21 Awesome Facts About Space

Space is amazing. The sheer vastness of it, along with the trillions upon trillions of objects in the many billion galaxies of the universe is almost incomprehensible to the human brain.

This page is a continuously updated list of the most incredible, awe-inspiring and unbelievable facts about space. Whether it's for kids looking to learn more about space, or you're looking for incredible facts for an article, or even if you just love space facts for no real reason, this is for you.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system and has an average surface temperature of around 450° C. Interestingly, Venus is not the closest planet to the Sun – Mercury is closer but because Mercury has no atmosphere to regulate temperature it has a very large temperature fluctuation.

Of all the planets in our solar system (apart from Earth), Mars is the one most likely to be hospitable to life. In 1986, NASA found what they thought may be fossils of microscopic living things in a rock recovered from Mars.

The sheer size of space makes it impossible to accurately predict just how many stars we have. Right now, scientists and astronomers use the number of stars only within our galaxy, The Milky Way, to estimate. That number is between 200-400 billion stars and there are estimated to be billions of galaxies so the stars in space really are completely uncountable.

Discovered in 1705 by Edmond Halley, the famous comet was last seen in 1986 and is only seen once every 75 to 76 years.

While the entire suit costs a cool $12m, 70% of that cost is for the backpack and control module.

Neutron stars are the densest and tiniest stars in the known universe and although they only have a radius of about 10 km (6 mi), they may have a mass of a few times that of the Sun. They can rotate at up to 60 times per second after they are born from a core-collapse supernova star explosion and have been known to spin as fast as 600-712 times per second because of their physics.

As space facts go, this is pretty impressive. Research by Yale University scientists suggests that a rocky planet called 55 Cancri e — which has a radius twice Earth’s, and a mass eight times greater – may have a surface made up of graphite and diamond. It’s 40 light years away but visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer.

The Moon has no atmosphere, which means there is no wind to erode the surface and no water to wash the footprints away. This means the footprints of the Apollo astronauts, along with spacecraft prints, rover-prints and discarded material, will be there for millions of years.

Venus has a slow axis rotation which takes 243 Earth days to complete its day. The orbit of Venus around the Sun is 225 Earth days, making a year on Venus 18 days less than a day on Venus.

The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way – where our solar system is – at rate of around 110 kilometres per second (68 mi/s) and eventually the two will collide to form a giant elliptical galaxy.

This incredible fact is also known as cold welding and it happens because the atoms of two pieces of metal have no way of knowing they are separate. This doesn’t happen on Earth because of the air and water found between the pieces.

Astronomers have found a massive water vapor cloud which holds 140 trillion times the mass of water in the Earth’s oceans somewhere around 10 billion light years away – making it the largest discovery of water ever found.

Discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, the dwarf planet Ceres was the first, and largest, object to be considered an asteroid. It is located in the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and accounts for 33% of the entire belt’s mass.

The theory is that when Earth was a relatively young planet, it was struck by a giant object and this collision broke a piece of the Earth away to create the moon. This piece then began to orbit the Earth as a result of its gravitational pull.

Made of three quarters hydrogen and helium for most of its remaining mass, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system with a mass of around 330,000 times that of Earth.

At 600 km wide and 21 km high, Olympus Mons is a volcano on Mars that may still be active, according to scientists. It is the tallest peak of any planet. However, the Rheasilvia central peak on the asteroid Vesta is taller at 22 km.

We have eight planets in our Solar System. However, outside of our Solar System there are thousands of other planets. The extra-solar planets or exo-planets are in orbit around another star. So far we have almost 1800 confirmed new worlds, with another 3000 awaiting confirmation. Astronomers are looking to a star’s goldilocks zone for planets that may be habitable, just like the Earth. The majority of planets discovered so far are hot gas giant planets.

Nebula means cloud in Latin. These are areas in which stars are being created or where a star has died. The cosmic clouds come in all shapes and sizes and are made out of interstellar dust and gases. There is a Christmas tree nebula, a horsehead, a unicorn, a hand, fried egg and lots more. These beautiful clouds which are not visible to the naked eye really highlight the fact there is a lot more happening in the night sky than you can see.

The North Star used for navigation, a steady point in the night sky will change, however not in our lifetime. The Earth is rotating like a spinning top and therefore the pole of our planet wobbles. Currently it points to Polaris but in the year 13727 our Pole Star will be the star Vega, in the constellation of Lyra. Vega was the also North Star in 12000BCE.

There is no atmosphere in space, which means that sound has no medium or way to travel to be heard. Astronauts use radios to stay in communication while in space, since radio waves can still be sent and received.

In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 were launched. Their primary mission was to visit Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 continued onto Uranus and Neptune; Voyager 1 has now made its way into interstellar space. Voyager 1 is further away from Earth than the distance between the Sun and Pluto. Both craft carry a golden record on board, which will act like a time-capsule of Earth. It has greetings from Earth as well as different kinds of music. It also has noises of rocket engines, the sea, people talking, animal’s sounds and lots of images. All of which sum up the Earth. United States President Jimmy Carter said at the time “This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.” These messages have been recorded as electronic impulses which can be translated into written words. If any aliens find it then can enjoy some Louis Armstrong as well some Peruvian panpipes!