Space is something that enchants people of all ages, especially kids. Space represents something mysterious, adventurous, unknown, and magical. The evidence of our love for space lies in the popularity of movies and TV shows such as Star Trek, Interstellar, Gravity, The Martian, and the list goes on and on. Not just children but even the world’s richest man, Elon Musk is enamoured by space and is on a mission to Mars launching satellites in his constant endeavour to make Mars inhabitable for humankind.
In this article we have gathered certain interesting facts about space, some of them are science facts about space, while some are simply fun facts about space.
There is no sound in space
It is completely silent. Sound needs a medium to travel and since there is no atmosphere in space, it doesn’t allow sound to travel. So, hypothetically if you are in space with your friend, even if you shut at him/her he/she will not be able to listen to you.
Hottest planet
Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, with an average temperature of 450 °C. Mercury is at 167 °C while Earth is at 15 °C. One might wonder why Mercury despite being the closest to the Sun is much less hot than Venus. The reason is that Venus’ dense atmosphere as compared to the lack of atmosphere for Mercury makes Venus the hottest planet.
oldest Planet
We have talked about a fun fact about the hottest planet. Now let’s look at the coldest planet. As logic would suggest, Pluto, the farthest planet from the Sun, is also the coldest planet in our solar system with an average temperature of -225 °C.
The temperature of the Sun’s Surface
The temperature of the Sun’s surface is a mind-boggling 5,499 °C. Compared to it, the temperature of Earth is 15 °C.
ize of the Sun
The Sun weighs around 330,000 times that of Earth’s weight, thus accounting for 99.86% of the mass of our solar system. In terms of size, 960,000 Earths can fit inside the Sun. That’s how big the Sun is.
everal stars
Various studies estimate the number of stars in the galaxy to be in the range of 100 billion to 400 billion. Just to make sense of this number, the Earth’s population is around 8 billion.
Day and Night
All planets in our galaxy go through two types of movement, rotation around their axis and revolving around the Sun. The axis rotation causes day and night, and the revolution The Earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its axis, which is why our day and night comprise 24 hours. The part of the earth that faces the Sun during this rotation experiences day while the parts of the earth away from the Sun experience night. The lengths of day and night are dependent on the respective positions of those places concerning the Earth’s axis.
One day on Venus
One day on Venus is longer than one year. Scientifically, a day is signified as the time taken for the planet to complete one rotation on its axis and one year is the time taken for the planet to complete one rotation around the Sun. Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate once around its axis and 225 Earth days to complete an orbit around the sun, making a Venus day longer than a Venus year.
The glow of the moon
The earth’s moon does not emit any light of its own. Moon gets its light from the sun. The glow of the moon is a result of the reflection of the Sun’s light on the moon’s surface.
Shining stars
Stars are gigantic spheres of burning hot gases. Their temperatures can reach as high as 10,000 °C. Stars can be much hotter than even the sun. The hottest star, WR 102 (Wolf-Rayet), is said to reach temperatures 35 times hotter than the sun. The stars do not twinkle themselves, but they appear to twinkle because of the refraction of their light rays while passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.
Lightyear
A light year is a unit used to describe astronomical distances. It is a unit of distance not time as might seem from the name. One light year is the distance travelled by light in one earth year. One light year is equivalent to 9 trillion kilometres.
Expanse of the space
The estimated distance between Earth and the edge of the known universe is 46 billion light years. This means that the diameter of the observable universe would roughly be around 92 billion light years.
irst human in space
Yuri Gagarin from the erstwhile Soviet Union was the first human to enter space. Neil Armstrong was the first human to step foot on the moon. His shoe prints are still present on the surface of the moon.
Black holes
Black holes are portions of space with an extremely intense gravitational pull which makes it impossible for any light or particulate matter to escape.
The Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy in which our solar system is located. The sun revolves around the centre of the milky way. The Milky Way is said to be moving at the speed of 600 km per second.
Life on Mars
Space explorations have raised the possibility of life on Mars. The 1986 NASA mission found possibilities of microscopic living beings in a rock. Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is actively working on this gigantic mission to make Mars inhabitable. He has predicted 2030 as the year when humans will set foot on Mars. Elon’s mission is to colonise Mars for humans from Earth.
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