20 facts about space that will surprise you no less than the rain in January
Scientists have revealed the secrets of stars and planets by exploring outer space. Many objects were at first simply mathematically calculated in theory, and when powerful telescopes were invented, these facts were confirmed. Now people have the technical ability not only to photograph amazing space phenomena, but also to understand how everything works with the help of space probes.
We have collected cosmic facts to prove that the Universe is much more mysterious than it seems
We at Bemorepanda have put together a good dose of scientific space facts for you to show how our Universe is both an amazing and strange place in space.
1. The Perseverance rover is looking for signs of life on the Red Planet
NASA's Perseverance landed on the most intriguing planet in the solar system, Mars, two years ago. This happened in February 2021. The task of "Perseverance" is to collect data to answer the question: did someone live on the planet before it became a lifeless desert.
The rover is drilling and collecting rock samples, looking for signs of microbial life, testing oxygen production for further human colonization of the planet.
Perseverance traveled 211 million km of outer space before successfully landing on the surface of Mars. It took him 7 months of Earth time to do this. NASA plans that the collected samples, which the rover is stockpiling in caches, will be brought back to Earth by follow-up missions in the 2030s.
2. A huge cloud of water floats in space
Astronomical observations in 2011 led to a striking conclusion: at a distance of about 12 billion light-years from our Earth, there is a huge accumulation of water vapor in outer space.
This is the largest cloud that is known to mankind. It appeared at an early stage of the origin of the Universe, when its age was about 1.6 billion years. Therefore, this accumulation of water vapor in space is also the oldest of all known to astronomers.
To imagine its size, you need to try to mentally increase our entire water supply, which is located in the oceans and seas of the Earth, by 140 trillion times. It is unlikely that this will work for an ordinary earthling. But that's not all, here's a little more coolness.
Astronomers believe that this grandiose accumulation of steam is nothing more than a source of energy for the life and growth of a black hole. If there is enough carbon monoxide in the form of gas in the cloud, then the black hole has every chance to increase in size by six times with all the ensuing consequences - black holes absorb matter irrevocably!
3. Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Shrinking
The planet Jupiter is a gas giant, which is an accumulation of hot gases. Jupiter's calling card is its Great Red Spot, or GRS (Great Red Spot), which is nothing more than a high-pressure storm raging on the planet - a giant storm, or rather a cyclone.
This phenomenon lasts for 300 years, and once its area was three times the diameter of the Earth. But astrophysicists are seeing a gradual contraction of the Great Red Spot, which is getting narrower. Now the dimensions of the GRS are 8000 miles (about 13 thousand km). But you can not worry about the complete disappearance of the Red Spot - it becomes smaller in width, but grows in height.
4. Black and white moon of Saturn
Not one moon revolves around Saturn, like the Earth, but as many as 53, and these are only those that received their own names. In addition to them, smaller satellites revolve near Saturn, which have not yet been honored to be named by official science.
The brightest and most unusual of the moons of the giant of the solar system is Iapetus, who managed to be two-faced: one of his hemispheres is dark and the other is light. This rocky fragment is small in size - its diameter is 914 miles, or about 1.5 thousand km.
The light side is capable of reflecting 20 times more light than the dark side, and scientists are well aware of why this happens. This area is normal ice. But why it is always dark on the other side is not entirely clear. According to one theory, another of the moons - Phoebe - shows a vindictive nature and emits a stream of particles towards Iapetus. According to a more recent theory, Saturn's two-faced moon rotates so slowly that its dark material absorbs heat and therefore darkens more and more.
5. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system
It is unlikely that a human foot will set foot on Venus in the near future, because on this hot planet the average temperature reaches 450 - 462 ° C. This is enough to melt the lead, but not enough heat to melt the steel (it needs 2500°F, or 1370°C).
450 Celsius means that no form of life known to us today is possible on Venus. By comparison, the average temperature on Earth is only 58.6°F, or 17.8°C. Extremophile organisms can live happily on Earth at 206°F (96.7°C), but even they cannot survive on Venus.
At the same time, it is worth considering that the "Morning Star" is not located closer to the Sun than the rest - it is in second place after Mercury. Venus, on the other hand, has a super-dense atmosphere that can hold greenhouse gases, and therefore the planet is an uninhabitable “gas chamber”.
6. Amazing speed of rotation of neutron stars
The birth of neutron stars occurs at the moment of explosion and death of stars, the mass of which is 8 times greater than the Sun, and as a result of a supernova explosion. These celestial bodies are very small in size - their radius is from 10 to 20 kilometers, and their mass is about the same as that of the Sun, but they have a huge density.
If you theoretically weigh one teaspoon of the substance that makes up a neutron star, then the scales will show one billion tons. How much such a star will weigh as a whole is hard to even imagine, although it is possible to calculate. If people were on the surface of a neutron star, they would experience the force of gravity 2 billion times more powerful than Earth's.
The most amazing thing is the speed of rotation of these celestial bodies. Due to the compression of the core and a sharp decrease in inertia, the new neutron star begins to rotate very quickly - up to 43 thousand revolutions per second, however, the speed slows down over time. Astrophysicists have calculated and then discovered more than 2500 neutron stars in outer space.
7. A distant planet with a diamond core
Exoplanet 55 Cancer e is a celestial body in the status of a super-Earth, which is approximately twice the size of our Earth and is part of the distant planetary system of the star in the constellation Cancer. It was named Janssen and studied with the help of modern telescopes and satellites.
The planet is located far from us - at a distance of 40 million light years. 55 Cancri e revolves around its star in a very low orbit, making one revolution in 18 Earth days - a year there lasts a little more than two weeks! Such proximity of one side of the planet to the star leads to heating to a temperature of 2400 ° C - this is an ocean of lava on the surface. The other side heats up to 1100°C and has an atmosphere.
Scientists have suggested that 55 Cancer e has carbon in its depths, which, due to high temperatures and density, may well have the form of graphite and diamonds, and there are very, very many of them!
8. Ice space cryovolcanoes
A volcano on our planet is a geological object that spews molten and red-hot lava from its depths. In space, at low temperatures, volcanoes also operate, but they spew out frozen water, ammonia and methane, which come out in the form of steam, cryolava and volcanic snow.
