The claim that there are intriguing facts about the universe is undeniable. After all, how can you not have in the only place where the saying “the sky is the limit” makes no sense – precisely because there is no such limit? So it is!

No wonder, many scholars spend their time trying to unravel the universe. Questions about the black hole, the existence or not of an end, if there are other universes... Anyway, there are many questions that still have no answer.

Fortunately, there are some curiosities that have already been discovered and that's what we're going to talk about. So, are you ready to know the intriguing facts about the universe? If yes, then let's go, But just know: you will be surprised!

We will start our text not talking about how it all started, but how it will all end. Yes!

There are studies speculating how our Final Judgment will be and the most dangerous and plausible scenarios about the end of the world come from the scientists themselves: the theory of Higgs' Boson, which was defended even by the late great scientist Stephen Hawking.

"Doomsday" would begin with a bubble full of buoyant Higgs energy, which must remain consistent for the universe to remain stable. The bubble would spread like a vacuum, fundamentally rewiring and, in some cases, disintegrating atoms as it goes. Scary, right?

The bad news is that some scientists believe this has already started and the bubble could be on its way to the darkest parts of the universe soon. On the other hand, it should take a long time to get there. That is, we will not be alive to see this tragedy happen!

Have you ever thought that something like “intergalactic cannibalism” happens in the universe? Before you wonder what this means, we'll explain! But already know: this is definitely one of the most intriguing facts about the universe.

When we talk about galactic cannibalism, this means that there are larger galaxies that are out there "devouring" the other smaller ones.

This is precisely the case of the Galaxy of andromeda, the “gluttonous” of the universe and which already devoured a sister galaxy of the Milky Way, about two billion years ago.

A fact that might scare you is that this could also happen to the Milky Way! That is, if the theory of the end of the world that we talked about above does not succeed, it is likely that our Final Judgment will happen when Andromeda swallows our galaxy. But calm down! This is predicted to happen only 4.5 billion years from now.

It is undeniable the fact that, when we think of the universe, we do not associate it with a warm place, is not it? The assumption is that, far from the Sun, it must be quite cold – and it is! This is because the heat emitted by the stars and Sun only affects a small part of it.

Comments aside, there's something you probably don't know about the frigid universe: according to some scientists, the absolute coldest place is the Boomerang Nebula. And do you know what your temperature is? Incredible NEGATIVE 236.57ºC!

But the best is yet to come! Besides being the coldest place in the universe, its shape is very similar to the figure of a ghost. Who discovered this were the astronomers of the Observatory Alma, in Chile, who saw this shape of the Boomerang Nebula, which is 5 thousand light years from Earth.

If you have labyrinthitis, now is your time to make an excuse! This is because, among the intriguing facts about the universe, one of them is precisely about being at more than 100,000 km/h. Impossible even to imagine a speed like this, isn't it?

In reality, the average speed at which the Earth orbits the Sun is approximately 107,000 km/h. Still, this speed is variable, since the Earth's orbit is not perfectly spherical, but rather elliptical. Thus, when we are closer to the Sun, gravity becomes more intense, pulling the Earth with a greater force.

As if this were not enough, our planet revolves around itself at a speed that can reach over 1500 km/h. This depends on its position in relation to the Equator: the closer it is, the greater the rotation speed.

When we think of planets in the solar system, we soon imagine solid planets, like Earth, don't you agree? With this, it would be possible to step on all of them, in the same way that man did on the Moon. Yeah, but know that this thought is completely wrong!

In the solar system, there are four gaseous planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They are formed exclusively by a large heap of gases trapped by a large gravitational interaction and, therefore, it is impossible to step on them as it happens on other planets, which are rocky.

An interesting fact is that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the largest planets in the Solar System and also the ones with the greatest masses, even though they are formed exclusively by gases. In the case of Jupiter, for example, its mass is 2.5 times greater than that of all the planets in the Solar System together and 317 times the mass of Earth.

There is no one who is not impressed by the Milky Way, especially when the sky is clear and with good visibility, being possible to observe all its exuberant beauty. Although it is possible to see it with the naked eye, the truth is that its size is much larger than we imagine.

The Milky Way is huge! It is one hundred thousand light years in diameter, that is, if we tried to cross it at the speed of light, it would take one hundred thousand years to cover our entire galaxy.

However, without taking the merit of the Milky Way, there is an even bigger galaxy, the LQG with four billion light years in diameter! It is a structure formed by seventy-four quasars and it breaks the rules of astrophysics, as the maximum size of any cosmic structure should be “only” 1.2 billion light-years.

