The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts — Issue 38

The Last Light from the Pillars of Creation

The light from the Pillars of Creation, a collection of columns of interstellar dust and gas in the Eagle Nebula, takes 7,000 years to reach Earth. So right now, we are seeing the Pillars of Creation as they were 7,000 years ago. But what we see no longer exists.

Scientists believe that the Pillars of Creation were destroyed by a supernova 6,000 years ago. In another 1,000 years, there will no longer be light coming from the Pillars, or at least very little from the areas that might have survived the blast. The amazing pictures of the Pillars of Creation were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. It will look much different in 2995. Source

How Snoopy Got His Name

Charles Schulz, the creator of the comic strip, Peanuts, based Snoopy on a dog he had as a teenager named Spike. Schulz had originally intended to name Snoopy, Sniffy, but the name was already being used in another comic strip. He then remembered that his mother had once said if they got another dog, they should name it Snoopy. Spike, by the way, is…