The moon that is 40% empty space

Saturn's moon Hyperion has been described by scientists as a "fluffy snowball". Saturn's moon was closely monitored by the Cassini spacecraft that flew closer to Saturn late last year. The spacecraft found that there was a high proportion of craters which has created a irregular appearance which scientists have described as a "fluffy snowball". On board the Cassini spacecraft they have different types of cameras which they used to discover a network of underground tunnels full of empty space which is what makes the Hyperion moon 40% empty space. 

Saturn's moon Hyperion is a jumble of icy rubble (Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

If the Sun's gravity was reduced what would happen to us?

A sudden reduction in the Sun's gravity would trigger massive earthquakes on earth as we were shifted along with Earth's altered orbit. However finding something that would cause this would be very difficult! A slow reduction in gravity would mean that the earths orbit would slowly be altered. In fact what happens is the Sun's mass decreases very slightly converting it into heat and light. To put this into context the mass that the sun looses each year is about 0.25% of the sun's mass since it first was formed. Also as the Sun grows older the Sun also gets brighter which means the Earth stays warm.

What makes human and chimp brains different?

The average weight of a chimpanzee brain is 384 grams (13.5 ounces), but human brains are around 3 and a half times heavier. Although each species has a differently structured brain, for example the brain cells in a rodent are much less efficiently packed so would therefore mean that  Rodents would  need a brain at least 35 times bigger than ours to have the same number of brain cells as an average human.

Chimps on the other hand are closely related to humans, so we share a very similar brain structure to them, however they still have around 3 and a half times less brain cells than a human - roughly 49 billion.

Chimpanzees have a lot less brain dedicated to white matter in the temporal cortex which means they have lot fewer connections in the brain (neural connections) so then they have a lesser ability to process information to the same level that humans can.

The Perseids Meteor Shower will leave "celestial pollution"

In the last couple of days you may have wrapped up warm and gone outside to view the Perseids Meteor shower if you were lucky enough to have clear skies. During these last couple of nights, in some locations up to 60 were visible in an hour. These are caused by comet dust burning up and vaporizing in the atmosphere. These 'shooting stars' can be travelling up to speeds of 36 miles per second as it begins to burn up in the atmosphere. 

This Perseid Meteor shower are byproducts from the comet: Comet 109/Swift-Tuttle which passes earth every so often. 

Scientists at the 'Gemini Observatories' believe that they will leave behind a trail of what is known as 'celestial pollution' which is a mixture of gases. One of these being Sodium which collects in a layer in our atmosphere about 60 miles up from ground level. 

Scientists have found this to be true because they can use Sodium lasers to 'excite' the sodium so they can actually create artificial meteor showers anywhere in the world that they have these lasers and whenever the scientists want.