31 Amazing Facts About Space and the Universe
These facts are in a galaxy all of their own!
We’ve scoured the entire universe to find you a whole solar system of facts about space! If you like planets, rockets, chocolate, and cheesy jokes you will like this list of 30 Amazing Facts About Space and the Universe! So buckle up and enjoy your flight to Planet Fact!
1. Space is quieter than a librarian’s fart.
In other words it’s completely silent. There’s no atmosphere in space so there’s no way for sound to travel.
2. Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system even though it’s not the furthest from the sun.
Chill out! We know it sounds unlikely but here comes the science bit: It’s because Uranus doesn’t have a hot core. The surface temperature is -197.2 °C. Now that’s what we call cool!
3. Mars is named after the Roman god of war
Actually, most of the planets are named after Roman gods or goddesses. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea and Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty!
4. Satellites travel at 18,000 miles per hour
It means the can orbit the earth 14 times in a single day, helping people stay in touch, find out where they are and watch netflix all at the same time!
5. Astronauts wear nappies
When they’re on a space walk astronauts wear large, absorbent underpants called a Maximum Absorption Garment. Basically a nappy then.
6. Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun
Depending on where each planet is in its orbit, Neptune is between 2.7 billion miles and 2.9 billion miles away. Even if you did reach this planet, you wouldn’t be able to walk around as its surface is hot enough to melt a rock! Neptune also has an atmosphere made entirely of methane the same gas that is present in cow farts. Both of these facts make it a rubbish holiday destination!
7. Venus is the hottest planet…
…Even though Mercury is closer to the sun.
This is because Mercury has no atmosphere. Venus traps heat in its atmosphere and can reach temperatures of up to 450° C. Remember to pack your shades!
8. There is life on Mars
NASA have found what might be fossils of microscopic living creatures in mars rock.
9. In 1976 the spacecraft landed on Mars
They were called the Viking Landers. Nice peaceful name.
10. NASA doesn’t stand for North American Space Agency
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration
11. Uranus orbits the sun on its side.
Most planets orbit the sun like spinning tops but Uranus tilts the other way and rotates like a ball as it travels around the sun!
12. Mars is known as the red planet.
It’s red because of the large quantities of iron. Basically, the same stuff that makes our blood red too.
13. There are exactly 69450450645396432123 stars in space.
Actually that’s a guess. Nobody (not even the brainiest scientist) knows how many stars are in space but…
14. Space boffins have made a guess
The number of stars is estimated to be between 200 – 600 billion in the Milky Way (our galaxy) alone. Only a 400 billion range there, Space Boffins. Please try harder!
15. Mars has two moons
They’re called Phobos and Deimos.
16. Halley’s Comet won’t be seen until 2061
Earth’s celebrity comet (and harbinger of doom to King Harold) won’t reappear until 2061, so you’ve got plenty of time to charge your camera or smartphone to get a nice snap. It becomes visible every 75 years and the last time it was spotted was in 1986!
17. A NASA spacesuit costs a lot of money!
Space suits aren’t the sort of thing you can get off the rail at your local department store, because they’re built to provide an astronaut with oxygen, safety, and the latest technology miles above the earth. One suit made in 1974 was said to cost up to $22 million, which is around $122 million today. So, if you want to buy your own, start saving your pocket money!
18. There are diamonds in the sky
Yale University scholars think that the distant planet 55 Cancri e may have a surface covered in graphite and diamonds. Great news if you happen to have a space rocket or really like pencils.
19. A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
It turns out Venus orbits the sun faster than it rotates! It’s enough to make your head spin!
20. Our galaxy (the Milky Way) is about to collide with another galaxy causing untold chaos.
Don’t worry, this will take place in millions and millions of years from now! Boffins say that the Milky Way is set to collide with the Andromeda galaxy, which is like squishing to chocolate bars to make one mega chocolate bar. But if you did that, it would make a mess. Scientists say the earth will become too hot to support any forms of life, but lots of beautiful stars will form when this takes place, so it’s not all bad news. Luckily this won’t happen for another 35 million years.
21. If two pieces of the same type of metal touch in space they bond to become a single piece.
It’s called cold welding and after we found this out we spent approximately 3 hours watching cold welding videos on YouTube instead of researching space facts. Please don’t tell the Beano editor.
22. There is a huge cloud of water in space.
10 billion light years away is a massive cloud of water vapour about 140 trillion times the mass of water in the Earth’s oceans.
23. The largest asteroid is 600 miles wide
It’s so big that sometimes it’s referred to as a Dwarf Planet!
24. The Moon and the Earth are chips off the same block.
Something big hit a planet and broke off a little bit that then started to orbit the big bit. Eventually life formed on the big bit and started calling the little bit “The Moon” and the big bit “The Earth”
25. The highest mountain in the solar system is on Mars.
It’s called Olympus Mons! It’s an extinct volcano on Mars and measures 16 miles high! That’s about three times the height of Mount Everest!
26. Lots of chocolate bars are named after space things.
There’s Mars bars, Milky Ways and Galaxy chocolate. This fact was researched by our Chocolate Fact Team and probably shouldn’t have made it onto this list.
27. Space is older than a very, very old person!
Scientists have worked out that the universe is about 13.8 BILLION years old. There isn’t a cake big enough to hold that many candles. It would be pretty dangerous, anyway.
28. The sun is absolutely massive!
The sun is about 864,938 miles wide, which means you could put about ONE MILLION earths inside. Stop trying to imagine what that might look like because you may give yourself a headache. It’s basically 109 times wider than the Earth. Big, right?
29. There’s a reason the Olympics are held on Earth…
Well, it’s organised by humans, for a start. Some planets aren’t ideal for holding sporting events. Saturn and Jupiter are made mostly of hydrogen and helium, while Neptune and Uranus have icy surfaces. You’d just have athletes slipping around and stuff. This fact was bought to you by the same person who researched the chocolate bar fact. Let’s just say they are not very sciencey.
30. A day on Pluto lasts a bit longer than one on Earth
Pluto rotates much more slowly than Earth, so one day is the equivalent of 6.4 days here. Just be glad that you don’t have to go to a school there. A term at, um, Pluto High School would feel like forever!
31. A dog called Laika travelled into space!
On November 3 1957, a dog named Laika made history by becoming the first living creature to go into space and orbit the Earth in Sputnik 2.
