It should come as no surprise to anyone that we intended to write these 100 strange and interesting space facts, while every week new discoveries are happening in space!
It’s always interesting to learn about the space facts!
We have learned more about space in the last century than we could in all the previous centuries, and all this has been possible because of advancements in technology.
We have searched for the most astonishing space facts in the universe, starting from the Milky Way to the shadows of our solar system and even beyond!
So without any delay, come, let’s jump into the journey of these 100 interesting facts!
space facts No1: The only two planets in our solar system without moons are Mercury and Venus.
Our solar system contains 176 known moons orbiting the planets, some of which are larger than Mercury itself!
A star may be destroyed if it approaches a black hole too closely. (space facts No2)
A group of astronomers studied a star circling a black hole at the center of our galaxy for 20 years.
The star and the black hole have now gotten close enough for “gravitational redshift,” or the loss of light energy due to the black hole’s increased gravity.
space facts No3: Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system.
Since Mercury is the planet nearest to the sun, most people assume that it is the one in question.
The “Greenhouse Effect,” however, is caused by the abundance of gases in Venus’ atmosphere, which keeps the planet’s surface at a constant 864° Fahrenheit (462° Celsius).
space facts No4: It is 4.57 billion years old in our solar system.
All OK, give or take thirty million years or so. Its age is precisely 4.571 billion years.
Scientists predict that our sun will grow into a red giant in roughly 5 billion years.
The Earth will be engulfed by its expanding surface in around 7.5 billion years.
space facts No5: Ninety percent of the solar light is reflected by Enceladus, one of Saturn’s smaller moons.
Temperatures on Enceladus can drop as low as -394° Fahrenheit (-201° Celsius) due to the planet’s ice surface reflecting sunlight instead of absorbing it.
space facts No6: Olympus Mons is the highest peak reached on Mars.
Its elevation is 16 miles (25 km), which is almost three times higher than Mount Everest. Its dimensions are dizzying: it is not only high, but extends to 374,015 feet (114,000 meters)—an area about the size of Arizona!
The first known spiral celestial object was the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). (space facts No7)
The Whirlpool Galaxy’s massive, spiraling arms are composed of extended star and gas lanes that are heavily dusted with space dust.
By compressing hydrogen gas, these arms function as factories for star creation, producing clusters of new stars.
space facts No8: The distance covered by light in one year is called the light year.
The speed of light is approximately 186,411 miles per second (300,000 km/s). This means that 5,903,026,326,255 miles are equal to one light-year!
space facts No9: At 105,700 lightyears, the Milky Way galaxy is quite large.
A contemporary spacecraft would need 450,000,000 years to reach the galactic core!
With this list of fascinating Milky Way facts, you can learn even more amazing space facts!
space facts No10: Earth is weighed around 330,000 times less than the Sun.
It is so big that Earth could fit within the sun approximately 1,300,000 times over! It has a diameter of roughly 109 times that of Earth!
The sun is so massive that 99.85% of the solar system’s mass is found in it.
space facts No11: Since there is no breeze, footprints left on the moon will not vanish.
But hold on, why is the flag fluttering if there isn’t any wind to carry them away? In actuality, it wasn’t blowing.
The astronauts were having a hard time getting a telescopic horizontal rod out of the upper hem of the flag, which is why you can see the ripping.
Do you still doubt that humans have set foot on the moon? Here are five popular fallacies about the moon landing busted.
space facts No12: A person weighing 220 pounds on Earth would weigh 84 pounds on Mars due to the planet’s lower gravity.
This is something that scientists account for when sending droids to the surface of Mars; they can outfit the droid with extra hardware and make it out of stronger materials.
space facts No13: Jupiter has 79 known moons in its orbit.
The planet with the most moons in our solar system is Jupiter, which also happens to have the largest moon.
That moon is known as Ganymede, and it can be seen with just a pair of binoculars. With a diameter of 3,270 miles (5,270 kilometers), it is larger than Mercury!
There are 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds in a day on Mars. (space facts No14)
Consequently, you would think that Mfewerhas less days in a year than on Earth, correct? False!
There are 687 Martian days in a Martian year since Mars orbits the sun more slowly than Earth does!
space facts No15: Water has been discovered on Earth’s moon by NASA’s Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission.
Although water cannot dwell on the Moon’s surface at the moment, scientists think water ice could be able to thrive in the frigid, perpetually shaded containers at both of the Moon’s poles.
space facts No16: One complete rotation of the sun occurs every 25 to 35 days.
