Intriguing Short Story Collection

British spelling.

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It Was the Beginning of Everything.

Scientists estimate that the Universe burst into existence approximately 13.8 billion years ago.

It was also the beginning of space and time; the infant Universe could now start on its long evolutionary path.

As the Universe expanded and cooled, there came a time called the cosmic dark ages, with no stars, galaxies, or other celestial objects.

Imagine a sky that is pitch black; that's how it was for 200 million years, until the first stars burst into life, lighting up space.

Go back about 4.5 billion years. This is when our planet was being formed.

Microorganisms were living on the Earth 3.5 billion years ago.

The evolutionary path for life has been long, but we have finally arrived.

Billions of species have existed on our magical world but we are the only ones that can question our existence.

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Pluto Was Demoted to a Dwarf Planet.

Pluto had its planet title taken away in 2006, leaving 8 planets in orbit around the sun.

Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, with a diameter of 2,370 kilometres, making it smaller than our Moon.

It takes an incredible 248 Earth years to complete one full journey around our local star, the Sun.

The space probe New Horizons had a close flyby of Pluto in 2015, providing us with great images and a wealth of new information about this mysterious dwarf planet and its five moons.

What does it take to be a planet?

It must orbit a star.

Its gravity needs to be strong enough to form a spherical shape.

It must be big enough to clear away other objects in its orbit around the Sun.

Pluto failed because of the last requirement.

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Would Aliens Look Any Stranger Than Us?

We often speculate about what extraterrestrials might look like, inspired by strange-looking creatures in sci-fi movies.

However, we seldom consider the weird and diverse life forms that have evolved here on our home planet.

Could aliens be any stranger-looking than the complex life we see on Earth?

Life can exist and flourish from the deepest oceans to the tallest mountains.

One exception is the Atacama Desert in Chile, where some parts have seen no water for decades. Without that precious water, no life is possible.

What would visiting aliens think of all the organisms that share our world?

Even the nice-looking girl in the image would be just another curiosity, but of course, they would notice how we humans have shaped our world with technology.

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It Gets No Colder Than Absolute Zero.

We often talk about how cold or hot something can be.

This short article on temperature might interest you.

Higher temperatures can become extremely hot.

The core of the Sun can reach 15 million degrees Celsius, which is nothing compared to the higher temperature scale.

Cold temperatures are more understandable. Arguably, the lowest recorded temperature on the surface of the Earth was at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica, at a very cold -89.2 degrees Celsius.

But it can get much colder in the far reaches of outer space.

The dwarf planet Pluto is much farther from the Sun than any other planet in the Solar System.

Its surface temperature can be as low as -240 degrees Celsius.

It doesn't end there - absolute zero is the lowest temperature possible at -273.15 degrees Celsius or -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

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No, We Never Came from Monkeys.

We never evolved from any primates that exist today.

Surprisingly, humans and monkeys are both primates. However, we are not descended from monkeys or any other primate species alive today.

Instead, humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived over six million years ago.

The species that lived over six million years ago split into two distinct lineages. One evolved into African gorillas and chimpanzees, while the other evolved into early human ancestors known as hominids.

Humans underwent evolution using the same biological processes that govern the development of all life on Earth.

When the human species becomes extinct, it will be the end of us forever; we will never make a comeback.

The non-avian dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago, and there is no sign of them reappearing.

The end.

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