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What are some commonly known facts that are too bizarre for you to believe to be true? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

358 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some 'organic element' since I couldn't accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What's even more fascinating is that most of the stars we see in the sky are afterimages of primitive stars that died out long ago yet they shine as bright as the stars alive today

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That doesn't seem right. The galaxy is only 100,000 light years across (give or take) and the life span of stars is measured in billions of years.

Most of the stars we see are in our galaxy, so at most, we are seeing them as they were 100,000 years ago, which means that the vast majority of them will still be around, and looking much the same as they did 100,000 years ago.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I seem to have made a mistake then. Thank you for correcting it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Thinking about it further, if we're talking about stars that we can see with telescopes, Hubble, James Webb etc, then you're on the money. Stars in remote galaxies far outnumber the ones in our galaxy and show us glimpses of the early stages of the universe. And many of those stars are long gone

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not too sure where you got that number from. From what I can find, the radius of the observable universe is estimated to be about 46.5 billion light-years.

Edit: I see now that you are talking Galaxy. That's different.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The original comment was about stars we can see in the sky, so I was assuming naked eye