Thus, a full day is equivalent to one full spin for us on Earth. But it takes our enormous sun 25–35 Earth days to complete one full cycle!
Inquiring about more space facts? See these 40 fascinating facts about the sun!
space facts No17: The only planet not named after a god is Earth.
The only thing we know about the Earth’s naming is that it is a combination of the Old English and Old Germanic terms meaning “ground.”
space facts No18: We have tides because of the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon.
This is because the Earth’s surface, along with its water, bulges out on the side that is closest to the Moon due to the Moon’s tidal force.
The world’s high tides are caused by these bulges.
space facts No19: Pluto is a smaller planet than the US.
The circumference of Pluto’s equator would be equal to the walking distance between London and Denver, give or take 56 additional miles.
Although we haven’t discovered any yet, white holes are theoretically possible, according to mathematics. (space facts No20)
A white hole is a fictitious area of space-time where matter and light can exit from inside but cannot enter from the outside.
Essentially, it is a black hole in reverse.
space facts No21: More volcanoes than any other planet in our solar system can be found on Venus.
Venus is home to around 1,600 active volcanoes, including Maat Mons, a volcano that rises to a height of 5 miles (8 km).
All of these volcanoes are most likely long extinct, and none of them are known to be erupting at the moment.
space facts No22: The gases in Uranus’ atmosphere are what give it its blue light.
Methane, helium, and hydrogen make up Uranus’ atmosphere.
Uranus’ upper atmosphere is made of methane, which absorbs all of the Sun’s red light while reflecting its blue light back into space, giving Uranus its blue hue.
Having fun with our space facts? We have more fascinating information about Uranus if you’re interested in finding out more.
space facts No22: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the four planets in our solar system that are referred to as gas giants. (space facts No25)
A gas giant is a massive planet with a comparatively small rocky core that is primarily composed of gases such as helium and hydrogen.
space facts No23: There are now 27 moons known to exist around Uranus.
There are 22 little and 5 huge moons on it. With an average diameter of 980.5 miles (1,578 kilometers), Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and the sixth largest moon in our solar system.
space facts No24: A season on Uranus is equal to 21 Earth years because of its peculiar tilt.
Furthermore, a day lasts only 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 24 seconds on Uranus due to its 97.77 degree tilt on its axis.
space facts No25: Triton, Neptune’s moon, circles the planet backwards.
Of all the planets’ moons, Triton is the only one that is massive enough to do this.
The reason behind Triton’s retrograde orbit around Neptune is unknown to astronomers.
space facts No26: Triton is gradually approaching the planet it circles.
Scientists predict that Triton will someday approach Neptune too closely and is crushed by the planet’s gravity. This could result in the formation of a new ring surrounding Neptune, giving it more rings than Saturn.
More stars exist in space than there are sand grains on Earth.
With 70 sextillion stars visible from Earth through a telescope, there are ten times as many stars in the night sky as there are sand grains on our planet.
In numerical terms, that comes out to be 70 sextillion, or 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
space facts No28: Neptune’s orbit around the Sun takes around 165 Earth years to complete.
That would take 60,190 Earth days to complete one orbit of the sun! The orbital speed of Neptune is an extremely sluggish 3.37 miles per second (5.43 km/s).
This indicates that it has only completed one orbit since its discovery in 1846!
These incredible and fascinating facts about Neptune might also be of interest to you!
space facts No29: Charon, Pluto’s biggest moon, is half of Pluto’s total size.
This phenomenon, called mutual tidal locking, occurs because the surfaces of Charon and Pluto are always facing each other.
space facts No30: The largest manned spacecraft ever launched into orbit is the International Space Station.
The International Space Station (ISS) is the third-brightest object in the night sky, measuring 119 yards (109 meters) in length and situated around 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
space facts No31: On Pluto, a day consists of 153.6 hours.
That’s six days, nine hours, and thirty-six minutes. Because Pluto rotates slowly, a day there is quite long.
See some further fascinating space facts regarding Pluto, the dwarf planet.
space facts No32: The second-largest planet in our solar system is Saturn.
Nine times the radius of Earth, it measures 36,184 miles (58,232 kilometers).
Its weight is only around one-eighth that of Earth, though, because of its low density.
space facts No33: In space, any liquid that is free to move will eventually condense into a sphere.
This is caused by an imbalance in the attraction forces between molecules known as surface tension.
In low Earth orbit, this is also possible.
space facts No34: The “Inner Planets” are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
Because of their closest orbit to the Sun, they go by the term inner planets.
