Facts about space that may surprise and frighten you. Interesting facts about the Universe (15 photos) Amazing facts about space and the universe

We still know very little about the vast universe in which we live. Check out our list of 25 thought-provoking space mysteries.
Space contains all sorts of dangers, from deadly radiation to exploding superstars.
However, humanity is determined to go out and explore space, so to make sure we know exactly what we're up to, here are 25 space facts that will definitely surprise you.

Speed of light

Everyone likes to imagine themselves flying through the galaxy at the speed of light, approximately 299,792,458 meters per second; however, the reality can be less fun and much more fatal. Upon contact with an object moving at the speed of light, hydrogen atoms turn into highly radioactive particles that can easily destroy a starship's crew and destroy electronics in a matter of seconds. Even a few stray bubbles of hydrogen gas floating in space could have a radioactive output equivalent to the beam of protons produced by the Large Hadron Collider.

Moon

Every year our moon is approximately 400,000 km away from Earth, and while this may not seem like a big deal at first, it could have devastating consequences for our planet in the future. Although the Earth's gravitational field should be sufficient to allow the moon to spin freely in space, the increasing distance between it and Earth will eventually slow down our planet's rotation to the point where one day will take more than a month, and our oceans will not there will be tides..

Black holes

Black holes, typically formed due to the death of massive stars, are super-dense regions of space with such a strong gravitational pull that they trap light and time. Just a little black hole in our solar system would throw planets out of orbit and tear our sun apart. This in itself is not scary, but black holes can rush across the galaxy at speeds of several million miles per second, leaving a trail of destruction in their path.

Gamma radiation

The most powerful type of explosion in the Universe, gamma rays are intense, high-frequency bursts. electromagnetic radiation, which carry as much energy in milliseconds as our sun will produce over its lifetime. If one of these rays hit Earth, it could strip the atmosphere of ozone in a matter of seconds, and some scientists believe gamma rays are responsible for the mass extinction event 440 million years ago on Earth.

Zero gravity

WITH scientific point In terms of vision, microgravity occurs when an object is in free fall and appears weightless. Although it may seem fun to float around like astronauts, long time in the absence of gravity leads to long-term mental and physical disorders of a person.

Cold welding

Here on Earth, gases in the atmosphere react with metals to create a thin layer of oxidation. However, the vacuum of space has no atmosphere and therefore does not cause oxidation on metals, which leads to interesting reaction. This reaction is called cold welding, and it occurs when two metals of the same molecular composition are pressed together and gradually fuse together as if they were one. While this may sound strange, this caused a lot of problems on the first satellites and made repairs in space difficult.

Extraterrestrial life

The universe is massive and incredibly old, so the chances of other planets evolving like Earth is unlikely. According to the Fermi Paradox, the high probability of extraterrestrial life in space is contradicted by the lack of obvious evidence to support it. At this point, we're not sure which is scarier; the fact that we cannot be alone in the universe or the possibility that we are.

Rogue Planets

Launched into space after the formation of their planetary system, these planets are bodies that can move freely through space, crashing into anything they encounter along the way. Because they do not orbit the Sun, these planets have low surface temperatures. However, due to their molten cores and icy insulation, some scientists theorize that these free planets may contain massive underground oceans that support life.

Trips

In 1969, the third lunar module, Apollo 11, took 3 days to land on Earth's natural satellite, the Moon. Since then, our technology has grown rapidly; We could expect to get to Mars in 7-9 months, and getting to Pluto would take about 10 years. Distances beyond our solar system become even more extreme; even traveling at the speed of light, it would take us more than 4 years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centurion, and more than 100,000 years to reach the galactic center of the Milky Way.

Extreme temperatures

Depending on where you are in space, you will most likely end up in extreme conditions. The heat emitted by a supernova can reach temperatures of 50 million degrees Celsius or more, five times hotter than a nuclear explosion. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the cosmic background temperature of space is measured at minus 270 degrees Celsius, just warmer than absolute zero. You definitely don't want to forget your jacket.

Darkness

Fear of the dark is not just a fear that children experience; it is an evolutionary trait created by humans to protect against dangers lurking in the unknown. The only reason adults today aren't afraid of what they can't see is because they've learned from experience that the likelihood of monsters hiding under the bed is very low. However, in space, darkness is a completely unexplored void that goes on forever, so fearing the dangers that lurk beyond our vision is an understandable reaction.