Like the Milky Way, another satellite that delights everyone is the Moon. But there is something about it that few know: it was once part of planet Earth. Yes, this is exactly what you read!

The most accepted theory about the origin of the Moon is precisely this one, that it was part of our planet. When Earth was still young, an object at least the size of Mars collided with it. With that, a piece of the planet detached itself, but it did not move away completely. And what piece is this today? Well, the moon!

If we told you that planet Earth is not the place with the most water, would you believe it? Probably not, but it's true. 12 billion light-years away is the largest reservoir in the universe – right in the center of a quasar.

This reservoir holds 140 trillion times the amount of water in our planet's oceans. Impressive number, isn't it? However, being close to a colossal black hole, the water manifests itself in the form of a huge cloud hundreds of light years across.

When we think of volcanoes, it is inevitable to connect them with planet Earth. However, these geological formations are not unique and exclusive to us. Mars, for example, may be one of the smallest planets in our Solar System, but it has an impressive 21km-high volcano.

Called Mount Olympus, the largest volcano in the universe is just not the largest mountain in the Solar System. This record is 22km and belongs to the central mountain of the crater Rheasilvia, on the asteroid Vesta. Anyway, this is one of those intriguing facts about the universe that almost nobody knows!

Among the intriguing facts about the universe, have you ever thought about the possibility of relating part of it to smells and tastes? Of course not? But know that this is possible in one specific place: the dust cloud called Sagittarius B2, which is located in the center of the Milky Way.

Sagittarius B2 is made up of billions of liters of alcohol floating around in there, as well as molecules of ethyl methanoate. Considering these components, it is possible that if we visited the region, we would smell rum and taste raspberries. Interesting, isn't it?

If we asked you which is the oldest star in the Milky Way, would you know the answer? If not, we tell you what it is: the red giant HE 1523-0901. It is approximately 7500 light years from Earth and is estimated to be 13.2 billion years old.

If we take into account the universe as a whole, there are other older ones, such as Methuselah (or HD 140283), which is estimated to be 14.5 billion years old. There is, however, a curious observation: this age contradicts that of the universe itself, whose estimate is 14 billion years. And then, what would be the answer to this divergence, huh? To date, no scientist has been able to answer!

Did you know that in the universe there is dark matter that no one can explain? Worse: no one knows what it is made of, just as no one can see it, as it cannot be seen by any human equipment. Its existence is known only and that's it!

And how do you know that dark matter exists? Thanks to its interaction with visible matter. It is estimated that atoms – which form everything we know, such as stars, planets, etc. – make up only 4.6% of the universe. Of all the rest, 72% of density is formed by equally mysterious dark energy and 23% of dark matter.

Sure enough, this is one of those intriguing facts about the universe that you would never guess about: the universe might be flat. So it is! And this is not a story told by flat-Earthers, is it?

The shape of the universe is influenced by the struggle between the force of gravity and its rate of expansion. If the universe's density exceeds a certain critical value, then the universe would be "closed", like the surface of a sphere. Otherwise, that is, if the density of the universe is less than the critical density value, then the shape would be "open".

However, recent measurements suggest that the universe's density is exactly equal to its critical density. In this way, the geometry of the universe is “flat”, like a sheet of paper.

Among the intriguing facts about the universe is astronomer Edwin Hubble's revolutionary discovery: the universe is not static, but is expanding. And the most curious thing of all: much faster than expected.

It was long thought that the gravity of matter in the universe would slow this expansion down, or even cause it to contract. However, this is not the reality.

In 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope studied very distant supernovae and concluded that, a long time ago, the universe was expanding more slowly than it is today. This intriguing discovery suggested that an unexplained force called dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Have you ever stopped to think about the possibility that there is more than one universe besides ours? It is even unimaginable, considering the endless dimension of everything beyond planet Earth. But this theory is a reality and you need to know more about it!

The idea is that we live in a multiverse, that is, that our universe is one of many. Called the eternal inflation theory, it suggests that shortly after the Big Bang, space-time expanded at different rates in different places. This, in turn, gave rise to "bubble universes" that could function with their own laws of physics.

As you can imagine, the concept is controversial and, for now, it is merely hypothetical, but it would be crazy to imagine that we don't have a single universe, but several that we still don't know about, wouldn't you agree? For this very reason, we close our text on the intriguing facts about the universe with this “bomb” in your lap. How about it, huh?