159 Facts about Space - Fun Facts about Space, Stars, and Planets
Space is fun and interesting. Here are 159 facts about space. I hope you enjoy them.
1. Since there is no wind or water on the Moon, the footsteps the astronauts left in 1969 are still there.
2. If you travelled far enough away from Earth, and you had a powerful enough telescope, you could watch the Dinosaurs running around doing Dinosaur stuff. This is because light travels relatively slowly compared to the size of the universe. So, if you’re looking at something 65 million light years away, you’re seeing what it looked like 65 million years ago.
3. If you were to spill any liquid on Venus it would instantly turn into steam because it’s so hot there.
4. There is no sound in space because there is no atmosphere. Sound needs a medium to travel through.
5. As of today, there have been 49 missions to Mars but only about half of them are considered a success. The rest either didn’t make it off Earth, were lost on the way, or were lost on arrival, which is a fancy way of saying they splattered into the surface instead of landing smoothly.
6. Mars has seasons just like on Earth. This is because of the planet’s tilt. Mars also has polar ice caps.
7. NASA cannot reliably estimate the number of stars in the universe because the universe is so big.
8. Mercury was named after the Roman god of travel and commerce. If it was named after a Greek god it would have been called Hermes.
9. The point-of-no-return near a black hole is called the event horizon. If you cross the event horizon there’s no coming back.
10. The winds on Neptune can reach a velocity of 2,000 kilometers per hour. A category 5 hurricane has winds of 250 kilometers per hour. So maybe if you’re ever on Neptune and the police tell you to evacuate because there’s a super storm on the way, you should listen to them.
11. Even if you were able to survive the extreme cold of space, you wouldn’t be able to talk to anybody since there isn’t any air.
12. Mercury is the only planet the Hubble Telescope cannot take pictures of. This is because Mercury is too close to the sun and the light would damage the electronics.
13. Most scientists believe that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. It would have sent a giant ash cloud into the atmosphere and blocked out most of the light. Then it would get very cold and all the plants would die. Sorry, dinosaurs.
14. When a comet passes by it sometimes sheds off little bits of rock which turn into meteor showers.
15. If you were to stand on Mercury and look up at the Sun, it would appear humongous.
16. There have only been two months in recorded history which did not have a full moon. February 1865, and February 1999.
17. There are more man-made objects on Mars than on any other planet.
18. Most people think Mercury is the hottest planet in the solar system because it’s closest to the Sun, but actually the hottest planet is Venus. This is because there is a lot of gas trapped in Venus’ atmosphere and it causes a greenhouse effect.
19. Uranus was named after Uranos, the primal Greek god of the sky.
20. Aside from the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object that can be seen in the sky. So if you see a really bright star that’s maybe a flickering funky color, it’s probably not aliens. It’s just Venus.
21. Venus is sometimes referred to by scientists as Earth’s sister. Both planets are roughly the same size and have the same mass. They also have a central core, a mantle, and a crust.
22. Mars is covered in dried-up riverbeds. We’re pretty sure there were also lakes and oceans.
23. More than 1 million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
24. Phobos, one of Mars’ moons, gets closer to Mars every year. One day it will crash into the planet and break apart creating an asteroid dust ring around Mars. Saturn will be annoyed because it thought it was special.
25. There is an estimated 40 billion “Earth-like” planets in the Milky Way alone.
26. Earth’s moon is slowly getting farther away from us. Every year the distance grows by 4cm.
27. The asteroid belt is made up of leftover chunks of planets in our solar system that formed billions of years ago.
28. Without the Moon’s gravitational pull, there would be no tides.
29. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system. It could float on water.
30. The planet Saturn was discovered by Galileo in 1610.
31. The solid central part of a comet is called the nucleus.
32. For now, solar panels only produce about 1% of the world’s energy.
33. The gravity on Mars is only about 40% as strong as on Earth. This means you can jump three times as high. If we ever colonize Mars, we’re gonna have to invent some new sports.
34. Saturn has 53 tiny moons and is named after the Roman god of agriculture.
35. Ancient Egyptians though the Sun was a god. They named him Ra. You can see Ra in the science fiction movie, Stargate. (Ra is not a nice person.)
36. During nuclear fusion, the core of the Sun can reach a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius.
37. Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus are all gas giants. They are composed of mostly hydrogen and helium and have a small rocky core.
38. Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld. It was not named after the Disney character as many people believe.
