The Sun, which is at a distance of 92,955,900 miles from Earth is the nearest star to Earth. The distance of the Sun from the Earth is termed as 1 Astronomical Unit. Light from the Sun takes nearly 8 minutes to reach the Earth.

Proxima Centauri, which was discovered in the year 1915, is at a distance of nearly 4.2 light years from Earth. One light year is equal to the distance light travels in one year.

 Sirius A (Alpha Canis Majoris), also known as the Dog Star, is the brightest star visible from the surface of Earth. It has an apparent brightness magnitude of -1.46. It is nearly 8.65 light years away from the Earth and has luminosity 26 times greater than that of the Sun. It is visible in the winter months of the northern hemisphere.

 Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of 88,080 miles is the largest of the nine planets that revolve around the Sun. Its mass is approximately 320 times, and volume 1300 times that of the Earth. In other words, Jupiter could contain 1300 Earths.

 Contrary to popular opinion, Mercury is not the smallest planet. Pluto, the outermost planet, with a diameter of 1430 miles is the smallest planet of our solar system.

 Pluto, discovered by William Tombaugh, is the planet which is farthest from the Sun. It is the coldest planet of the solar system. It is so cold that when in 1992, scientists discovered nitrogen on Pluto, it was in SOLID form. It is the only outer planet made of solid material.

 Mercury, at a speed of 107,030 mph, takes about 88 days to orbit the Sun and is the fastest planet of our solar system.

 American and Russian space probes have found out the temperature on the surface of Venus is 465 ^oC, making it the hottest planet of our solar system.

 Venus is at times about 25 million miles away from the Earth. Mars is at a distance of 34 million miles.

 Venus, also known as the Evening star, is the brightest planet as seen from the surface of the Earth. It has an apparent brightness magnitude of -4.4.

 Our planet Earth, with a density of nearly 5.5 times that of water, is the densest planet of our solar system. Saturn, with a density about 0.69 times that of water, is the one with the lowest density. If the planets were placed in a huge ocean, then Saturn would be the only one to float on the water.

 Ganymede, the satellite of Jupiter, with a diameter of 3275 miles is the largest satellite of our solar system.

 Ganymede is one of the 16 satellites of Jupiter. It has a mass nearly double that of the moon.

 Phobos is one of the 2 satellites of Mars. It is at a distance of nearly 5800 miles from the center of Mars making it the satellite that is closest to the parent planet.

 Sinope is the outermost of the 16 satellites of Jupiter. It is at a staggering distance of 14 million miles from Jupiter.

 Pacific Ocean represents nearly half of all the world's oceans. Oceans represent 94% of the Earth's water.

 Marianas Trench, pinpointed by HM Survey Ship Challenger, is located in the Pacific Ocean. The bathyscape Trieste descended to its bottom at 35,813 ft.

 Asia is the largest continent accounting for about 29.5% of all the land on the Earth.

 The Australian continent consists of Australia along with New Zealand, Tasmania, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. It is also sometimes referred to as the Oceania.

 Greenland was discovered by Eric the Red. Australia, which is larger that Greenland, is considered a continent. Greenland is 3 times as large as Borneo, the second largest island in the world, and 9 times as big as Honshu, the largest island of Japan.

 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest. The 10 highest peaks are all found in the Himalayan mountain range north of India. The 3 highest peaks are Mount Everest (29,030 ft), K2 (28,250 ft) and Kanchenjunga (28,210 ft).

 Angel Falls with a total drop of 3210 ft and the longest single drop of 2610 ft are located in Venezuela on the river Carrao. They are named after the American Pilot Jimmy Angel who recorded them in his log book while flying over them in 1935. The Tugela Falls in South Africa with a drop of 3110 ft are the second highest waterfall.

 The greatest waterfalls are Boyoma Falls in Zaire (17,000 m³/s), Khône Falls in Laos (11,600 m³/s) and Niagara Falls on the Canada / US border (5,830 m³/s).

 Khône Falls are in Laos.

 The total length of the Amazon in South America is 4195 miles. Its navigable length of 3750 miles is the greatest of any river. River Nile had been regarded as the longest but its present estimated length is about 4145 miles.

 Caspian Sea is located in Azerbaijan (Asia) and has a total area of 143,240 square miles.

 Lake Baikal is located in Siberia and is the deepest lake in the world at 5315 ft.

 Lake Titicaca is located at the border of Peru and Bolivia.

 Lake Superior is one of the Great Lakes. About 65% of Lake Superior is located in the United States and the rest is in Canada.

 The Sahara Desert in Africa covers a surface area of 3.5 million square miles.

The Amazon flows into the ocean at a rate of 18,000 m³/s.

Mauna Loa, Hawaii last erupted in 1984.