gallant (begallant)

Some neutron stars emit a “sound” similar to a deep hum — not directly, but through vibrations of their surface that become infrasound when modeled. These vibrations are so powerful that they can be compared to the “sound” of a gigantic earthquake repeating dozens of times per second.

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During powerful thunderstorms, rare events called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or “dark lightning,” occur above the clouds. They release bursts of gamma rays so strong that they can be detected by satellites, even though they happen just tens of kilometers above Earth. Scientists believe that these flashes can momentarily expose people on airplanes to radiation — but we never even notice it.

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There are craters on Mercury that never receive sunlight — their floors are permanently hidden in darkness. Because the planet has no atmosphere and sunlight hits it almost vertically, temperatures inside these “eternal shadows” can drop to −170 °C. These areas may contain ancient deposits of water ice — a surprising paradox on the hottest planet in the Solar System.

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There is a faint “radio noise” in space that is actually the echo of the Big Bang. This noise — the cosmic microwave background — fills the entire Universe, and it can be detected even with simple radio equipment. In fact, when you see static on an old TV, a small percentage of that noise is light that has been traveling for 13.8 billion years.

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