8 WTF Fun Facts About Space

1. When is the next time the planets will align?

One calculation of alignments within around thirty degrees (about as close as they can get) shows that the last such alignment was in 561 BC, and the next will be in 2854. All nine planets are somewhat aligned every 500 years, and are grouped within 30 degrees every 1 to 3 alignments.

2. What is the longest anyone has been in space?

March 22, 1995: Longest Human Space Adventure Ends. 1995: Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth from the longest-ever stay in space by a human. He spent just over 437 days in the Mir space station.

3. What Colour is sunset on Mars?

Just as colors are made more dramatic in sunsets on Earth, sunsets on Mars, according to NASA,  would appear bluish to human observers watching from the red planet. Fine dust makes the blue near the Sun's part of the sky much more visibilke, while normal daylight makes the Red Planet's familiar rusty dust color the most perceptible to the human eye.

4. How long is a day cycle on Venus?

On Venus, a day lasts about 243 Earth-days. That's longer than it takes the planet to complete an orbit around the Sun. So, a Venusian year actually spans just 225 Earth-days.

5. There Is a Planet Made of Diamonds

There’s a planet made of diamonds twice the size of earth The "super earth," aka 55 Cancri e, is most likely covered in graphite and diamond.  Paying a visit to that planet would probably pay for the $12 million dollar space suit needed to get there!

6. How much is the planet made of diamonds worth?

The planet is called 55 Caneri-e.

It’s about 40 light years away. It's composition is mainly of a carbon-rich make up, hence the ‘diamond’ relation.

Fun fact: The planet is worth around $30 nonillion (30 followed by 54 0’s).

If the world bank is worth about $80 trillion, this means the planet is worth around 385 quadrillion times more than the total GDP output of our world!

It could end world debt by around 180 quadrillion times!

7. Neutron stars can spin 600 times per second.

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 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.

8. If two pieces of the same type of metal touch in space they will permanently bond.

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.