39. A galaxy is a system of billions of stars, gas, and dust, held together by gravitational attraction. There are more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.
40. Every time a comet passes by the sun it loses some of its mass due to the heat and gravitational pull. All comets eventually turn into dust. How sad!
41. The first woman in space was a Russian named, Valentina Tereshkova.
42. Venus and Uranus spin from East to West, the opposite of Earth.
43. The Moon is 4.53 billion years old.
44. More than 1000 years will pass on Mercury in the time it takes Pluto to travel around the sun.
45. There is a mountain on Mars called Olympus Mons and it is three times higher than Mount Everest. It used to be a volcano. If you were standing in the center of it you couldn’t see the edges because they would extend beyond the horizon. It’s that big.
46. Some scientists believe we could wrap solar panels around the Sun and use it as a giant battery. This is called a Dyson Sphere.
47. The Soviet Union landed a spacecraft on Venus before America did. They also put the first man into space.
48. One day on Mercury is equal to 58 days on Earth.
49. After Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, Mercury became the smallest planet in our solar system.
50. There are between 146 and 173 moons in our solar system, depending on who’s counting. It takes a while to officially confirm a moon and sometimes the moons of dwarf planets don’t count. Science changes all the time!
51. The odds of being killed by an object falling from space (like a meteor) are about 1 in 5 billion. So don’t sweat it. You’re more like to be killed by a vending machine.
52. Mercury is covered in wrinkles caused by iron ore cooling and contracting. These iron wrinkles are up to a mile high and hundreds of miles long.
53. The comets in our solar system range in size from only a few meters to several kilometers.
54. Mercury and Venus are the only two planets in our solar system that don’t have a single moon.
55. There is a place on Jupiter called the Great Red Spot where rages a super-storm larger than the planet Earth. Probably a fun place to film a Twister sequel.
56. If a comet flies too close to a planet it can be torn apart by the planet’s gravity and become a moon.
57. A day on Mars is about 24 hours and 39 minutes. Since that’s pretty close to how long a day on Earth is, scientists think Mars would be a great planet to colonize.
58. The Sun is often drawn with the color yellow, but if you look at it in the sky it appears white.
59. The first spacecraft to vast Mars was the Mariner 4 in 1965. It did not land, but rather did a fly-by and took some great photos.
60. The Viking 1 was the first rover to land on Mars. When it was launched scientists did not know for sure what the surface of Mars looked like. (They guessed rocky.)
61. Pluto is smaller than Earth’s moon.
62. Uranus has almost has many rings as Saturn, except they’re made of ice. They’re also dark and hard to see.
63. The Big Dipper is not actually a star constellation. It’s technically an asterism. An asterism is a small group of stars that have a neat shape and a popular name, and are much smaller than constellations.
64. The ancient Babylonians discovered Jupiter around 8th century BC.
65. Though it only takes about 8 minutes for light to reach Earth from the Sun, it takes about 30,000 years for light to travel from the core of the Sun to the corona (the outmost layer.)
66. There are more than 3,000 comets travelling around our solar system, but you’d need a powerful telescope to see them all.
67. Venus has the least number of craters of all the planets in our solar system. This is because its atmospheric pressure is so high. Smaller asteroids are crushed into dust before they can impact the surface.
68. A star goes supernova once every 10 seconds somewhere in the universe.
69. Jupiter has 79 moons. The four largest moons are named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. You might have heard of Europa since several science fiction movies have taken place there. This is because scientists believe there is lots of water on Europa and a good chance at finding life.
70. The Astronauts that landed on the Moon flew in a spaceship that had less computing power than your dad’s old Motorola flip phone. Their ship could get you to the Moon but it couldn’t run Tik Tok.
71. To get to outer space you just need to jump 68 miles straight up in the air. (Not recommended.)
72. Earth is called the blue planet because 70% of the surface is covered in water.
73. The Andromeda Galaxy is the only galaxy you can see without a telescope. It’s only 2.2 million light years away.
74. In the 1960s, scientists thought Venus might be a tropical paradise.
75. If you combined all the rocks in the asteroid belt into a sphere it would make a planet smaller than the Moon.
76. The average NASA space suit costs about $12 million US dollars.
77. If you’re standing on Mars, the Sun would appear 50% smaller than it does on Earth.
78. Most people think the Curiosity Mars Rover is about the size of a dog, it’s actually about the size of a car.
79. Galaxies don’t just sit still in the universe. They’re constantly travelling through space and sometimes pass through each other. Planets and stars rarely collide though since Galaxies are hundreds of thousands of light-years wide.
