15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Space You Probably Didn't Know
Space is vast, mysterious, and full of surprises. While we have accomplished great things in the field of space exploration, so much remains to be known. From bizarre planets to mind-bending physics, it never fails to surprise us. Here are 15 great facts about space that will leave you starstruck.
1. A Day on Venus Is Longer Than a Year
Venus rotates so slowly that one full day of complete rotation takes 243 Earth days. Its orbital period, however, is only 225 Earth days, meaning that a Venusian year is shorter than its day!
2. Neutron Stars Are Incredibly Heavy
It forms from the collapse of the core of a big star, which at its densities, would imply that a sugar-cube-sized amount of that material would have a mass of roughly one billion tons on Earth!
3. Space Is Complete Silence
Since sound needs air or water to propagate, space has absolutely no sound whatsoever. That means if you scream in space, nobody will hear you, unless, of course, you are in a spaceship filled with air!
4. There's a Giant Cloud of Alcohol in Space
But there is a giant cloud of ethyl alcohol floating in space in the Sagittarius B region of our galaxy. That contains a staggering amount of alcohol enough to produce 400 trillion trillion pints of beer!
5. The Sun Is Not Yellow
Although it looks yellow from Earth, the Sun is actually white! Its light scatters in our atmosphere, making it look yellow, orange, or red depending on the time of day.
6. A Planet Made of Diamonds Exists
Scientists have discovered a planet named 55 Cancri e, which they surmise is mostly composed of diamond since the composition is predominantly carbon. It is twice as big as Earth.
7. The Largest Volcano in the Solar System Is on Mars
Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano in the solar system, standing at about 13.6 miles (22 km) and nearly three times the height of Mount Everest!
8. One Spoonful of a Black Hole Would Weigh Billions of Tons
The core of a black hole is so incredibly dense that even a spoonful of its material would weigh billions or even trillions of tons!
9. Water Has Been Found on the Moon
Recent discoveries have confirmed water ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon, raising possibilities for future lunar colonization.
10. There's a Planet Where It Rains Molten Glass
HD 189733b, a planet 63 light-years away, suffers rainstorms of molten glass, which are blown sideways by winds blowing 5,400 mph!
11. The Coldest Place in the Universe Is a Nebula
The Boomerang Nebula holds the record for the coldest natural place in the universe, with temperatures dipping to -457.7°F (-272°C), just 1 degree above absolute zero!
12. The Milky Way Is on a Collision Course with Andromeda
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is slowly moving toward the Andromeda Galaxy, and in about 4.5 billion years they will collide and merge into a new galaxy.
13. You Could Fit All the Planets Between Earth and the Moon
The average distance to the Moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km), a distance that can accommodate all the planets of our solar system side by side!
14. A Day on Mars Is Almost the Same as on Earth
A Martian day, also called a "sol," is about 24 hours and 39 minutes long and is the closest planetary day to Earth's.
15. Space Smells Like Burnt Steak
Astronauts returning from their spacewalks report that their spacesuit smells like burnt steak, welding fumes, or metal, possibly because of atomic oxygen interacting with materials.
The universe is replete with such mind-blowing wonders: diamond planets, and rainstorms of molten glass. And the more our technology improves, the more astounding these discoveries will seem. Space just reminds us that there's so much more to learn about the vast and mysterious cosmos. Which one of these facts surprised you the most?