Space — Page 8
Mysteries of the universe
190 facts
About one million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
The star at the centre of our solar system is so massive that its volume is overwhelmingly larger than that of all…
A year on Pluto is equivalent to two hundred and forty-eight Earth years.
Due to its enormous distance from the Sun and its elliptical orbit, the dwarf planet moves very slowly, taking over…
The Sun contains ninety-nine point eight six percent of the Solar System's mass.
The mass of all the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets combined represents only a tiny fraction of zero point one…
There is a water cloud in space with one hundred and forty trillion times the water of Earth's oceans.
Astronomers detected a gigantic reservoir of water vapour surrounding a quasar twelve billion light-years away…
Some neutron stars spin seven hundred times per second.
Known as millisecond pulsars, these collapsed stars rotate at extreme speeds due to the conservation of angular…
The sunset on Mars appears blue to the human eye.
The fine dust in the Martian atmosphere absorbs red light and scatters blue light, which reverses the effect we see…
Saturn's rings are mostly made of chunks of ice and rock.
These fragments range from the size of a grain of sand to the size of a house, reflecting sunlight and creating the…
The largest known structure in the universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall.
This massive galactic filament is about ten billion light-years long and contains thousands of galaxy superclusters…
The Moon is drifting away from Earth at a rate of almost four centimetres per year.
The tidal interaction between Earth and the Moon transfers rotational energy, slowly pushing the natural satellite…
A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about 6 billion tons.
Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars. Gravity crushes matter so forcefully that protons and…
There is a giant cloud of alcohol at the center of the Milky Way.
The Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud contains massive amounts of ethyl alcohol. It spans thousands of light-years and…
A year on Venus is shorter than a day on Venus.
Venus takes 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun, which constitutes its year. However, its rotation is extremely slow…
There are more stars in the observable universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
Astronomers estimate that there are between 10^22 and 10^24 stars in the universe. Even counting every grain of sand…
The astronauts footprints on the Moon will last millions of years because there is no wind or water.
The lack of an atmosphere on the Moon means there is no weather, wind or water to erode the surface. The footprints…
The Sun accounts for about 99.86 percent of the total mass of the solar system.
Jupiter and Saturn are the largest planets and hold most of the remaining mass, but even combined they represent only…
The Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about 3.8 centimetres per year.
The gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon causes the Earth to lose rotational energy through…
There is a molecular cloud at the centre of the Milky Way that contains billions of litres of alcohol.
The Sagittarius B2 cloud, near the galactic centre, contains large quantities of ethanol and ethyl alcohol. It is…
The Sun accounts for ninety-nine point eight six percent of the total mass of the solar system.
The central star of our system is massively dominant. All planets, moons, asteroids, and comets together constitute…
Some neutron stars can spin six hundred times per second.
These ultra-dense bodies, known as pulsars, conserve the angular momentum of the original star. As they collapse to a…
There is a giant cloud of alcohol in the constellation Sagittarius.
The Sagittarius B2 gas cloud contains vinyl alcohol in astronomical quantities. Although the concentration is very…
The Moon is drifting away from the Earth by almost four centimetres a year.
The friction of ocean tides slightly slows down the Earth's rotation, which transfers energy to the Moon, pushing it…
The sunset on Mars has a bluish hue.
The Martian atmosphere is very thin and full of red dust. These particles absorb red light and allow blue light to…