15 Fascinating Facts About Space That'll Blow Your Mind

1. Our solar system is 4.57 billion years old.

By NASA Universe - Source: Flickr

Well, give or take 30 million years. Accurately speaking, it is 4.571 billion years old. Scientists estimate that in around 5 billion years, our Sun will develop into a red giant. In around 7.5 billion years the developing surface will swallow the Earth.

 

2. There are 79 known moons orbiting Jupiter.

By DasWortgewand - Source: Wikimedia Commons

Jupiter is the planet of our solar system with the most moons, and it also has the largest moon in our solar system. This moon is called Ganymede and measures 33,279 miles (5,262 km) in diameter - it's larger than mercury and it is visible with just a pair of binoculars!

 

3. The Sun makes a full rotation once every 25 – 35 days.

By Pablo Carlos Budassi - Source: Wikimedia Commons

So for us on Earth, a complete rotation is equal to a full day. However, our giant Sun takes 25 to 35 days of Earth to make a complete rotation!

 

4. Due to the Sun and Moon’s gravitational pull, we have tides.

By Luis Algerich - Source: Wikimedia Commons

This is because the tidal strength of the Moon causes the Earth - and the water on it - to stand out on the closest side to the moon. These bulges are what cause high tides of the world.

 

5. There are more volcanoes on Venus than any other planet in our solar system.

By Banco de Imágences Geológicas - Source: Flickr

There are more than 1,600 main volcanoes across the surface of Venus, including volcanoes as high as 5 miles (8 km) called Maat Mons. However, none of this volcano is known to erupt at this time and most may have been extinct for a long time.

 

6. There are more stars in space than sand grains in the world.

There are 10 times more stars in the night sky than sand grains on earth, with 70 sextillion stars seen from Earth through a telescope. To place it in amounts, 70 sextillion is this: 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

 

7. The International Space Station is the largest man-made object sent into space.

By NASA Johnson - Source: Flickr

With a length of 119 yards (109 meters), the International Space Station (ISS) is around 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth and is the third brightest object in the night sky.

 

8. Any free moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere.

This is because something called surface tension, which is an imbalance in attracting the inter-molecular. This occurs in low Earth orbit, too.

 

9. Our Earth’s rotation is slowing down slightly as time goes on.

This means that the days were shorter in the past. This is due to the tidal effects that the Moon has on the rotation of the Earth.

 

10. The International Space Station orbits Earth every 92 minutes.

By ESA–L. Parmitano - Source: Wikimedia Commons

ISS’s speed as it orbits the Earth is approximately 17,150 miles per hour – which is same as 5 miles per second!

 

11. We always see the same side of the Moon, no matter where we stand on the Earth.

By Rolbox292638 - Source: Wikimedia Commons

Indeed, the moon turns on its axis at the same rate that it rotates the earth. It is known as the synchronous rotation or locking of the tides.

 

12. There are approximately 100 thousand million stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

By Pablo Carlos Budassi - Source: Wikimedia Commons

From all the known galaxies, our Milky Way galaxy contains the most stars than any other.

 

13. In 2016, scientists detected a radio signal coming from a source 5 billion light-years away.

By CSIRO - Source: Wikimedia Commons

This means that when the signal starts its journey, the earth does not even exist. The detected signal is located using the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico.

 

14. The distance between Earth & Sun is defined as an Astronomical Unit.

By Tdadamemd - Source: Wikimedia Commons

An Astronomical Unit (AU) is equals to approximately 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles.

15. If Saturn’s rings were 3 feet long, they would be 10,000 times thinner than a razor blade.

By Jason Major - Source: Flickr

The rings around Saturn are very thin because they consist of pieces of dusty water ice in the size of the grains of dust to large stones.