Many cryovolcanoes have been discovered on the planets and satellites: Pluto, Triton - the satellite of Neptune, Titan - the satellite of Saturn, on Europa and Io - the satellites of Jupiter. On Io, NASA probes have detected very high activity, with plumes of frozen steam from hundreds of vents stretching horizontally for 400 km. Why cryovolcanoes erupt is still not exactly clear, researchers call the gravitational attraction of cosmic bodies the reason.
9. Our galaxy will collide with the next
Together with our solar system, we are hurtling through space in the Milky Way galaxy. The nearest neighboring Andromeda galaxy is a huge distance of 2.5 million light years. But the problem is that the Milky Way and Andromeda are flying at cosmic speeds towards each other, and someday a collision is inevitable, astrophysicists say. As a result, both galaxies will be destroyed, and everything we know about the world and space will disappear.
The speed of these star formations is 250 thousand miles per hour (402 thousand km / h), and given the enormous mass of both objects, the death of stars and planets is inevitable. As a result, what remains will be a completely different galaxy, which has nothing in common with our star-planetary system.
What should humanity do? You can relax a little: the collision will not happen earlier than in 4 billion years, so for now you can safely go about your business.
10. Space cold welding
On our planet, we connect two metal parts by welding: we heat the metal until it reaches its melting point, after which the molecules combine.
But in outer space, if we want to join metal parts, we don't need hot welding. No other similar steps are needed. There is a method of cold welding - when metals are connected either by compression or by shear sliding. At the same time, the protection in the form of an oxide layer is erased, which prevents the metals from merging under Earth conditions.
But there is no air and oxygen in space, and this layer is lost, so nothing prevents electrons from flowing from part to part, fusing them into one.
11. Uranus has a strong orbital inclination and a long winter.
The planets revolve around the Sun with some tilt. For example, our Earth has a tilt angle of 23 degrees. Thanks to this, we know the pronounced seasons and the change of weather - in summer the part of the planet where we live leans closer to the sun, and therefore we are warm, and in winter our territory is at a far distance, and we have cold.
But the ice giant Uranus has a planetary tilt "beyond". Its rotation angle is nearly 98 degrees, making its placement relative to the Sun "on its side and slightly head down". The planet makes a full revolution around the Sun in 84 Earth years, so the "season", in our understanding, here lasts 21 years, with 42 years being a polar day, the other 42 being a polar night. The winds of Uranus reach a speed of 240 m/s, and the temperature drops to minus 224 °C. In short, this planet is cold, very cold.
12 Largest Canyon System On Mars
Mars is already fairly well understood thanks to the advent of powerful telescopes and space probes, and NASA's Perseverance module is currently doing a detailed study.
This amazing planet has the largest and most extensive canyon found among the planets of the solar system, including Earth. The Mariner Valleys are a gigantic canyon system discovered by Mariner 9 back in 1972. It is 4,500 km long, ten times the length of the Grand Canyon in the United States, and covers a quarter of the entire circumference of Mars.
The width of the canyons reaches 600 km - this is 20 times the Grand Canyon, and the depth reaches 11 km, seven times the largest canyon on Earth. It is believed that the Mariner Valleys were formed during the formation of the planet and deepened due to erosion, and possibly the powerful giant volcanoes of the Martian province of Tharsis.
13. Mercury shrinks in size
It was believed that our Earth is the only planet in the solar system that continues to shrink. This is caused by tectonic activity, when the movement of lithospheric plates under the earth's crust releases energy and deforms the surface, which leads to gradual compression.
But now there are other data. Earth is not the only planet that is gradually shrinking in size. The smallest planet in the solar system, Mercury, as it turns out, is also in the process of warping. This was revealed by the MESSENGER spacecraft in 2016. Rock-like landforms, called fault ledges, have been discovered, which indicate that the planet is still in the formation stage, although 4.5 billion years have already passed since the creation of the solar system.
14. Neptune warms itself
Neptune happened to be at the farthest end of the solar system with a distance of 4.55 billion km from the Sun, so that the year on this ice giant lasts almost 165 Earth years. At the same time, Neptune is spinning as best it can - it rotates around its axis at a speed of one revolution in 16 hours.
It may seem that a severe cold and darkness reigns on the planet, but this is not entirely true. What is on Neptune is hurricane-force winds and storms that accelerate to 600 m / s. But if the planet does not have enough light and heat from the Sun, then you have to produce this heat on your own, which Neptune does.
Its internal temperature is much higher than that of Uranus, due to which weather changes occur. The exact cause is not yet known, but it is believed that the hydrogen, which is located in the depths of Neptune, increases the heat. The planet produces its own heat 2.6 times more than it can receive from the Sun, so it is terribly cold in the upper atmosphere - minus 220 °C, and inside the planet warms up to plus 7000 °C.
15. Saturn and its mysterious hexagon
The size of Saturn is 9.5 times larger than the Earth, and despite the fact that the planet has no solid and consists of gases, its mass is 95 times greater than that of the earth. Saturn makes one revolution around the star in 29.45 Earth years, but it turns around its axis in 10 hours 32 minutes, ranking second in terms of rotation speed after Jupiter.
The features of Saturn include its extraordinarily beautiful rings, consisting of particles of ice and stones, and in addition, a completely unique and amazing phenomenon - a regular hexagon located at its north pole. This is nothing more than a cluster of clouds, but scientists have not yet figured out why they took the correct geometric shape. It is only known that one side is 13800 km and four of our planets Earth can easily fit inside this formation.
The hexagon rotates with a period of 10 hours. 39 min., but at the same time it does not change its shape. A strong turbulent vortex is raging inside it, and this storm has been going on, according to observations, for 40 years now. Perhaps the strange shape is due to zonal jets extending downwards in high-pressure areas.
16. Cosmic distances are beyond imagination.
People do not even think about the fact that they live on a small planet that flies in a boundless dark space. We measure the distance using the time we spend on the move - for example, to work 30 minutes, to the store 10 minutes walk.