A planet that is situated inside the asteroid belt is referred to as an inner planet.
Our understanding of Mars and the Moon is greater than that of our oceans.
Only about 5% of the ocean floor has been thoroughly mapped, compared to 100% of the surface of Mars and the Moon.
The only British satellite to be launched by a British rocket is called Black Arrow.
The 1960s saw the development of Black Arrow, which was launched four times between 1969 and 1971.
It was recovered from the Australian outback crash site in 2019 and displayed at Penicuik, Scotland.
From Earth, only 5% of the cosmos is visible.
Dark matter makes up 27% of the universe, and dark energy makes up 68%. We are only able to see five percent of the cosmos since both of them are invisible, even via a telescope.
It takes fewer than ten minutes for light to get from the sun to the earth.
In under eight minutes and twenty seconds, photons released from the sun’s surface travel at the speed of light through the emptiness of space to reach our sight.
There are at least 2,000 thunderstorms occurring on Earth at any given time.
An estimated 16 million thunderstorms occur annually throughout the world.
Approximately 100,000 of these thunderstorms occur just in the United States.
Here are some more bizarre facts about lightning and thunder.
With time, the Earth’s rotation slows down a little.
This indicates that days used to be shorter. This is a result of the Moon’s tidal influence on the rotation of the Earth.
Driving around Saturn’s rings would take 258 days at a speed of 75 miles per hour.
The circumference of Saturn’s rings is around 175,000 miles, yet their thickness is only 3,200 feet.
Here are even more fascinating details on Saturn’s rings!
It’s only 62 miles to outer space.
The Kármán line, which is 62 miles above sea level and is commonly used as the start of outer space in space treaties or for aerospace record keeping, is the recognized limit, albeit there is no official, definitive definition for where space begins.
Every ninety-two minutes, the International Space Station rounds the planet.
The International Space Station travels at a speed of about 17,150 miles per hour, or 5 miles per second, as it circles the planet.
Because light is distorted as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere, stars twinkle.
In addition to being impacted by temperature and location, starlight is also influenced by the winds that penetrate our atmosphere.
As a result, as we gaze upon each star, their light twinkles.
No matter where we are on Earth, we can always see the same side of the moon.
This is so because the Earth and the Moon rotate at the same speed on the Moon’s axis. It is referred to as tidal locking or synchronized rotation.
Galaxies can be classified as elliptical, spiral, or irregular.
Our solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy, which is categorized as a spiral galaxy.
The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100 million stars.
That might seem like a lot, but it’s nothing in comparison to IC 1101, the galaxy with the astounding 100 trillion stars in the cosmos!
From Earth, three to seven distinct galaxies are visible to the unaided eye.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M-31), both Magellanic Clouds, the Milky Way galaxy, the Omega Centauri, the Triangulum Galaxy (M-33), and the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy are all visible.
A radio signal from a source five billion light-years away was discovered by scientists in 2016.
This implies that Earth didn’t even exist when the signal began its journey.
The Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico was used to locate the observed signals.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to Earth; its estimated distance is 2.5 million lightyears.
The Large Magellanic Cloud was thought to be the nearest galaxy to Earth prior to the Andromeda Galaxy’s discovery.
In 1885, the first supernovae were seen to be outside of our own galaxy.
- Andromedae is the name given to this supernova, which is situated in the Andromeda galaxy.
Ernst Hartwig made this observation in Estonia, and it was only made feasible by the latest advancements in telescope technology.
Three million times the size of Earth is the first black hole ever captured on camera.
A halo of gas and dust located 310 million trillion miles from Earth is depicted in the image, which was made public in April 2019.
The Event Horizon Telescope, a network of eight connected telescopes, and programmer Katie Bouman’s algorithm were both responsible for its capture.
An astronomical unit is the measurement of the separation between the sun and earth.
One astronomical unit (AU) is approximately 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles.
Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the moon. Aldrin’s mother’s maiden name was “Moon.”
Marion Moon was her birth name, and she eventually wed Edwin Eugene Aldrin.
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. was the birth name of Buzz Aldrin.
When his sister mispronounced the word “brother,” it became “buzzer,” hence his nickname “Buzz.”
He legally changed his first name to “Buzz” in 1988.
Metal snows and sulfuric acid rain on Venus.
This is a result of Venus’s blistering heat and sulfuric acid pollution, which turns the planet’s metals from gas to liquid in the atmosphere and finally solid again in the ground when the frigid temperatures cause them to solidify.
In 1974, the first spacecraft to visit Mercury was the Mariner 10.