80. When Uranus was discovered in 1781 it was named George’s Star in honor of King George III.
81. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. This is because it was discovered that Pluto was not the dominant gravitational body in its orbit. In other words, there are objects with more mass than Pluto in Pluto’s orbit. Eventually Pluto will collide with these objects and might make a new planet, which will probably count as a planet. Don’t hold your breath though. This won’t happen for a long time.
82. Light can travel from the Moon to Earth in less than 1.4 seconds.
83. If you spill your milk in space it will form into a sphere. This is the case with all liquids.
84. If two metals of similar come in contact with each other in a vacuum (like space) they will fuse together. This is called cold welding. Engineers must apply special coatings to the instruments astronauts use in space so they don’t glue together.
85. Only one spacecraft has ever visited Mercury, the Mariner 10. It took pictures of approximately 45% of the planet’s surface.
86. The Sun is basically a giant nuclear furnace.
87. The four biggest asteroids in the asteroid belt are named Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea.
88. Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the Moon. He once punched a guy who accused him of faking the moon landing.
89. There are huge planets in the universe made entirely of diamond. One of them is named Lucy.
90. Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. The surface is about -225 degrees Celsius.
91. Astronauts are forbidden from eating any foods prior to liftoff which might give them gas. They’re kept on a strict diet. No beans!
92. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. You could fit 1300 Earths into it.
93. A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. (It takes longer for Venus to complete a rotation than to spin once around the Sun.)
94. The Sun is 4.5 billion years old and will last about 9 billion more years before burning out.
95. All the planets in our solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon with plenty of room to spare.
96. Earth’s magnetic field protects us from harmful solar winds. Solar winds often mess up interplanetary radio transmissions but at least they don’t kill us!
97. At the center of the Milky Way galaxy there is a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A.
98. The Mariner 9 was the first human satellite to orbit another planet. It stayed in orbit around Mars for 349 days before running out of altitude control gas. It crashed into the surface and was obliterated.
99. Floating around in our asteroid belt there is a giant asteroid 600 miles in diameter. Some scientists think it’s so big it should be classified as a type of planet.
100. Some scientists believe that embedded in the upper layer of the Moon’s crust is a vast reservoir of Helium-3. Much more helium than we have on Earth.
101. Because they’ve recorded strange gravitational interactions with Neptune, scientists believe there is another giant planet lurking somewhere beyond Neptune. They just haven’t found it yet.
102. Scientists believe that on brown dwarfs (failed stars) there are violent storms that rain molten-iron. This was discovered when they noticed changes in brightness that lasted for hours.
103. For his contributions to astronomy, Edwin Hubble has an asteroid, crater, planetarium, and a giant telescope named after him.
104. Rocks from Mars have landed on Earth because of asteroids hitting Mars and making a big rock explosion.
105. The Curiosity Mars rover is capable of taking selfies
106. There are 88 recognized star consolations in our sky. 14 people, 9 birds, 2 insects, 19 land animals, 10 water animals, 2 centaurs, one head of hair, a snake, a dragon, a flying horse, a river and 29 inorganic objects.
107. If you’re ever ejected into space without a protective suit you will fall unconscious in 10-15 seconds and die within 90 seconds. Sorry.
108. Since its discovery in 1846, Neptune has only made one rotation around the sun. It takes about 165 Earth years to complete a rotation.
109. One of Pluto’s moons, Charon, is only slightly smaller than Pluto itself.
110. If you travel into space you will grow about two inches because there’s no gravity.
111. Mars is red because its surface contains lots of iron oxide. What you’re seeing is rust. Mars is rusting like an old car.
112. Since there is no gravity in space, astronauts can’t use a regular pen since the ink won’t flow downward. Instead, they use a special pencil.
113. The Earth is the densest planet in the solar system.
114. A magnetar is a neutron star with a very powerful magnetic field. If you got too close to one it would pull the iron out of your blood.
115. Venus is the only planet in our solar system to rotate clockwise. It’s theorized that a giant asteroid smacked into Venus and it started spinning the other way. Just like in that old Superman movie. Unlike the Superman movie, time doesn’t go backward when your planet spins the other way. That’s just silly.
