Top 10 Interesting Space Facts You Didn’t Know
This article will discuss the fascinating facts you may not know yet about space and rank the top 10 of them for you.
With all the new studies and findings by astronomies and scientists of all sorts weekly, it's no wonder that people young and old would want to know over a hundred unexpected and fascinating facts about space.
As technology advances, today's generation has learned more about space in the last century than we have in all human history. And there's no stopping technology innovation.
Scientists explored the universe for the most incredible space facts, including information about our solar system's planets, moons, and Milky Way. After reading this article, you'll be in awe of how wonderful and gigantic the world, the universe, and the galaxy is.
Let's look at the top 10 interesting facts about space.
1. Mercury Has No Moons
One hundred seventy-six known moons orbit the planets in our solar system, some larger than Mercury.
But, with Mercury and Venus, there aren't any moons at all. That's correct. Mercury and Venus are two of the only planets without a natural moon circling them. This intriguing point is one of the questions that astronomers are trying to answer as they study the Solar System is why.
2. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun. Thus, most people assume that the hottest planet is Mercury. But, Venus has the throne for being the warmest planet in our solar system, despite Mercury's proximity to the Sun.
It has a dense atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and sulfuric acid clouds. Heat is stuck in the atmosphere, making the surface seem like a furnace. The metal lead would melt on Venus because it is so hot.
However, Venus' atmosphere contains many gases, resulting in a "Greenhouse Effect" that maintains a consistent temperature of 864°F for 462°C over the planet's surface.
3. A star can be ripped apart by a black hole
A star can indeed be destroyed if it comes too near to a black hole. In fact, Astronomers have discovered a swiftly spinning black hole tearing away a passing star that got too close using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Scientists have been studying a star at the center of our galaxy orbiting a black hole for the past two decades.
The star has now approached the black hole near enough for "gravitational redshift," in which the star's light loses energy as the black hole's gravity increases.
4. Our solar system has been around for 4.57 billion years
Our solar system is 4.571 billion years old - that’s very old. According to scientists, our Sun is expected to develop into a Red Giant in around 5 billion years. Although this is very far away, that just means the sun will start cooling and become a lot brighter.
The solar system formed when a gigantic cloud of gas and dust condensed 4.57 billion years ago. The planets are held in elliptical orbits around the Sun by gravitational force.
5. One of Saturn's, Enceladus, reflects 90% of the Sun's light
Enceladus's surface is dotted with plains, fissures, and cracks in the crust. The moon, despite its modest size, beams brightly.
It is one of the brightest in the solar system because its ice surface reflects more than 90% of the sunlight that falls on it. It is Saturn's sixth-biggest moon. It has a diameter of roughly 500 kilometers or 310 miles, which is about a tenth of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
6. Olympus Mons is the tallest peak discovered
Olympus Mons is a volcano on Mars, the planet's highest peak and the solar system's largest known volcano.
Olympus Mons, located at 19° N, 133° W, has a central structure that is 16 miles high and 310 miles broad. This is the equivalent size of Arizona to put in perspective. It's approximately three times the height of Mount Everest.
7. The first astronomical spiral was the Whirlpool Galaxy
Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), better known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is located in Canes Venatici's constellation and was the first spiral galaxy discovered.
The distance between it and Earth is 31 million light-years. The beautiful spiral galaxy M51's delicate, looping arms are like a tremendous spiral staircase flowing over space.
8. A light-year is a distance that light travels in one year
A light-year is a distance traveled by a beam of light in a single Earth year, around 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers). Given the enormous numbers being addressed, calculating distances in miles or kilometers is inconvenient on a cosmic scale.
Astronomers use "light-year" to describe how far they can measure anything in space. The distance a beam of light travels in a year is used to describe it. Consider it in the inch, miles, kilometers, and furlong's larger, worse relative.
If you're interested in the actual numbers and keeping up with what's happening in astronomy, it's worth figuring out what this strange unit of measurement is all about.
9. The Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of 105,700 light-years
The Milky Way is regarded as a typical-sized galaxy. It has a diameter of 105,700 light-years and is thought to be home to at least 100 billion planets and 400 billion stars.
And it would take 450,000,000 years for a current spaceship to go to the galaxy's center. Somebody or something has to live that long to tell the story of how their trip went.
10. Our Sun is 330,000 times heavier than the Earth
The Earth is 110 times larger than the Sun. Its mass, or the quantity of matter it contains, is 330,000 times that of the Earth. The Sun's mass accounts for 99.86 percent of the solar system's total mass (total quantity of matter).
It has a diameter of around 109 times that of Earth and is so massive that Earth would fit within the Sun 1,300,000 times. The Sun is so enormous that it holds 99.85% of all the mass in our solar system.
The Sun's expanding surface will swallow the Earth in approximately 7.5 billion years. I wouldn't want to be there when that happens. Definitely!
Last Words
For many people, space is both strange and magnificent. The big unknown is something humankind has always examined and attempted to learn from - by analyzing our galaxy, we may be able to comprehend our place within it and how this universe came to be.
All these fantastic facts could change in the coming years because our planet and the whole galaxy are ever-evolving, and human knowledge will always find its way to keep up and discover even more marvelous things. So keep looking up and never stop learning!
If you want to learn more about space and talk with like-minded people, check out our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/nhZ4xvpfft