Three months after its 1973 launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, it passed by Venus. After then, it entered Mercury’s orbit and captured images of 45% of the planet’s surface.
“Messenger,” the second spacecraft to explore Mercury, finished mapping the whole planet’s surface in 2013.
There is total silence in space.
This is due to the fact that sound waves require air to travel, and air does not exist in space.
So if you shouted to someone next to you in space, they wouldn’t be able to hear you. What a cool space fact is that!?
The first commercial soft drink ever consumed in space was Coca-Cola.
John Glenn consumed applesauce in orbit during the Friendship 7 mission in 1962, making it the first meal ever consumed in space.
When in space, astronauts can grow up to two inches (5 cm) in height.
This results from the discs between the vertebrae somewhat expanding because there is no gravity in space.
When reentering the Earth’s atmosphere and falling back to Earth’s gravity, the extra height is lost.
The area of the solar system outside of Neptune’s orbit is known as the Kuiper Belt.
Pluto is situated in the ring of ice worlds known as the Kuiper Belt.
Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian, was the first woman in space.
On June 16, 1963, she was propelled into space and history as part of the Vostok 6 expedition.
Before landing back on Earth, she spent nearly three days in space and made 48 orbits around the planet in her spacecraft.
Saturn’s rings would be 10,000 times thinner than a razor blade if they were three feet long.
Because they are composed of fragments of dusty water ice that range in size from dust grains to boulders, the rings surrounding Saturn are extremely thin.
As one of the most productive scientific tools ever constructed, the Hubble Space Telescope.
More than 15,000 scientific publications have been produced by astronomers utilizing Hubble data. 738,000 citations to those papers have been made in other papers.
Here are some other space-related and Hubble Space Telescope facts!
Sputnik was the name of the first artificial satellite sent into orbit.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit.
Planets that orbit other stars are known as exoplanets.
In our solar system, every planet revolves around the sun. But other solar systems—what about them?
NASA launched the Kepler mission in 2009 with the goal of finding exoplanets, and since then, hundreds have been found.
The flavor and aroma of the Milky Way’s core are similar to raspberries and rum.
This was found using the IRAM radio telescope, which focused on the Sagittarius B2 gas cloud at the galactic core.
The molecule that gives rum its distinctive aroma and raspberries their particular flavor is called ethyl formate, which the IRAM discovered.
This amazing astronomy truth may be learned more about here: The Milky Way tastes like raspberries and smells like rum.
The moon is receding from Earth by 1.6 inches (4 cm) a year!
The Moon will someday escape Earth’s gravitational field, according to scientists, but it won’t happen for billions of years.
Not the Disney Dog, but the Roman god of the underworld is the source of Pluto’s name.
Venetia Burney, an eleven-year-old British child, proposed the planet’s name to Clyde Tombaugh, the planet’s discoverer.
There is a Velcro patch on spacesuit helmets to relieve astronauts’ itching.
The Velcro patch serves simply this purpose.
Over 90% of people on Earth can see the International Space Station (ISS).
The International Space Station (ISS) can be seen in the night sky as a fast-moving star that is spanning from horizon to horizon.
The only planet that could float in water is Saturn.
Saturn is the lightest planet in our solar system, despite being the second largest.
Since gas makes up the majority of Saturn, it may float in water, but in reality, you would need a very large bathtub!
Asteroids are remnants of formations that took place in the solar system around 4 billion years ago.
The small particles present in our solar system collided and broke apart to become asteroids because Jupiter’s birth prohibited any planetary bodies from forming between Mars and Jupiter.
You can’t burp an astronaut in space.
This is because the absence of gravity in space prevents the air in an astronaut’s stomach from separating and rising to the surface after food is consumed.
“George’s Star” was the initial name for Uranus.
This name was chosen to honor King George III, the new patron of discoverer William Hershel.
One year after its discovery, in 1782, the name “Uranus” was suggested; nevertheless, it wasn’t formally adopted until 1850.
These dates regarding the discovery of the planets in our solar system could interest you.
Mars’s sunset is blue.
Less than 1% of Earth’s atmosphere is present on Mars.
Because of how the blue light from the sun is absorbed by Mars’ atmosphere, sunsets on the planet seem blue.
At 81 times the mass of the moon, the earth is heavier.
Similar to other planets, the gravity of the Moon varies with location on its surface.
The Russian dog “Laika” was the first living mammal to travel into space.
On November 3, 1957, Laika, a stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, was sent into space aboard the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2.
