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Prosecco destroys hills and 8 other weird facts we learned in 2019

From the chunkiest T. rex to the magnetism of the entire universe, here are the strangest, most amazing facts the New Å®ÉúСÊÓÆµ team learned this year

Facts Main
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The spacecraft LightSail 2, which launched on 25 June 2019, has sails thinner than a human hair. These sails have a total surface area of 32 square metres, and enabled the craft to become the first to demonstrate a controlled solar sailing in orbit around Earth.

Electric eel
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The electric eel (Electrophorus voltai) generates 860 volts with its electrical discharge, making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator we know.

Magnetism
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The universe is 2.5 billion times less magnetic than a fridge magnet.

T. Rex
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The heaviest land predator on record is Scotty the T. rex, which is estimated to have weighed 8870 kilograms.

Identity
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Just 15 characteristics, such as age, gender or marital status, are enough to reidentify 99.98 per cent of people in the US in virtually any anonymised data set.

Snowman
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Arrokoth is the most distant space rock we have ever visited, some 6.6 billion kilometres away. It is shaped a bit like a flattened snowman.

Prosecco
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It has been estimated that for every bottle of prosecco that is made, 4.4 kilograms of Italian hillside is eroded away.

Mako-Shark
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The mako shark can reach speeds of 68 kilometres an hour, making it the world’s fastest shark.

Poison
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You are much more likely to die from accidental poisoning than in a car accident.