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
