The largest galaxy in our galaxy cluster, the Local Group, is the Andromeda spiral galaxy M31. Results announced in January 2007 suggest Andromeda is five times larger than previously thought, with the discovery of stars orbiting its centre at a distance of at least 500,000 light years. Andromeda, some 2.5 million light years from Earth, is the most distant object visible to the naked eye.

The so called “Nazca lines” are a group of gigantic figures engraved on the desert ground of Nazca (Peru) representing plants, animals, insects and a variety of geometric shapes. Most can only be appreciated from the air. The designs occupy a 500 square Km piece of land and they average 180 m (600 ft.) in length, although one perfectly formed arrow exceeds 1,600 ft. The geoglyphs are between one and two thousand years old and it is not clear what their meaning is, although theories Continue reading →

The largest gigantoraptor fossil was 8 m (26 ft) long and 5 m (16 ft) tall. It was unearthed in Erlianhaote, China and unveiled by The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China, on 13 June 2007. The height is comparable to the meat-eating tyrannosaurs. But the dinosaur, called Gigantoraptor erlianensis, also had a beak and slender legs and likely had feathers.

The Ludus Magnus ­- the Great Gladiator School – was the largest of the four gladiator schools in ancient Rome. A tunnel linked the building directly to the “Gate of Life” in the Colosseum, through which gladiators made their appearance for combat. The arena at the Ludus Magnus could accommodate 3,000 spectators.

The largest golf range in the world is the SKY72 Golf Club Dream Golf Range with 300 individual bays, which opened in Joong-Ku, Incheon, Korea on 9 September 2005 The driving range is 269,468 sq metres in total. It is a circle with a diameter of 358.8m (392 yds). It has a total of 300 bays, the ‘fairway is Kentucky grass and there is a putting green and academy attached to it.

Graphene, the thinnest manmade material, is made from carbon atoms in a sheet just one atom thick. In June 2010 scientists at Sungkyunkwan University and Samsung (both South Korea), revealed they had devised a new method of making this material in large quantities. Their resulting sheet of graphene had a diagonal

Robert Wadlow (USA), the tallest man ever, had hands that measured 32.3 cm (12.75 in) from the wrist to the tip of his middle finger. He wore a size 25 ring.

The largest high-definition video screen is an LED display which measures 250 m x 30 m (820 ft x 98 ft) for a total surface area of 7,500 m² (80,729 ft²). It is located at The Place, Beijing, China. The screen is actually composed of five (still extremely large) screens that are arranged in a line to produce one continuous image.

The largest herds on record are those of the springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) during migration across the plains of western parts of southern Africa in the 19th century. In 1849 John (later Sir John) Fraser observed a mass migration that took three days to pass through the settlement of Beaufort West, Western Cape, South Africa.

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) has the largest heart of any living creature. It can weigh over 1,500 lb (680 kg) and be as large as a small automobile. The aorta is large enough for an adult to crawl through and it pumps approximately 15,000 pints of blood as compared to 8 pints in a human being. The heart of the blue whale can beat just five or six times per minute when it surfaces and even slower when the animal dives. In comparison, a Continue reading →