But in space, you have to measure the distance in light years. One light year is the distance that a ray of light (its speed is 300 thousand km / s) is able to overcome in one calendar year. To imagine this scale, let's take the distance from the Earth to the Moon - it will take only 1.3 seconds for the beam to travel these 380 thousand km to our satellite. It would take nine hours for a modern spacecraft to do this.
But if we decide to fly to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, we will have to travel 4.246 light years (at the speed of light). The same journey in a car at a speed of about 100 km/h would take 356 billion years.
17. Twinkling Stars
If we look at the sky, we will find that the stars twinkle and twinkle, but the planets do not, they continue to shine with a steady light. Why it happens?
The explanation lies in the mobility of our planet's atmosphere. The light that the star emits enters the atmosphere and is refracted in it, which our eyes perceive as flickering. The planets seem large to us, and their reflected light is also refracted in the atmosphere, but due to the size of the planets, these distortions are compensated, as a result of which our eyes see a steady brilliance.
18. Temperature spread of Mercury
Even on Earth, one can encounter a large spread in the values of a street thermometer, when in summer it is plus 45 ° C in the region, and minus 30 ° C in winter. But small in size Mercury has gone much further and can greatly surprise with its temperature drops.
Since this planet is located closest to the Sun and the period of its revolution around the star is the shortest - only 87.97 Earth days, Mercury has no atmosphere and there has been no geological activity along with internal heat over the past few billion years, and the temperature change is significant.
So, at night at the equator on the surface of the planet it is minus 173 °C, during the day this area warms up to plus 427 °C. This spread is the widest among all other planets in the solar system. In the polar zones, the temperature is more stable and does not rise above minus 93 °C. If you suddenly find yourself on Mercury as a traveler, you will have to rack your brains well, choosing your wardrobe.
19. Planetary diamond showers
Probably, diamond planets exist somewhere, and scientists even point to these amazing celestial bodies, but they are far beyond our solar system.
But even among the closest neighbors of the Earth there are planets in the atmosphere of which it can rain from real diamonds. The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are able to turn the methane they are made of into carbon black under the influence of thunderstorms raging on the surface. As the soot settles, it becomes graphite, which crystallizes into diamonds.
When these diamond crystals, about one centimeter in diameter, approach the red-hot core, they melt and transform into diamond liquid droplets. Thus, those astronauts who dare to take these diamonds into their pockets have very little time left.
20. What is more - sand or stars?
Carl Sagan said that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the entire earth. Astronomer Bob Berman decided to check and refuted this statement. For calculations, he applied mathematical methods: he multiplied the 100 billion stars that one galaxy in our Universe has by the probable number of galaxies (which is from 200 billion to 3 trillion galaxies). Then he counted how many grains of sand are in one cubic centimeter and multiplied by the amount of sand on Earth. And what turned out? There were as many grains of sand as there are stars in the universe.
Applying makeup during filming is not a quick process. Mainly when not only the image of the character depends on it but also on the film's overall success. The Deadpool actors must endure many hours of sitting in the make-up chair and all their manipulations, sometimes reminiscent of “torture.”
Changed beyond recognition! What makeup can do to actors
Bemorepanda found examples of what actors go through to make their on-screen characters stand out and memorable. For example, make-up for 8-9 hours. And this, it turns out, is not the most challenging thing that they sometimes have to face.
1. 8-9 hours, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique in X-Men
“It was a nine-hour make-up process. Throughout three films, we managed to cut it down to seven hours, but it was still... a lot. And I realized pretty quickly that this was my job, which was to apply all this makeup! — Rebecca Romijn, Looper
2. 8-9 hours, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique in X-Men: First Class
In First Class, the filmmakers stayed accurate to Rebecca Romijn's original costume. But for Jennifer Lawrence, the body paint caused such severe skin irritation that she had to call a doctor. For the next film, X-Men: Days of Future Past, they switched to bodysuits. It also helped save all that time on set.
“I'm so excited because I'm going to wear a tight suit. It will be from the neck down so that it will cut time and blisters." - Jennifer Lawrence.
3. 8.5 hours, Jim Carrey as the Grinch in The Grinch Stole Christmas
The process of putting on makeup and costume took so long that the film producer brought in a CIA officer whose job was to help people endure torture.
4. 8 hours, Halle Berry as Jocasta Ayres (and five other characters) in Cloud Atlas
In addition to her role as Jocasta Ayres, Berry is also known as:
- Louise Ray
- Ovid
- Meronym
- Native woman
- Indian party guest
5. 8 hours, Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in "Power."
“In the old days, when we were sculpting foam fixtures, we would reshape the jaw and chin area a bit because it would compress a bit. But now, in silicone, we must accentuate the cheekbones and jawlines because his weight pulls him down. So it isn't easy. It would help if you had to know what you're doing." — Makeup artist Greg Cannom, Vox.
6. 7-8 hours, John Hurt as John Merrick in The Elephant Man
The make-up for John Hurt, resembling the real-life John Merrick, was created using the casts of Merrick's body in the Royal London Hospital.
7. 7 hours, Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things 4
Take a behind-the-scenes look below for a closer look at the process.
8. 7 hours, Michael Dorn as Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation
According to Michael Dorn, over time, the makeup process has become easier:
“Now it's not that weird because it used to be quite difficult because they used a lot of glue and makeup. It was just a natural process."
9. 7 hours, Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson in Deadpool
Seven hours is a very long time, and the makeup artists were uneasy when Ryan Reynolds once pranked them by ripping it all off after they were done.
Here's how it was:
10. 6 hours, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in "Batman and Robin."
For some close-up shots, Arnold had to put an LED in his mouth, and at some point, it became quite dangerous:
“When you put it in Arnold's mouth, Arnold's saliva seeps into the seams of this thing and attacks the batteries. Batteries begin to disintegrate, and battery acid may begin to enter Arnold's mouth." — Makeup artist Jeff Dawn, THR.
11. 6 hours, Gary Oldman as Mason Verger in Hannibal
Greg Cannom, who worked with Christian Bale on The Authority, was Hannibal's makeup artist:
“I knew we could get away with [Oldman] more than any other actor. He first said, "Can we open my eye?" It's disgusting. I showed people pictures of [Oldman as Verger], and they all just said, “Oh my God!” and left, which made me very happy.” — Cannom, The Guardian.
