15 Fun Space Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
Did you know that space is completely silent? There’s no air to carry sound waves, so you wouldn’t hear anything even if you were floating right next to a rocket launch!
Space is so vast that if you were to drive a car straight upwards, it would take over an hour just to reach outer space.
The sun is so enormous that you could fit one million Earths inside it!
Astronauts experience a rapid change in height while in space due to the lack of gravity. Some even grow up to two inches taller while in orbit!
If you could drive in a straight line to the moon at 60mph, it would take about six months to get there.
The hottest planet in our solar system is not, in fact, the one closest to the sun. It’s actually Venus, which has an average surface temperature hotter than a pizza oven!
There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches combined.
The first living creature to travel into space was a dog named Laika, who became the first-ever space traveler in 1957.
The International Space Station orbits the Earth at a speed of approximately 17,500 mph, completing one orbit in just 90 minutes.
Astronauts need to exercise for at least two hours each day while in space to counteract the effects of zero gravity on their bodies.
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a massive storm that has been raging for over 400 years!
The moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches per year.
15 Fun Space Facts That Will Blow Your Mind part 2
The word astronaut comes from two Greek words meaning star and sailor.
The tallest mountain in our solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, which is nearly three times the height of Mount Everest.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in space was -454 degrees Fahrenheit (-270 degrees Celsius).
Russia’s Mir space station was operational for 15 years, making it the longest continuously inhabited space station in history.
The first object sent into space was the German V-2 rocket, which reached an altitude of 189 km in 19
The Hubble Space Telescope can see objects 13 billion light-years away, allowing scientists to study the early universe.
There is a cloud of alcohol in outer space that contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer!
The speed of light is so fast that it can circle the Earth’s equator about 7.5 times in just one second.
If two pieces of metal touch in space, they will bond together permanently because there is no moisture to cause corrosion.
The sun’s core temperature is approximately 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).
The first American woman in space was Dr. Sally Ride, who flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983.
Space is not completely empty. It contains tiny particles of dust and gas, which can be dangerous to spacecraft.
The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to be about 13.6 billion years old, almost as old as the universe itself.
The light from the stars we see at night may have taken hundreds or even thousands of years to reach Earth.
The nearest known black hole to Earth is about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
The temperature on the surface of the sun can reach up to 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).
Space travel can cause changes to an astronaut’s eyesight due to the pressure on their optic nerves.
In the vacuum of space, liquids boil at a lower temperature and freeze at a higher temperature than they do on Earth.
The largest volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, which is about 13.6 miles (22 kilometers) high.
The concept of a black hole was first proposed by physicist John Michell in 1783, long before they were actually discovered.
When stars explode, they can release more energy in seconds than our sun will emit in its entire lifetime.
The outer layers of a star, including our sun, are made up of hot gas called plasma rather than a solid or liquid.
Space isn’t completely dark. It is filled with billions of stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects that emit light.
The largest known structure in the universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, which is over 10 billion light-years long.
The sun loses about 4 million tons of mass every second due to the process of nuclear fusion.
Astronauts on the International Space Station experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every day due to its orbit around the Earth.
Pluto, which was once considered the ninth planet, is now classified as a dwarf planet because of its size and location in the Kuiper Belt.
Space is not a perfect vacuum. It contains traces of gases, dust particles, and even radiation left over from the Big Bang.
The largest moon in our solar system is Ganymede, which is even bigger than the planet Mercury.
The Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest neighbor, is hurtling towards the Milky Way at a speed of about 250,000 mph.
The most common element in the universe is hydrogen, which makes up about 75% of all matter.
There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
Space travel is not just for humans. In 2012, a plush toy tiger became the first teddy bear to journey into space.