116. Uranus is not actually blue. Its atmosphere has a lot of methane which absorbs red light and reflects blue light.
117. Floating around in space are giant clouds of alcohol the size of our solar system.
118. If the Sun went supernova it would be a billion times brighter than a nuclear bomb detonated in your living room.
119. It takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for light to get to Earth from the Sun.
120. Neil Armstrong was originally supposed to say, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” But he forgot the “a.”
121. If a crater on any planet or moon is larger than 250 kilometers in diameter, it is referred to as a basin.
122. We know more about outer space than we do about the deepest parts of our oceans.
123. Earth’s Moon looks like it has a lot more craters on it than Earth, but Earth actually has more craters. You just can’t see Earth’s craters because they’re under water, or there’s stuff growing on them. Like forests and buildings.
124. The first mammal in space was not a human, it was a dog named Laika.
125. There are more Earth-like planets in the universe than grains of sand on Earth. So we’re probably not alone.
126. Most of the craters on Mercury are named after famous artists and writers.
127. Since we’ve never dissected a comet we don’t know for sure what’s in the middle. But we guess it’s just rock.
128. It takes more rocket fuel to launch something into Earth’s orbit than to go from Earth’s orbit to the edge of the solar system.
129. A brown dwarf is a star-like object that didn’t have enough mass to fuse hydrogen into helium. They are commonly referred to as “failed stars.”
130. The Sun is so huge that it takes up more than 99.85% of all the mass in our solar system.
131. Buzz Aldrin’s mother’s maiden name was Moon. (Don’t use that information to steal his credit card.)
132. The Sun is more than 300,000 times larger than the Earth.
133. Most people think the sun just sits there, but it’s actually rotating as well. It does a complete rotation bout every 30 Earth days.
134. Mars has seasons just like on Earth. This is because of the planet’s tilt. Mars also has polar ice caps.
135. There are more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way.
136. When our sun dies, it will become a red giant and swallow the Earth. This won’t happen for about 5 billion years though, so don’t worry.
137. There are more volcanoes on Venus than any other planet in the solar system. 65% of Venus’ surface is covered in volcanic plains.
138. Floating out in space are giant globs of water the size of the Sun.
139. The atmosphere on Venus is made up of mostly carbon dioxide. If you were to take off your space helmet on Venus, you would die. So don’t do that.
140. The first human satellite put into space was named Sputnik.
141. Scientists have theorized that somewhere in the galaxy are white holes, which are the opposite of black holes. Black holes suck in energy and light, while white holes shoot out energy and light. None have been spotted so far.
142. When the crust of a neutron star undergoes a sudden adjustment it’s called a starquake, and the energy emitted is more powerful than a supernova.
143. The word astronaut comes from Greece and roughly translated means “star-sailor.”
144. Jupiter’s gravity pulls in a lot of asteroids so scientists playfully refer to it as our system’s “dumping ground.”
145. The closer you get to a black hole, the slower time passes. For a great example of this, check out the movie Interstellar.
146. There are four dwarf planets in our solar system. Ceres, Eris, Makemak, and Pluto.
147. Less than 600 humans have ever been into space. Combined they’ve spent 83 years in space.
148. The Sun is the biggest object in the solar system.
149. The rings around Jupiter are made of dust, unlike Saturn and Neptune’s which are made of ice.
150. Traveling at the speed of our fastest commercial airplane, it would take you more than 20 years to reach the Sun.
151. A comet’s tail is made of dust and gas can stretch as long 360 million miles.
152. There are billions of asteroids in the asteroid belt, but most of them are small. It’s also quite roomy up there. You could easily fly a spaceship through the asteroid belt and not worry about hitting anything like in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
153. The International Space Station is the largest object ever sent into space. It’s about the size of a football field and weighs about 450 tons, or 450 times the weight of the average car.
154. Scientists found a galaxy that looked like a Mexican sombrero (a broad-rimmed hat) so they named it the Sombrero Galaxy.
155. More than 100 people have had their ashes launched in to space. The ashes of Clyde Tombaugh (the man who discovered Pluto) flew by Pluto in 2015 and will be the first human remains to leave the solar system. (That we know about…)
156. The International Space Station has a device that recycles urine into potable water.
157. Neptune’s moon, Triton, is the only moon in our solar system that orbits around a planet in the opposite direction.
158. If you were to travel at the speed of light the trip would feel instantaneous. This is become time slows down the closer you approach the speed of light.
159. A Buzz Lightyear action figure (from the movie Toy Story) spent 15 months on board the International Space Station.