12. 5-6 hours, Doug Bradley as Hellraiser in Hellraiser
“The process started with Clive sketching out his ideas that we had to work through together, and then we came up with other ideas based on those sketches. Initially, Pinhead was not at all what he is now. He was much more like Nightbreed's Shunu Sassi character, with only needles sticking out of the top of his head. I looked at it and thought, "Clive [Barker, director], we can't do it with that budget." I knew this makeup would last six days, and we couldn't do it on such a tight budget. He said, "Okay, let's think about it." That's when we came up with this grid pattern on a lifecast to determine where we were going to insert what were originally supposed to be six-inch nails. Clive looked at the mesh and decided he liked its symmetry, so we left it in place." — Makeup artist Bob Keane, DailyDead.
13. 5 hours, Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Greg Cannom ("Power," "Hannibal") is back in business:
“I had time to get it right, which I don’t usually do in a film. We did intensive tests for two weeks before filming started at every age and did make-up after make-up. The make-up had to work. Otherwise, the film wouldn't have worked." — Kann, Variety.
14. 5 hours, John Matuszak as Sloth in The Goonies
Back in 2019, 34 years after the release of The Goonies, test shots of the Sloth makeup were finally found.
15. 5 hours Dave Bautista as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy
“Drax started with a five-hour make-up, and gradually the time began to decrease, as expected. Such extensive makeup is a real challenge for the team because it is so complex.
“Every day, a plastic mold was offered that was the exact shape of David's body, with perforated holes indicating where the prosthesis begins and ends. Through it, a drawing showing a map was applied to rice paper.
“All teams had different tasks in this sequence. Some begin the application of paint, while others complete the shading of the dentures. We added subtle layers of browns, reds, and greens to the base gray to break up the tone and spice it up before the final color unwrapping.
"The whole body is then sealed with a retainer so that it can withstand daytime shooting." — Makeup artist David White, Business Insider.
16. 5 hours, Zoe Saldana as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy
“This time, I was picked up at three in the morning - my dog was not even happy about it. I had to sit for five hours for five months. It was crazy, but it paid off. The film is fantastic." — Zoe Saldana, US Weekly.
17. 5 hours, Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle in The Fly
“Yes, Chris Wallace got an Oscar for it. And Stéphane Dupuis put me in the dentist's chair for five hours and used this thing. And then another hour after we finished… well, you know, labor, labor, labor… took it off. This suit is a little tight... the rubber suit... so I look so... ugly. And then prosthetics. — Jeff Goldblum, Yahoo.
18. 6 hours, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
“Maria walked onto the set in the midst of filming Terminator 2. And then she saw me - when half of the face disappeared, and the eye lit up. All this weird makeup... So she started screaming and crying on set because she didn't understand why dad looked like that." - Arnold Schwarzenegger.
19. 5 hours, Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose
Marion Cotillard didn't mind the five-hour make-up because she's a big fan of Edith Piaf and wanted to give her credit:
“It was very stressful, but she was a powerful person. I love tragedy. Not in my life. But I love to play a tragedy. It allows me to express so many things. At the same time, I feel empty and full of emotions; I feel alive." — Marion Cotillard, Under the Radar.
20. 5 hours, Tim Curry as Lord of Darkness in "Legend."
“We had terrible negotiations about what parts of me would be visible. I fought and begged to have my own eyes… My eyes were solid contact lenses, like wolf or cat eyes, which were very painful to install because they took a cast of your eye and inserted it into your eye. If it hurt, they scratched him a little until he stopped hurting.” — Tim Curry, Legend commentary.
Ready for the smart quiz? 90 questions and answers to them about space. How much do you know about the planets, about the Universe and our solar system? Do you want to test your knowledge? Then let's check them out right now together. It will be interesting, informative and just useful!
Remember what you forgot, find out what you did not know, and do not forget to show off your new knowledge with your friends on New Year's holidays.
Quiz: a list of questions and answers on the topic of space
So, Bemorepand's editors have selected 90 questions of varying complexity, the answers to some of which can be found by both novice astronomers and advanced people who are interested in the question…
1. When will Halley's comet be seen next?
Answer: She will return in 2061.
2. Which constellation is located in the hottest place in the universe?
Answer: Virgo.
3. What is the most plausible estimate of the age of the Earth?
Answer: 4.54 billion years.
4. On which planet can rain of diamonds be found?
Answer: Saturn.
5. What is the closest planet to the Sun?
Answer: Mercury.
6. How many stars are in our star system (galaxy)?
Answer: About 200 billion.
7. How many planets in our solar system are made of gas?
Answer: Four.
8. Who was the first person to go into space?
Answer: Yuri Gagarin.
9. What is the most common type of star in the Milky Way?
Answer: Red dwarfs.
10. One of the most famous constellations is Orion. In honor of whom did it get its name?
Answer: In honor of the hunter in Greek myth.
11. How many volcanoes do you think are on the surface of Venus?
Answer: More than 1600 volcanoes.
12. Physical space is often represented in how many linear dimensions?
Answer: In three linear dimensions.
13. What stars in the universe have a rotation speed of 600 revolutions per second?
Answer: Neutron stars.
14. The weight of the Sun in relation to the total mass of the solar system?
Answer: 99.866% of the total mass of the entire solar system.
15. Which planet in our solar system is the densest and has only one satellite?
Answer: Earth.
16. The word "astrophysics" comes from a combination of Greek words. Do you know what the word "Astro" refers to?
Answer: Star.
17. What is the second smallest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Mars.
18. What is the brightest planet in the night sky?
Answer: Venus.
19. Which planet has the most moons?
Answer: Saturn.
20. In what year was Pluto reclassified as a dwarf planet?
Answer: 2006.
21. Where can you find the biosphere?
Answer: The lower part of the atmosphere, the entire hydrosphere and the upper part of the lithosphere.
22. What phenomena keep the planets in a stable orbit around the Sun?
Answer: Gravity.
23. What color would the sky be if you were standing on the Moon and the Sun was shining on you?
Answer: Black.
24. Who was the first person to walk on the moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong.
25. Who was the first woman to go into space?
Answer: Valentina Tereshkova
26. What color is the Sun?
Answer: The sun appears white to the eye.
