetting agents to it — chemicals that reduce the surface tension that regular water has. It helps the substance to soak into objects and spread everywhere much more easily. 

30. Even though stereo types claim that the Sahara Desert is an endless ocean of sand, it's true only for about 25% of its land. The rest of the area is covered with grave land littered with mountains and oases! 

31. Those 7 and a half billion people who live today make up just 7 percent of the total number of people who have ever lived on Earth. Yes, we just come and go… 

32. Turkeys can blush as often as very shy people do! It happens when these birds are afraid, annoyed, sick, or excited. So, let's say, a male turkey sees a female it likes. Then the pale skin on its neck and head becomes bright blue, red, or white. The snood (that's their famous flap of skin) changes its color to red too. 

33. While some people are bothered by the number of calories they consume, blue whales just don't care! They eat almost half a million calories at a time — and that's 240 times the energy they need to gather krill into their mouths. 

34. Cows don't have upper front teeth. Instead of them, there is a tough pad of skin. But they're lucky to have molars in the top back parts of their mouths. As for the total number of cows' teeth, it's 32! Just in case you wanted to know…