Magnetars

Magnetars are incredibly dense neutron stars. In fact, they're basically an entire star crushed into a sphere that's only 15 miles in diameter. One teaspoon of magnetar contains the same mass as 900 Great Pyramids of Giza. They are also host to the strongest magnetic fields in our universe, fields so strong that anything that gets too close is torn apart at the atomic level.

Musculoskeletal atrophy

Astronauts visiting the International Space Station show signs of significant muscle wasting after just six weeks in space.

Venus

Despite taking its name from the Roman goddess of love, Venus is perhaps the most hellish planet in our solar system. With surface temperatures of around 500 degrees Celsius, the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth, and the constant sulfuric acid rain just landing on Venus will kill you in minutes. This is definitely not a planet you'd want to have a picnic on.

Dark Matter/Dark Energy

We know very little about our universe. In fact, we've only seen less than 5% of the material it's made from. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy. About a quarter of the Universe is made up of dark matter, mass that we cannot see or detect. The rest of the Universe is dark energy, the true nature of which is largely unknown. However, we are confident that it plays a crucial role in the expansion of the Universe.

Source radiation

The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from some really nasty things, namely radiation. Cosmic rays, solar winds and electromagnetic particles permeate the universe, so much so that astronauts traveling between Earth and Mars will be exposed to radiation throughout their entire body for 5-6 days. Those who do not succumb to radiation sickness before achieving their goal will almost certainly develop cancer for the rest of their lives.

Expanding Sun

Our Sun is constantly using nuclear fusion for combining hydrogen and helium together in order to burn; however, its hydrogen is not infinite, and as it is depleted, the Sun will become hotter and hotter. Eventually it will get so hot that the Earth's atmosphere will burn up and our oceans will boil and evaporate completely. Then, once all of the Sun's hydrogen is gone, it will expand into a red giant and consume Earth once and for all.

Hypernovas

With 100 times more energy than a standard supernova, hypernovae are powerful explosions that occur after the death of a massive star. Although the factors that cause a hypernova star to form are widely disputed, we know that the result is often a black hole or neutron star. Hypernovae are also the source of gamma-ray bursts in the Universe, and they are bright enough to be seen by telescopes millions of light years away.

Electromagnetic vibrations

Space is a near-perfect vacuum, which means you can count on your ears not picking up sound while you're in outer space. While the thought of complete silence may be crazy in itself, don't believe that just because you can't hear anything there's no sound. Due to the lack of gases to move them, sound waves are absent in space, but sounds are still transmitted through space using electromagnetic vibrations. NASA recorded some of these vibrations from celestial bodies in our solar system and played them back, resulting in some truly terrifying sci-fi sounds.

Anything can kill you

There is no room for error in space; even the smallest mistake can kill you. Of the 430 people sent into space, 18 never return home. Today's improvements in spaceflight make it much safer than before. In the 1970s, almost 30% of people who went into space died; however, the furthest we travel is to the moon. A trip to Mars would increase the risk tenfold.

Time distribution

Imagine an astronaut traveling through space at close to the speed of light. Now imagine a person standing on the Earth. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, an astronaut will experience time much more slowly than a stationary person. When the astronaut finally returns home, even if he has been on earth for many years since he left, it will only be a fraction of that time. This is called time dilation, and while we have yet to develop the technology to move people fast enough to notice its effects, we have seen examples of it when studying high-speed particles in the laboratory.

Stars with hyperspeed

Believed to be the result of a close encounter with a black hole, hypervelocity stars are stars that have been ejected from their systems and sent into intergalactic space at speeds of up to 2 million miles per hour. While most of the hypervelocity stars we've identified so far are the same size and mass as the Sun, they could theoretically be any size and reach even more incredible speeds.

Solar flares

Despite the occasional sunburn, our Sun has provided us with warmth and light for billions of years. Don't let our local star fool you, though. Our Sun is a huge incandescent plasma that can make massive bursts of solar radiation at random. Although they are unlikely to directly threaten life on Earth, these solar flares can create electromagnetic pulses that destroy power networks, interfere with radio communications and invalidate technology.

Depressurization

Apparently there is no air in space; however, this means more danger than simply holding your breath for a long time. The human body is adapted to the atmospheric pressure on Earth, so when you go up in an airplane or travel on mountain roads, ear problems arise. There is no air pressure in a vacuum space. Within seconds, as you exit the confines of your spacecraft, all the water in your body will boil and evaporate, rapidly expanding until you burst like an overfilled balloon.

Big Bang: contraction or expansion?

