Planet Earth, our home, seems plenty big to most people living on it. It’s full of mysteries, unknown creatures, and history that we have yet to discover. Even though Earth is immense, it’s nothing compared to some of the giants in our solar system, our galaxy and the entire universe. Most people are drawn to learning more about space because of how alien and massive it is. Even if you know a lot of trivia about the universe, we’re willing to bet you didn’t know some of these strange and interesting facts. I was in awe of everything around me after reading this, even if it did make me feel insignificant and small.
1.) One spoonful of matter from a neutron star would weigh about 1 billion tons.
2.) Beyond Neptune, there may be an unknown object as big as the Earth orbiting the Sun.
3.) One day on Venus is longer than one year.
4.) One photon takes about 170,000 years to travel from the sun’s core to the surface.
5.) That same photon only takes 8 minutes to travel from the sun to your eyes.
6.) If you could compress Earth to the size of a marble, it would collapse on itself and become a black hole.
7.) 33 light years away, there is a planet that is completely covered in burning ice.
8.) An estimated 275 million stars are born every day.
9.) There’s a gas cloud in the Aquila constellation that contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion pints of beer. Cheers!
10.) The Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object we have ever sent into space.
11.) Astronauts claim that being in space smells like seared steak, hot metal, and welding fumes.
12.) And according to researchers, the center of our galaxy tastes like raspberries and smells like rum.
13.) The Milky Way has 4 spiral arms and not 2 (which is how its depicted often in pop culture).
14.) Every year, the moon moves about 3.8cm away from the Earth.
15.) There’s more than 8,000 pieces of space junk floating around the Earth.
16.) Every century, the Earth’s rotation slows about 17 milliseconds.
17.) The Voyager 1 captured this photo. The circled dot is the Earth. It is the most distant image we have ever seen of our own planet.
18.) The Olympus Mons, the largest mountain on Mars, completely dwarfs Mount Everest.
19.) It’s also so wide, if you were standing at its base, the mountain would seem to stretch out past the horizon.
20.) The sun makes up 99% of the mass of our solar system.
21.) There is a diamond planet in our galaxy that is bigger than Earth.
22.) When you cry in space, the tears just stick to your eyes and face.
23.) On planet HD189733b, shards of glass rain down from the sky – sideways.
24.) If you could fit Saturn into a bathtub filled with water, it would float.
(H/T: Izismile) These facts are the kinds of things that more people should know. We live in an almost-magical universe, a giant secret that is just waiting to be revealed. Spread the knowledge by clicking the Share button below. This information is just too good to keep to yourself.