27. What elements does the Sun consist of?
Answer: First of all, hydrogen and helium, with a number of some other microelements.
28. Which celestial body in the solar system has the largest mass?
Answer: Sun.
29. What is space debris?
Answer: Any artificial object left to fly in Earth's orbit.
30. How many stars make up Ursa Major?
Answer: 7 stars.
31. Why does the moon glow?
Answer: The moon does not glow by itself, but only reflects sunlight.
32. What is the third brightest celestial object in the sky?
Answer: Venus.
33. How does a meteor become a meteorite?
Answer: When it falls to the surface of the Earth, burning up in the atmosphere.
34. What is the frequency of lunar eclipses?
Answer: At least twice a year.
35. How old is the universe?
Answer: Approximately 13.8 billion years.
36. Imagine that we have arrived at the next planet, Venus. In visible light, we cannot see the surface of Venus from space. Why?
Answer: Venus is covered by a thick layer of clouds.
37. What is the distance between Earth and Mars?
Answer: About 56 million km.
38. Which planet is closest in size to Earth?
Answer: Venus.
39. How many stars are there in the Andromeda Galaxy?
Answer: One trillion.
40. What is an Emission Nebula?
Answer: An interstellar cloud that emits light in the optical range due to the ionization of the gas of which it is composed.
41. What is the size of the Earth in kilometers?
Answer: 40 075.
42. What percentage of the mass of our solar system are the planets?
Answer: 0.135% of the mass of the solar system.
43. On which planet does the wind speed exceed supersonic?
Answer: Neptune.
44. This planet, also known as the "morning star" and "evening star", has long inspired poets. What is this planet?
Answer: Venus.
45. What is the name of the planet, which is sometimes called the sister of the Earth?
Answer: Venus.
46. What are the five most famous dwarf planets?
Answer: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea.
47. What is the name of the planet closest to the Sun?
Answer: Mercury.
48. What is the smallest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Mercury.
49. Around which planet does the moon called Titan revolve?
Answer: Saturn.
50. Which planet is larger - Neptune or Saturn?
Answer: Saturn.
51. What protects the Earth from meteorites and solar radiation?
Answer: Atmosphere.
52. How many planets can be seen without a telescope?
Answer: 5 - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
53. Phobos and Deimos are satellites of which planet?
Answer: Mars.
54. Which planets do not have moons?
Answer: Mercury and Venus.
55. Which planet rotates around its axis the fastest?
Answer: Jupiter.
56. How long is a year on Jupiter?
Answer: 12 Earth years.
57. What is the oldest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Jupiter.
58. What is the densest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Earth.
59. Which planets have rings?
Answer: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
60. Which planet has the most volcanoes?
Answer: Venus.
61. What are the names of the four largest moons of Jupiter?
Answer: Europa, Ganymede, Callisto and Io.
62. Which planet rotates in the opposite direction relative to the others?
Answer: Venus.
63. What are the four planets - "gas giants"?
Answer: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
64. What are the four terrestrial planets in the solar system?
Answer: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth.
65. Why does Mercury have craters?
Answer: Its atmosphere is too thin for meteoroids to burn up without harming the surface.
66. Which star is the center of our solar system?
Answer: Sun.
67. How old is the Sun?
Answer: Approximately 4.5 billion years.
68. How long does it take for the sun's rays to reach the earth?
Answer: Eight minutes.
69. When was the solar system formed?
Answer: 4.5 billion years ago.
70. If you weighed 80 kg on Earth, how much would you weigh on Mars?
Answer: 30 kg.
71. What causes the ebb and flow?
Answer: Gravity of the Sun and Moon.
72. How long does a solar eclipse last?
Answer: About seven and a half minutes.
73. Name the three most famous asteroids.
Answer: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta.
74. What is the name of a large number of meteoroids that appear at the same time and in the same place?
Answer: Meteor shower.
75. How many Earths can fit inside the Sun?
Answer: One million.
76. What color is the sunset on Mars?
Answer: Blue.
77. Where can you go to see projections of the night sky?
Answer: Planetarium.
78. What is the name of the outer atmosphere of the Sun?
Answer: Crown.
79. How is the distance between the Sun and the Earth measured?
Answer: In astronomical units (AU).
80. How long does it take for the moon to go through all its phases?
Answer: 29 days.
81. Where is the Oort cloud located?
Answer: Right behind Pluto.
82. How long does it take for the Moon to complete a revolution around the Earth?
Answer: 27 days.
83. Who was the third astronaut to walk on the moon?
Answer: Pete Conrad.
84. Which astronaut is famous for writing his daughter's initials on the moon?
Answer: Gene Cernan.
85. What are the names of the storms created by the Sun?
Answer: Solar storms.
86. In what constellation are the stars Castor and Pollux?
Answer: Gemini.
87. What studies stars, planets and galaxies?
Answer: Astronomy.
88. Which constellation has the shape of a winged horse?
Answer: Pegasus.
89. Which star is closest to the Earth?
Answer: Sun.
90. What is the name of the path traveled by a celestial body in space?
Answer: Orbit.
The process that helped form the planets can be called "growth". At the beginning of the formation of the Universe, the collision of two bodies usually led to the formation of one larger body. Planets and asteroids were formed in this way. Apparently, the planets have accumulated more mass than most asteroids. But as seen with Ceres, which is a dwarf planet, some asteroids are very close to reaching a mass that would create enough gravity to become planetary.
Asteroids are made from various minerals and substances. Their composition depends on the planet they did away with in the collision, and also on the chemical reactions they may have experienced as they orbited our solar system. Metallic asteroids are made of 80% iron, the rest are nickel compounds with some other metals mixed in, such as iridium, palladium, platinum, and gold. Some are also half made of silicate and metals.
Facts about asteroids
1. Asteroids are very ancient celestial objects. The age of some asteroids known to us is comparable to the age of the solar system itself.
2. They appeared about 4.6 billion years ago and are remnants from the formation of our star system.
3. Asteroids consist mainly of stone, metals, various minerals, minerals and other substances. Moreover, some have a composition similar to the planetary one.
