Once a caterpillar encases itself in a cocoon, its entire being liquefies – breaks down to molecules. It re-forms into butterfly. It retains the memories of its existence as a caterpillar. WAY cool, eh? Dunno 'bout you but I'm envious.
Monarchs are the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration like birds. They fly as much as 3,000 miles, from as far north as Canada, all the way to Mexico. Who knew – monarch butterflies are Snowbirds!
Here’s the thing though. This isn’t a short trip and they only go, mebbe, 50 or so miles a day. Given that your average adult monarch only lives two to six weeks, that’s, at most 2,100 travel miles. Mind you, that’s non-stop flying – no bathroom breaks, no food stops, no nap time. Realistically, Mindy and Marvin Monarch aren’t going more than 1,000 or so miles before they croak.
What makes the monarch migration so unique is that it requires an inter-generational relay team to complete its annual migration to Mexico.
During the migration north, the monarch flies, mates, lays eggs, and ultimately dies as it passes the baton to the next generation. It’s up to their children and grandchildren to continue the journey. (source)
It takes three to four generations to travel back from Mexico to the northern United States and Canada.
Me? Given how fucked up the U.S. is right now, I’d just stay in Mexico or Canada.
Did you know – sharks have been around longer than trees. Truth! They evolved around 450 million years ago!!! This means they’ve been around the galaxy more times than James T. Kirk…probably.
Just as the Earth rotates around the Sun, the Sun (with all the planets in tow) rotates around the center of the galaxy. We're moving at around 828,000 kilometers (514,500 miles) per hour, at a distance of about 28,000 light-years from the galactic center. We'll save you the trouble of trying to recite the exact figure of Pi from memory and performing your own calculations and reveal that this means we take around 230 million years (estimates put it somewhere between 225 to 250 million Earth years) to complete an orbit around the galactic center of the Milky Way. (source)
… modeling revealed the average lifespan to be at least 272 years, though the biggest ones were estimated to be nearer to 335 and 392 years old. The team also estimated their age at sexual maturity to be 156 years old, making for a seriously long adolescence. (source)I’m feeling some serious sympathy for shark parents right now.
Okay, this last one blows my brain – the water in our oceans is older than the sun. HOW can that be?!
What Is the Age of Water?
The age of water on Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, as old as the Solar System itself. It started off in space, forming on tiny dust particles.
As the Solar System was being formed, this water went through cycles of turning into gas and then back to ice, eventually becoming part of planets like Earth, as well as asteroids and comets. The fact that we find a special kind of water, known as heavy water, both on Earth and in these space objects, tells us that much of our water came from these early space processes.
Is the Water on Earth Older Than the Sun?
Yes, water on Earth is older than the sun. In 2014, researchers determined the age of our solar system’s water by focusing on its ratio of hydrogen to deuterium, called “heavy hydrogen” because it has an extra neutron. Interstellar ice has a very high ratio of deuterium to hydrogen because it formed in very cold temperatures. Scientists already knew this from looking at the composition of comets and asteroids. (source)
HOLY FUCK! Well, I don’t know about all of you but I’ve found my wild rabbit hole for today. Reading about the age of water, trees, the sun, and monarch butterfly migration beats the hell out of reading the news. I’m taking taking today off from that shit.
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