Space — Page 2
Mysteries of the universe
92 facts
The Wow signal was a radio signal detected in 1977 that has never been explained.
The Wow signal was a narrow-band radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by the Big Ear radio telescope. It lasted…
Trans-Neptunian objects can contain carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ices.
Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope detected carbon dioxide in 56 trans-Neptunian objects and carbon…
Venus has a day longer than its year.
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis, but only about 225 Earth days to orbit the…
A new technology allows the production of flexible, ultra-pure diamond films at scale.
The technique, developed by Chinese scientists, enables the creation of flexible diamond films with applications in…
Comet 2I/Borisov came from outside the Solar System and brought clues about the formation of other worlds.
2I/Borisov is the second known interstellar object to visit the Solar System. Its chemical composition, rich in…
Jupiter s Great Red Spot is a storm larger than Earth.
The Great Red Spot is a giant anticyclone in Jupiter's atmosphere, observed for over 350 years. With a diameter that…
Comet 3I/Atlas originates from outside the Solar System.
Comet 3I/Atlas, discovered on 1 July 2025, is the third known interstellar object to cross the Solar System. Its…
NASA s Perseverance rover found organic compounds in Martian rocks.
In 2025, NASA s Perseverance rover identified organic compounds and structures in Martian rocks that suggest the…
The Chandra telescope has discovered 84 hypersoft X-ray sources in space.
NASA announced that the Chandra telescope found 84 hypersoft X-ray sources, a new class of cosmic objects that behave…
The oldest known black hole star has been discovered.
Using the James Webb telescope, astronomers from MIT and other institutions identified the oldest known black hole…
The Hubble telescope has found the first black holes in a star cluster.
The globular cluster Omega Centauri, the largest in the Milky Way, should be filled with black holes left behind by…
Saturn has a hexagon-shaped storm at its north pole.
At Saturn's north pole there is a hexagon-shaped jet stream about 30,000 kilometres wide. The phenomenon was first…
Astronauts describe the smell of space as hot metal and burnt meat.
When returning to the space station after a spacewalk, astronauts report a strong smell of hot metal and burnt meat…
The Oort Cloud is a distant region of the Solar System with billions of comets.
The Oort Cloud is a spherical shell of icy bodies believed to exist at the edges of the Solar System, up to 100,000…
A solar day on Mercury lasts about 176 Earth days.
Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis and, at the same time, moves quickly around the Sun. As a result, a solar day…
The International Space Station completes one full orbit around Earth in about 90 minutes.
The ISS orbits Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometres and at a speed of approximately 28,000 kilometres per…
There are planets that orbit two stars at the same time.
NASA s Kepler telescope confirmed the existence of planets that orbit two suns, such as Kepler-16b. These worlds…
Space officially begins about 100 kilometres above Earth.
The Kármán line, at about 100 kilometres altitude, is considered the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space…
The Sun contains 99.86 per cent of the mass of the Solar System.
The Sun is by far the most massive object in the Solar System, concentrating 99.86 per cent of its total mass…
Titan, a moon of Saturn, has lakes of liquid methane.
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere and stable liquid bodies on its surface. The lakes…
Mars has the largest canyon in the Solar System, Valles Marineris.
Valles Marineris, on Mars, is about 4,000 kilometres long and up to 7 kilometres deep. It is the largest canyon in…
There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
The estimated number of stars in the observable universe is about 10 to the power of 24. The number of grains of sand…
The Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its centre, called Sagittarius A.
The Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its centre, called Sagittarius A star. It has about 4 million times…
The black hole at the centre of the Perseus cluster emits pressure waves that can be translated into sound.
The black hole at the centre of the Perseus cluster generates pressure waves in the hot gas surrounding it. These…