4. In 1801, the first asteroid Ceres was discovered by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. Although Ceres was called a planet until the 1860s. Then it was recognized as an asteroid body, and since 2006 it was given the status of a dwarf planet. In general, Ceres has a difficult fate, as we see.
5. When Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet, Vesta was considered the largest and most massive asteroid. The asteroid Vesta is so large and so bright that it can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
6. There is a special place in the solar system where asteroids are located. This, of course, is the main belt or the Asteroid Belt. It is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
7. This is where most of all asteroids in the solar system are concentrated. It is here that there are stone blocks, of which there are over 300 thousand objects. Moreover, their total mass is about 4% of the mass of the moon.
8. It is believed that the name of the Asteroid Belt was given by Alexander von Humboldt in 1850. And then the term was officially approved.
9. Now asteroids, these unique celestial bodies, are being studied and researched by scientists all over the world.
10. But while we do not know all the secrets of the asteroid, much is still not known. For example, where do asteroids come from, and what will happen to them in the future. After all, the collisions that accompany their journey leave not only an imprint on the surface. They influence them, the nature of the movement. In the end, they lead to death and destruction. But that's the way the universe works.
11. There are many asteroids in the solar system, but some of them come to us from interstellar space.
12. Why are asteroids not destroyed when they collide? As it turned out, these stone-metal blocks are not completely destroyed upon impact. They crumble, and their fragments can fall to the surface or remain flying in outer space.
13. When they enter the atmosphere, they most often burn out. However, the largest of them can reach the surface layer, losing some of the substance.
14. Until 1807, asteroids were discovered: Pallas, Vesta and Juno. After that, astronomers decided that other such objects did not exist, and stopped searching.
15. And in 1845-47, Karl Ludwig Henke found Astrea and Hebe. In this connection, an active search and discovery of asteroids began.
16. Over time, astronomers found more and more similar bodies. In total, in less than a hundred years they discovered a thousand objects. As of 2011, about 285 thousand asteroids have official designations.
17. Some asteroids have satellites that are smaller asteroids.
18. Currently, about one and a half hundred asteroids with satellites have been discovered. The most famous such pair is the asteroid Ida and its satellite Dactyl.
19. The asteroid Chariklo has its own ring system, like the planet Saturn.
20. Asteroids are too small to have their own atmosphere. Their gravity is too weak to hold it.
21. Large asteroids have their own gravitational field, but it is very, very weak.
22. The moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are likely to be asteroids once captured by the gravity of this planet. However, many other small satellites of the planets most likely appeared in the same way.
23. Asteroids never have the correct spherical shape - their mass is too small for this.
24. In most cases, asteroids are composed of rock, dust and ice. There are also metallic asteroids, but much less frequently.
25. On several asteroid bodies, not only ice was found, but also water.
26. Icy asteroids turn into comets, approaching the Sun - due to heating, they begin to evaporate, and a comet tail grows in them for a while.
27. It is also known that the chemical composition of asteroids changes with rotation and depending on the distance from the Sun.
28. In addition, they have different sizes, structures and shapes of orbits.
29. Most asteroids are not solid pieces of stone or metal, but mountains of debris, compressed under their own weight. They are divided into spectral classes.
30. In 2001, the first ever soft landing on an asteroid took place. Then the American probe Shoemaker landed on the asteroid (433) Eros.
31. Unmanned vehicles have repeatedly landed on asteroids, and the Japanese Hayabusa probe even brought back to Earth samples of the materials that make up the Itokawa asteroid.
32. Often asteroids collide with each other and with other objects, so there are craters on their surface. Interestingly, any celestial body has at least two recesses.
35. In practice, all asteroids are covered with the so-called regolith, that is, they are strewn with dust and loose formations that appear as a result of collisions and impacts.
34. Modern science believes that most of the asteroids in our system are the "remains of building materials" from which the Sun and the planets themselves were once formed.
35. Asteroids differ from dwarf planets primarily in that their mass is not large enough to acquire a spherical (or close to it) shape under the influence of their own gravity.
36. In the past, there was a theory that the main asteroid belt was formed from the debris of the planet Phaeton, located between Jupiter and Mars, but torn apart by their gravity. It was refuted, since the mass of the entire main belt is negligible compared to the mass of any planet, even a dwarf one.
37. The gas giant Jupiter plays the role of a protector for the Earth. Its powerful gravity attracts comets and asteroids that fly into the solar system, and they burn up in its atmosphere.
38. The word "asteroid" comes from the ancient Greek language, and it means "starlike". They were named so because after entering the atmosphere, when they burn up, they shine like small stars with tails.
39. In the future, industrial development of asteroids for the purpose of extracting minerals from them may well become economically viable.
40. There are, according to approximate estimates, several million asteroids in the main belt, but most of them have a diameter of no more than ten to twenty meters.
41. Now the former planet of the solar system Pluto is officially called "asteroid 134340". Although it refers to dwarf planets, they are designated as asteroids in the catalogs.
42. The Earth has not one satellite, but seven. In addition to the Moon, they include six more quasi-satellites, asteroids that are in orbital resonance with our planet.
43. About 700 asteroids orbit around the Earth, but they do not pose a danger, since the Earth's orbit does not intersect with them. And there are many thousands of them in the solar system.
44. But a special group of near-Earth objects has been identified that pose a potential danger to our planet. Therefore, they are closely monitored.
45. In 2004, the asteroid (99942) Apophis was discovered, which in 2029 and 2036 will pass in close proximity to the Earth.
46. In the first case, a collision is excluded, and in the second case it is possible (because after the first transit the orbit of Apophis will change), but it is extremely unlikely. This is for the best, because the average diameter of Apophis is about 325 meters.
47. In the event of a collision with the Earth, the explosion will be more powerful than the one that accompanied the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, about 12 times, and this is according to the most conservative estimates.
48. On the asteroid Vesta is the crater Reyasilvia, in which the second highest mountain in the solar system is located. The diameter of the crater is about 500 km, which is almost equal to the diameter of Vesta itself, and the height of the peak from the base to the peak reaches 22 km. Only the ancient volcano Olympus on Mars (26 kilometers) is higher than it.
