In honor of the summer solstice — and my getting off my lazy ass to do a FactSlap column — we bring you these tidbits from the solar system we call home:
- It takes the solar system about 240 million years to complete one orbit of the galaxy.
- The sun accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system.
- Earth is the only place in the solar system where water can be present in its three states: solid, liquid and vapor.
- Earth is the only place in the solar system where a total solar eclipse can happen.
- Neptune has the strongest winds in the solar system: 1,304 mph.
- If an atom were as big as the solar system, a neutrino would as small as a golf ball.
- Sweden has the largest scale model of the solar system in the world. It is in the scale of 1:20 million and stretches 590 miles across the country.