Everything must come to an end, but will there be an end to everything? Scientists agree that this will most likely be the final end of the universe, but how this will happen is still uncertain. One prevailing theory is that there will come a point at which the gravitational forces in the universe will reach their limit and cause the entire universe to stop expanding and begin to contract, gradually converging into an infinitesimal point, and then disappear altogether. Another theory, known as the big bang theory, states that the universe will expand to such an extent that gravity becomes meaningless and the cosmos literally falls apart; even particles in atoms eventually float away from each other. We honestly can't decide which is more scary.

33 facts. Famous and not so famous. About the planets, about the structure of space, about the human body and deep space. Each fact is accompanied by a large and colorful illustration.

1. Mass of the Sun makes up 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system, the remaining 0.14% comes from planets and asteroids.

2. Jupiter's magnetic field so powerful that it enriches the magnetic field of our planet with billions of watts every day.

3. The largest pool Solar system, formed as a result of a collision with a space object, is located on Mercury. This is the Caloris Basin, which has a diameter of 1,550 km. The collision was so strong that the shock wave passed across the entire planet, radically changing its appearance.

4. Solar matter the size of a pinhead, placed in the atmosphere of our planet, will begin to absorb oxygen at an incredible speed and in a split second will destroy all life within a radius of 160 kilometers.

5. 1 Plutonian year lasts 248 Earth years. This means that while Pluto makes only one full revolution around the Sun, Earth manages to make 248.

6. Even more interesting The situation is the same with Venus, 1 day on which lasts 243 Earth days, and a year is only 225.

7. Martian volcano "Olympus"(Olympus Mons) is the largest in the Solar System. Its length is more than 600 km and its height is 27 km, while the height of the highest point on our planet, the peak of Mount Everest, reaches only 8.5 km.

8. Explosion (flare) of a supernova accompanied by the release of a gigantic amount of energy. In the first 10 seconds, an exploding supernova produces more energy than the Sun does in 10 billion years, and in a short period of time produces more energy than all the objects in the galaxy combined (excluding other supernovae).

The brightness of such stars easily outshines the luminosity of the galaxies in which they flared up.

9. Tiny neutron stars, whose diameter does not exceed 10 km, weigh as much as the Sun (remember fact No. 1). The gravity on these astronomical objects is extremely high and if, hypothetically, an astronaut landed on it, his body weight would increase by approximately one million tons.

10. February 5, 1843 astronomers discovered a comet, which they gave the name “Great” (also known as the March comet, C/1843 D1 and 1843 I). Flying near the Earth in March of the same year, it “lined” the sky in two with its tail, the length of which reached 800 million kilometers.

Earthlings observed the tail trailing behind the “Great Comet” for more than a month, until, on April 19, 1843, it completely disappeared from the sky.

11. Warms us Now the energy of the sun's rays originated in the core of the Sun more than 30 million years ago - most of this time was required for it to overcome the dense shell of the celestial body and only 8 minutes to reach the surface of our planet.

12. Most heavy elements contained in your body (such as calcium, iron and carbon) are byproducts of the supernova explosion that began the formation of the solar system.

13. Explorers from Harvard University found that 0.67% of all rocks on Earth are of Martian origin.

14. Density At 5.6846 x 1026 kg, Saturn is so small that if we could place it in water, it would float on the very surface.

15. On Jupiter's moon, Io, ~400 active volcanoes have been recorded. The speed of sulfur and sulfur dioxide emissions during an eruption can exceed 1 km/s, and the height of the flows can reach 500 kilometers.

16. Contrary to popular belief In my opinion, space is not a complete vacuum, but it is close enough to it, because There is at least 1 atom per 88 gallons (0.4 m3) of cosmic matter (and as they often teach in school, there are no atoms or molecules in a vacuum).

17. Venus is the only planet A solar system that rotates counterclockwise. There are several theoretical justifications for this. Some astronomers are confident that this fate befalls all planets with a dense atmosphere, which first slows down and then spins up. heavenly body in the opposite direction from the initial revolution, while others suggest that the cause was the fall of a group of large asteroids onto the surface of Venus.

18. Since the beginning of 1957(the year of the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1), humanity managed to literally seed the orbit of our planet with various satellites, but only one of them was lucky enough to repeat the ‘fate of the Titanic’. In 1993, the Olympus satellite, owned by the European Space Agency, was destroyed as a result of a collision with an asteroid.

19. Biggest Fallen The 2.7 meter “Hoba” meteorite, discovered in Namibia, is considered to be a meteorite on Earth. The meteorite weighs 60 tons and is 86% iron, making it the largest naturally occurring piece of iron on Earth.

