Space — Page 4

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…

Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth.

Sunlight travels at 300,000 kilometres per second and covers the average distance of 150 million kilometres between…

Mars has two moons the size of Earth s Moon.

Mars has two very small moons, Phobos and Deimos, with diameters of only 22 and 12 kilometres, respectively. They are…

Io, Jupiter's moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Io has more than 400 active volcanoes, making it the most volcanically active body in the solar system. The intense…

A day on Mercury lasts almost two Mercurian years.

Mercury completes one rotation on its axis in about 59 Earth days, but one orbit around the Sun in only 88 Earth…

Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes of liquid water.

Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes of liquid methane and ethane, not water. Temperatures are around -180…

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…

Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest known volcano in the solar system, about 22 kilometres high.

Olympus Mons is about 22 kilometres high, almost three times the height of Mount Everest, with a base hundreds of…

The Sun contains about 99.86 percent of the total mass of the solar system.

The Sun contains about 99.86 percent of the total mass of the solar system. All the planets, moons, asteroids and…

Moonquakes can last more than an hour.

Moonquakes, seismic events that occur on the Moon, can last more than an hour. Unlike earthquakes on Earth, which…

Mercury is the hottest planet in the solar system.

Mercury, despite being closer to the Sun, has no atmosphere to retain heat. Venus, with its dense carbon dioxide…

A day on Jupiter lasts only about 10 hours.

Jupiter is the fastest-rotating planet in the solar system, completing one rotation in about 9 hours and 56 minutes…

Mars is a completely dry planet with no water.

Mars has frozen water at the poles and underground. In 2018, scientists confirmed the existence of a lake of liquid…

There is a maximum limit for the mass of a star.

Stars with a mass greater than about 150 times the mass of the Sun would be unstable due to radiation pressure and…

Saturn's rings are made mainly of ice.

Saturn's rings are composed of millions of pieces of ice, rock and dust, ranging from tiny grains to house-sized…

A pulsar is a young star that emits visible light.

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation. These beams are detected…

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has water geysers at its south pole.

The moon Enceladus ejects jets of water vapour and ice from cracks at its south pole. The Cassini probe flew through…

Fast radio bursts are cosmic signals that last milliseconds.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are pulses of energy that last only a few milliseconds, but can release as much energy as…

The Kuiper Belt is a region of the solar system beyond Neptune.

The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, between 30 and 50 astronomical units. It…

Venus is often mistaken for a star.

Venus is often called the morning star or evening star, because it is the brightest planet seen from Earth. Its dense…

Mercury has water ice in polar craters.

Despite being the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury has craters at its poles that never receive direct sunlight. In…

Halley's comet only passes near Earth every 76 years.

Halley's comet completes one orbit around the Sun in about 76 years. Its last passage near Earth was in 1986, and the…

The Milky Way is an elliptical galaxy.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light-years in diameter. It has a central core crossed by a…

The Voyager 1 probe carries a gold record with sounds and images of Earth.

The Voyager 1 probe carries the Golden Record, a copper disc plated in gold with sounds, music and images of Earth…