Laika tragically passed away from stress and hyperthermia 5–7 hours into the flight. Doggo, poor thing.
In its earliest forms, the word “astronaut” meant “star sailor.”
The Greek terms “astron,” which means “star,” and “nautes,” which means “sailor,” are the source of this term.
Thus, “star sailor” is the literal meaning of the word astronaut.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is known as “NASA.”
It was founded in 1958 and is a separate agency of the federal government of the United States.
Every day, NASA learns new information about space; if you’re interested in learning more, check out these NASA facts!
No one has spent more time in space than Gennady Padalka.
He has been in space for 879 days as an RKA astronaut.
He has experience working on the International Space Station and Mir.
Since Mercury lacks an atmosphere, there is no weather or wind.
Mercury lacks an atmosphere, but it does have a thin layer of atoms called the exosphere that are blasted from the surface by the solar wind and colliding meteoroids.
The Milky Way is referred to as the “Silver River” in China.
“Silver River” refers to galaxies in general, not simply the Milky Way, in Korea and Japan.
Low mass red dwarf stars can burn nonstop for up to 10 trillion years!
In the later stages of existence, red dwarf stars are small, cold stars with surface temperatures of less than 7,200 KF.
It was long thought by scientists that Mercury’s side faced the Sun at all times.
But in 1965, astronomers found that the planet actually rotates three times every two orbits.
Jupiter’s Red Spot is getting smaller.
The massive, whirling red patch on Jupiter resembles a hurricane and was once three times the size of Earth! The storm is getting taller even as it is getting smaller over time.
Although scientists are still baffled by the cause, they think it might have to do with Jupiter’s jet streams shifting in direction or location.
Jupiter’s gravity attracts a great number of asteroids.
Jupiter is therefore referred to as the solar system’s landfill.
A large number of long period comets or possibly dangerous asteroids are drawn into Jupiter’s gravitational field.
Regards, Jupiter!
On Mercury, a day is equal to 58 Earth days.
This is a result of Mercury rotating on its axis far more slowly than Earth does.
Pens are useless in space since there is no gravity.
When you hold a normal pen in your hand, the writing portion of the pen faces downward, and the pen’s nib draws ink towards it due to gravity.
Since space lacks gravity, the ink does not adhere to the nib.
Still, specific pens designed to function in zero gravity have been developed.
From the Moon to Earth, light travels in an average of just 1.3 seconds.
There are only 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) separating Earth and Moon.
In our night sky, there are 88 known star constellations.
The night sky of Earth is covered with these 88 constellations, which are visible from both the northern and southern hemispheres.
A comet’s core is referred to as its “nucleus.”
The terms “coma” and “tail” refer to the dust streamers that comets leave behind.
Not all space facts are about the planets! Here are a few interesting comet facts.
The Chinese started recording Halley’s Comet’s appearance as early as 240 BC.
The comet was continuously recorded after 164 BC, every time it was visible.
Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.
This is a result of Pluto’s lack of gravitational dominance over the area surrounding its orbit.
Within our solar system, five dwarf planets have been identified.
Ceres, Makemake, Haumea, Eris, and Pluto are the dwarf planets.
The sole dwarf planet that does not dwell in the outer solar system is Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system that is located in the asteroid belt.
The planet in our solar system with the highest chance of supporting life is Mars.
NASA discovered what they think could be minute living organism remains in 1986 when they collected a boulder from the surface of Mars.
On July 26, 2061, Halley’s Comet will go across Earth once more.
Kids can look forward to this space fact!
The well-known comet only makes one circuit around the Earth every 75 to 76 years; it was last observed on February 9, 1986.
There is a planet with a diamond-covered surface that is half the radius of Earth.
55 Cancri e may very possibly have a surface composed of diamonds and graphite, and despite having half the radius of Earth, it has eight times the mass of Earth.
See also: Facts about Black Holes | Disturbing Black Hole Facts
Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear has truly traveled to space!
Buzz Lightyear returned to Earth on September 11, 2009, having spent 15 months aboard the International Space Station.
Many people find space to be both strange and amazing. Humanity has always observed and attempted to learn from the great unknown; perhaps by comprehending our galaxy, we will be able to comprehend our role within it and the origins of this Earth.
We hope that these 100 fascinating space facts will contribute to the reduction of space’s mystique!
If you liked these strange space facts, check out our Space category for a ton more interesting space facts.
We’ll be updating these interesting space facts frequently, so please let us know if anything is wrong! All of these interesting space facts were true at the time of writing!