49. More than 100 thousand asteroids already have their own numbers, and some of them, with something interesting or remarkable, have their own names. The orbits of those that pose a potential threat are constantly monitored.
50. All asteroids from the asteroid belt of the solar system, if combined into a single sphere, will turn into a celestial body about 1500 kilometers in diameter, which does not even reach half the diameter of our moon.
51. Entering the atmosphere, the asteroid begins to be called a meteor. Most meteors burn out, but if they manage to reach the surface, they are called meteorites, and a crater forms at the site of their impact. The Gulf of Mexico is a giant crater - a consequence of the fall of a large asteroid.
52. Asteroids are not just stone and ice blocks flying somewhere far in space. This is also a practically unexplored area of cosmology, and potentially a source of valuable minerals. But they can also carry a threat, because a collision with a fairly large asteroid can lead to a global cataclysm on Earth.
53. Danger for the very existence of life on Earth is a collision with asteroids, having from 10 kilometers in diameter. But much more compact space boulders can easily throw humanity back to the Stone Age.
54. According to one theory, it was a collision with a large asteroid that provoked the extinction of dinosaurs. A powerful enough impact could lift so much dust into the atmosphere that it would obscure the Sun for many years, and this would lead to an extremely sharp drop in temperature on our planet.
55. A service that tracks potentially dangerous asteroids has been created on earth for a long time. Interestingly, June 30th is International Asteroid Day.
Surely each of us at least once in his life wondered, looking into the starry sky - what is there, beyond our Earth? Are there brothers in mind in these endless expanses? We are not talking about the sacramental question "Is there life on Mars?".
About black holes, wandering planets and other space facts - in short and accessible language
Of course, from school textbooks on astronomy, we remember something about our Universe, but over time, if you do not get carried away with this subject, knowledge is forgotten. But that's not the point. It's just that new facts about space are constantly being discovered - from a mega-huge void to "Planet Nine". Or, for example, have you heard about white holes? We were not mistaken, it was about whites (you probably already know about blacks anyway). And how long do you think a person can stay in outer space without a spacesuit?
Do you want to know? Then read our selection. We promise: you will learn a lot for yourself.
1. Any freely moving fluid in outer space will turn into a sphere.
2. The mass of the Sun occupies 99.86% of our solar system.
3. The biggest black hole - Monster Black Hole.
4. If a star passes too close to a black hole, it can be torn apart.
5. The gravity of Jupiter attracts a large percentage of asteroids, and this protects us from cosmic collisions.
6. Saturn would float in water if there was a suitable container.
7. We know more about Mars and our Moon than we do about our oceans.
8. There are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the Earth. That's at least a billion trillion!
9. Earth's Moon is the fifth largest moon in the solar system.
10. Metallic snow and sulfuric acid rain on Venus.
11. Scientists have discovered a 1 billion light-year-wide void in space that could be a parallel universe.
12. Saturn has a huge extra ring that was only discovered in 2009.
13. About once a year, an asteroid the size of a car enters the Earth's atmosphere, but it burns up before it reaches us.
14. Neutron stars can rotate 600 times per second.
15. More than a million Earths can fit inside the Sun, and the Sun is considered a medium-sized star.
16. Comets are the remnants of the creation of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago, they are composed of sand, ice and carbon dioxide.
17. There is a planet made of diamonds.
18. About 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted only 18 hours and 41 minutes.
19. The International Space Station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes.
20. For many years, it was believed that the Earth was the only planet in our solar system with liquid water. Most recently, NASA presented the most compelling evidence that Mars also periodically flows water!
21. The International Space Station (ISS) is the size of a football field.
22. More than 4,000 exoplanets are known, and their number continues to grow.
23. Mercury is still contracting.
24. At the edge of the solar system there may be a huge planet, nicknamed "Planet Nine".
25. Stars twinkle because light is distorted as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere.
26. Pluto is smaller than the United States.
27. The first living mammal to go into space was a dog named Laika from Russia.
28. There is complete silence in space, because there is no air in space - this is a vacuum.
29. At the center of the Milky Way galaxy are tens of thousands of black holes.
30. The largest known asteroid is 940 km wide.
31. Saturn has 83 known moons and the number continues to grow.
32. There are 2,000,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe.
33. Gamma-ray bursts can release more energy in 10 seconds than our Sun in its entire 10 billion years of its life.
34. Shooting stars are space junk that burns up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere.
35. If you drill a tunnel through the Earth and jump into it, you will reach the other side in 42 minutes and 12 seconds.
36. The estimated cost of a NASA spacesuit made in 1974 is between $15 million and $22 million per unit.
37. If two pieces of the same type of metal come into contact in space, they will forever unite.
38. On Titan, the satellite of Saturn, there are also lakes. The liquid in Titan's lakes is not water, but a substance called methane.
39. The moon has the shape of a lemon.
40. To date, more than 600 people have been in space.
41. The sun makes a complete revolution once every 25-35 days.
42. We always see the same side of the Moon, no matter where we are on Earth.
43. There is a planet in our galaxy where the daytime temperature is almost 1093.333 degrees Celsius, and it may be raining glass horizontally.
44. Halley's Comet won't orbit Earth again until 2061.
45. Planets can wander in space without a parent star.
46. Only 5% of the Universe is visible from Earth.
47. You can't walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they don't have a solid surface!
48. If you could fly a plane to Pluto, the journey would take over 800 years.
49. Black holes have theoretical opposites known as white holes.
50. Powerful volcanic eruptions occur on Jupiter's moon Io.
51. There are mountains on Pluto.
52. One teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh as much as Mount Everest.
53. The moon is moving further away from the Earth every year.
54. You would last in space for about 15 seconds without a space suit.
55. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka spent the most in space - 879 days.
56. The rings of Saturn seem to disappear from time to time.
57. If you fell into a black hole, you would stretch out like spaghetti.
58. The dead skin of your feet flakes off in space.
59. The star VY Canis Majoris is the largest star in the universe, its diameter is about 2000 times the diameter of our Sun.
