Nandankanan Zoo, in the state of Orissa, India, is home to the world’s largest population of white tigers, with over 34 specimens. This zoo has bred many white tigers, and has sent them to other zoos all over the world. All white tigers currently in captivity around the world are directly descended from a male specimen called Mohan. He was captured alive as a cub in the jungles of the old Indian state of Rewa (now part of Madhya Pradesh) during May 1951, since when Continue reading →

The largest predatory fish is the rare great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Adult specimens average 4.3–4.6 m (14–15 ft) in length, and generally weigh 520–770 kg (1,150–1,700 lb). There are many claims of huge specimens up to 10 m (33 ft) in length and, although few have been properly authenticated, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence to suggest that some great whites grow to more than 6 m (20 ft) in length.

The largest serving of potato salad was made by Spilva Ltd, Latvia and weighed 3.277 tonnes (7,224 lb 8 oz) and was exhibited at the International Exhibition Centre of the Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia, on 1 September 2002. The ingredients included 500 kg (1,102 lb 4 oz) mayonnaise, 940 kg (2,072 lb 5 oz) boiled potatoes, 340 kg (749 lb 9 oz) boiled carrots, 560 kg (1,234 lb 9 oz) sausages, 6,000 boiled eggs, 200 kg (440 lb 14 oz) canned peas, 310 pickled Continue reading →

Between 16 and 22 July 1994, more than 20 fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the giant planet Jupiter. The greatest impact was of the ‘G’ fragment, which exploded with the energy of roughly 600 times the nuclear arsenal of the world, equivalent to six million megatons of TNT. When fragment ‘A’ plunged into the atmosphere at 60 km/s, the Galileo spacecraft detected a fireball with a temperature of 24,000 K and an associated plume reaching 3,000 km high.

Earth’s mantle is the region which begins just below the thin crust on which we live, and extends some 2,900 km (1,800 miles) down all the way to the outer liquid core. Making up around 70% of the Earth’s volume, the mantle, while made of solid rock, can gradually flow in a plastic fashion. Slow convection in the mantle is what drives plate tectonics in the Earth’s crust. Temperatures in the mantle range from 500ºC (932ºF) at the crustal boundary to over 4,000ºC (7,232ºF) at Continue reading →

A fully-functional recorder constructed of specially-treated stone pine and measuring 5 m 16 ft 5 in in length was made in Iceland by Stefan Geir Karlsson in 1994. Each hole is 8.5 cm 3.375in in diameter.

The largest religious structure ever built is Angkor Wat (City Temple), enclosing 162.6 ha (401 acres) in Cambodia. It was built to the Hindu god Vishnu by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the period 1113–50. Its curtain wall measures 1,280 m (4,200 ft), and its population, before it was abandoned in 1432, was 80,000. The temple forms part of a complex of 72 major monuments, begun c. AD900, that extends over 24.8 km (15.4 miles). Area in m²/ft² is 1,626,000 m² (17,502,118.31 ft²).

Triton, the largest satellite of Neptune, measures 2,706 km (1,681 miles) across. It is the seventh largest moon in the Solar System, and the largest moon which orbits its planet backwards. Its retrograde orbit means Triton is slowly losing energy and spiralling in towards Neptune. Between 10 and 100 million years from now Triton will be so close to Neptune that it will be ripped apart by tidal forces, forming a new ring system around the planet

The largest rice cake weighed 3.68 tonnes (8,113 lb) and was made by Kwak Sungho and staff of Han Bbang (South Korea) at the 12th World Rice Food Festival, Dongjin-gun, Chungnam, South Korea on 7 October 2007. The rice cake was 3.7 m (12 ft) in diameter.

The largest rice mosaic was 1,656.2 m² (17,827 ft²) and was created by the 2012 Yeosu World Expo Local Bidding Committee at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea on 1 April 2007.