Space — Page 3
Mysteries of the universe
190 facts
Astronomers have discovered a cosmic object that is a star made entirely of black holes.
Using the James Webb telescope, astronomers at MIT identified a never-before-seen object: a star powered by a black…
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…
NASA s Lucy probe found an asteroid with signs of liquid water on its surface.
NASA s Lucy probe visited a small peanut-shaped asteroid that rotates unusually. Its surface shows signs of…
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…
The footprints left by astronauts on the Moon will disappear in a few years.
The Apollo astronauts footprints on the Moon can last millions of years, because there is no atmosphere, wind or…
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…
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of about 465 degrees Celsius.
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of about 465 degrees Celsius. The extreme…
Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets in the Solar System.
Jupiter completes one rotation on its axis in just 9 hours and 56 minutes. It has the shortest day of all the planets…
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…
There is water ice on the planet Mercury.
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury has water ice in polar craters, where sunlight never reaches…
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…