60. The hottest planet in our solar system is Venus, whose temperature reaches 464°C.
Since ancient times, people have been interested in the starry sky. First stargazers, and later astrologers studied such distant and such inaccessible (for the time being) celestial bodies. And, we must say, they managed to learn a lot. However, their knowledge is not comparable to that of modern scientists, with their high-tech equipment for observation, including powerful telescopes, satellites and interplanetary ships.
Cosmic facts about our solar system known to science today
But if you think that the facts about space are difficult for the majority of the population of the Earth to comprehend, then we at Bemorepanda will now prove the opposite to you, since they can be presented in a very accessible and interesting way. For example, that a person in space can grow several centimeters ...
But we are not going to tell you everything here, but we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the facts about our solar system that we managed to find on the Web. And as a bonus, you will have gorgeous images as an illustration of what has been said.
1. All the planets in our solar system can be placed between the Earth and the Moon
At apogee, when the Moon is farthest from the Earth, the surface-to-surface distance is about 398,000 km.
If we align the planets along their polar axes, their total distance is 364,799 km.
Phil Plait, nasa.gov
2. Sunsets on Mars would look blue to human eyes
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
3. Saturn's moon Titan is the only known place in our solar system other than Earth to have a "liquid cycle"
It is the only other place in the solar system known to have an Earth-like cycle of liquids, raining down from clouds flowing across its surface, filling lakes and seas, and evaporating back into the sky (similar to the water cycle on Earth).
nasa.gov
4. If left untouched, footprints on the moon will remain there for millions of years.
nasa.gov
5. Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye, and the first one predicted by mathematics before it was discovered.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
6. Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
7. Neptune's winds can reach speeds of over 2,000 km/h
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
8. You can grow up to 5 centimeters in space
nasa.gov, nasa.gov
9. Space (Karman Line) is only 100 kilometers away from us
science.org, nasa.gov
10. About 13,630 satellites launched into low Earth orbit
About 8850 of these satellites are still in space and about 6700 are still active.
esa.int
11. The Sun is predicted to live just under half its lifespan.
The sun will eventually run out of energy, like all stars.
When it begins to die, the Sun will turn into a red giant star and become so large that it will swallow Mercury and Venus, and possibly the Earth.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
12. Pluto has mountains
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
13. The biggest storm in our solar system: The Great Red Spot is shrinking
hubblesite.org, nasa.gov
14. Uranus' moon Miranda has the strangest surface features seen on the Moon.
It has giant rift canyons, 12 times deeper than the US Grand Canyon, terraced layers and surfaces that appear very old, and others that look much younger.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
15. A six-way jet stream of winds surrounds a huge storm and forms a hexagon at the north pole of Saturn
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
16. The outer atmosphere of the Sun, the corona is hotter than the "surface" of the Sun (photosphere)
The core of the Sun reaches 15 million °C, the photosphere only reaches 5500 °C, while the corona can reach 2 million °C.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
17. Our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
18. Venus is the brightest object in Earth's night sky after the Moon
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
19. There are five dwarf planets in our solar system: Pluto, Ceres, Makemake, Haumea and Eris
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
20. Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system - Mount Olympus
It is three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth, and its base is the size of New Mexico.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
21. The rings of Saturn are made up of many small pieces of ice and rocks of various sizes, from dust to the size of mountains.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
22. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is not only the largest moon in our solar system. There is also evidence that it has an underground salt water ocean containing more water than all the water on Earth combined.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
23. Since 1957, there have been about 6250 successful rocket launches.
esa.int, nasa.gov
24. There are over 10,100 tons of space objects in Earth's orbit.
esa.int, nasa.gov
25. If you weigh 40 kg on Earth, you will weigh 94 kg on Jupiter
howthingsfly.si.edu, nasa.gov
26. The Canyon of Mars is 7 times bigger than the Grand Canyon of Earth
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
27. Spaceships have visited all the planets in our solar system.
jpl.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
28. There may be a ninth giant planet in our solar system
Konstantin Batygin, Michael E. Brown, nasa.gov
29. There are over 200 moons in our solar system.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
30. Uranus was the first planet discovered with a telescope
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
31. Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of our solar system.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
32. There are over 130 million space debris.
36,500 space debris larger than 10 cm.
1,000,000 space debris objects ranging in size from over 1 cm to 10 cm.
130 million space debris objects ranging in size from over 1 mm to 1 cm.
esa.int, nasa.gov
33. The temperature on Uranus can drop to -224.2 Husrad Celsius
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
34. Uranus rotates sideways
It rotates at an angle of almost 90 degrees to the plane of its orbit.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
35. Every planet in our solar system has at least some water in different forms.
spacecentre.nz, nasa.gov
36. Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the Sun in our solar system.
With a radius of 2440 kilometers, Mercury is just over 1/3 the width of the Earth.
With an average distance of 58 million kilometers, Mercury is 0.4 AU from the Sun.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
37. One day on Mercury is about 59 Earth days, and a year on Mercury is 88 Earth days
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
38. The color of Mars is due to the iron-rich dust that covers the surface.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
39. The sun is the largest object in our solar system
To fill the volume of the Sun, you will need 1.3 million Earths.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
40. Here on Earth there are rocks from Mars
jpl.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
41. The solar system is incredibly large
The average distance between the Sun and Pluto is 5,913,520,000 km.
curious.astro.cornell.edu, nasa.gov
42. Winds drive clouds around Venus at a speed of 360 kilometers per hour
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
43. Venus has the hottest surface in our solar system
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
44. The sun makes up 99.8% of the mass of our solar system
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
45. Saturn's moon Iapetus is called the Yin and Yang of Saturn because of its hemisphere.
The front hemisphere has a reflectivity (or albedo) as dark as coal (albedo 0.03-0.05 with a slight reddish tinge), while its rear hemisphere is much brighter at 0.5-0.6.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
46. There are 8 planets in our solar system
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars fall under the category of terrestrial planets, Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, and Uranus and Neptune are ice giants.
skyandtelescope.org, nasa.gov
47. Our solar system is part of the Milky Way galaxy.
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
48. The sun is about 150 million kilometers from Earth
solarsystem.nasa.gov, nasa.gov
49. The moon has no atmosphere
NASA, nasa.gov
50. The average temperature on Mars is -66 degrees Celsius
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