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Voyager 2's Historic Uranus Flyby
1. NASA's Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus, conducting a flyby in 1986. During this mission, Voyager 2 provided the first and only close-up images and data of the planet, its rings, and its moons.
2. In 1260, a 10,000-strong Mongol force was annihilated by Egyptian Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut after falling for a classic feigned retreat-ironically, a favorite Mongol strategy.
3. Every time Io enters Jupiter's shadow, its atmosphere freezes solid and crashes onto the surface. When Io re-enters sunlight, the frozen atmosphere thaws and returns to a gaseous state.
4. In 1760, French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil traveled to India to observe Venus. Unfortunately, his ship blew off course, causing him to miss the event. Determined to try again, he stayed in India for eight years, but the sky was too cloudy on the next occasion. When he finally returned home, he discovered that he had been declared dead, his wife had remarried, his estate was plundered, and he had lost his job.
5. George Washington was the first American mule breeder. However, his first donkey had a low libido. After careful study, Washington discovered that his donkey performed successfully with female horses when it had a clear view of two female donkeys together.
6. Jupiter acts as the "vacuum cleaner of the solar system" by using its gravitational pull to draw in asteroids and comets. This gravitational influence causes these celestial bodies to collide with Jupiter, reducing the risk of impacts on Earth and other inner planets. In fact, the rate of impacts on Jupiter is about 2,000 to 8,000 times higher than on Earth.
7. In 1966, authorities arrested James Robert Ringrose, a notorious figure on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. In a bizarre attempt to evade justice, Ringrose presented the FBI agents with a "Get Out of Jail Free" card from the game Monopoly.
8. On January 14, 2005, the Cassini spacecraft deployed the Huygens probe, marking the first successful landing on a surface in the outer solar system, specifically on Saturn's moon, Titan. Huygens ventured through Titan's dense atmosphere, unveiling a world with Earth-like features. Before receiving images from Huygens, scientists didn't know whether the probe would land in a methane ocean, a tar pit, jagged rocks, or a ravine.
9. After capturing Jerusalem in 1099, Crusaders brutally massacred the Jewish and Muslim populations, including women and children. The violence was so extreme that historical accounts describe Crusaders wading in blood up to their ankles.
10. Marlon Brando earned $3.7 million and an impressive 11.75% backend for his 13-day role as Jor-El in Superman, despite having less than 20 minutes of screen time. In stark contrast, Christopher Reeve, who played the title role, earned $250,000 for the film's 143-minute duration. Also, Brando initially horrified a producer for this film by suggesting Jor-El appear as a green suitcase or a bagel, but director Richard Donner used flattery to convince him to portray the character himself.