20. Tiny Pluto It is considered the coldest planet (planetoid) in the Solar System. Its surface is covered with a thick crust of ice, and the temperature drops to -200 0 C. The ice on Pluto has a completely different structure than on Earth and is several times stronger than steel.

21. Official scientific theory states that a person can survive in outer space without a spacesuit for 90 seconds if he immediately exhales all the air from his lungs.

If a small amount of gas remains in the lungs, they will begin to expand with the subsequent formation of air bubbles, which, if released into the blood, will lead to embolism and inevitable death. If the lungs are filled with gases, they will simply burst.

After 10-15 seconds of being in outer space, the water in the human body will turn into steam, and the moisture in the mouth and before the eyes will begin to boil. As a result, the soft tissues and muscles will swell, leading to complete immobility.

The most interesting thing is that for the next 90 seconds the brain will still live and the heart will beat.

In theory, if during the first 90 seconds a loser cosmonaut who has suffered in outer space is placed in a pressure chamber, he will only get away with superficial damage and mild fright.

22. The weight of our planet– this quantity is not constant. Scientists have found that every year the Earth gains ~40,160 tons and sheds ~96,600 tons, thus losing 56,440 tons.

23. Earth's gravity compresses the human spine, so when an astronaut enters space, he grows approximately 5.08 cm.

At the same time, his heart contracts, decreasing in volume, and begins to pump less blood. This is the body's response to increased blood volume, which requires less pressure to circulate normally.

24. Tightly compressed in space metal parts weld spontaneously. This occurs as a result of the absence of oxides on their surfaces, the enrichment of which occurs only in an oxygen-containing environment (a clear example of such an environment is the earth’s atmosphere). For this reason, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) specialists process all metal parts spacecraft oxidizing materials.

25. Between a planet and its satellite a tidal acceleration effect occurs, which is characterized by a slowdown in the rotation of the planet around its own axis and a change in the orbit of the satellite. Thus, every century the Earth’s rotation slows down by 0.002 seconds, as a result of which the length of the day on the planet increases by ~15 microseconds per year, and the Moon moves away from us by 3.8 centimeters annually.

26. "Space spinning top" called a neutron star is the fastest spinning object in the Universe, which makes up to 500 revolutions per second around its axis. Besides these cosmic bodies so dense that one tablespoon of their constituent substance will weigh ~10 billion tons.

27. Star Betelgeuse is located 640 light years from Earth and is the closest candidate to our planetary system for the title of supernova. It is so large that if you place it in the place of the Sun, it will fill the diameter of Saturn's orbit. This star has already gained the mass of 20 Suns sufficient for an explosion and, according to some scientists, should explode in the next 2-3 thousand years. At the peak of its explosion, which will last at least two months, Betelgeuse will have a luminosity 1,050 times greater than the Sun, making its death visible from Earth even with the naked eye.

28. The closest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is located at a distance of 2.52 million years. The Milky Way and Andromeda are moving towards each other at enormous speeds (Andromeda’s speed is 300 km/s, and milky way 552 km/s) and will most likely collide in 2.5-3 billion years.

29. In 2011, astronomers discovered a planet consisting of 92% ultra-dense crystalline carbon - diamond. The precious celestial body, which is 5 times larger than our planet and heavier than Jupiter, is located in the constellation Serpens, at a distance of 4,000 light years from Earth.

30. Main contender for the title of habitable planet of the extrasolar system, “Super-Earth” GJ 667Cc, is located at a distance of only 22 light years from Earth. However, the journey to it will take us 13,878,738,000 years.

31. In orbit of our planet there is a dump of waste from the development of astronautics. More than 370,000 objects weighing from a few grams to 15 tons orbit the Earth at a speed of 9,834 m/s, colliding with each other and scattering into thousands of smaller parts.

32. Every second The sun loses ~1 million tons of matter and becomes lighter by several billion grams. The reason for this is the flow of ionized particles flowing from its crown, which is called the “solar wind.”

33. Over time planetary systems become extremely unstable. This occurs as a result of weakening connections between the planets and the stars around which they orbit.

In such systems, the orbits of the planets are constantly shifting and may even intersect, which will sooner or later lead to a collision of the planets. But even if this does not happen, then after a few hundred, thousand, millions or billions of years the planets will move away from their star to such a distance that its gravitational attraction simply cannot hold them, and they will go on a free flight through the galaxy.

Space has always interested people, because our lives are connected with it. Space discoveries and exploration are so exciting that you want to learn more and more new things. Today, space is the most discussed topic. The mysteries of space never cease to amaze people. Space is something mysterious that you want to study.

2. 480 degrees Celsius is the temperature on the surface of Venus.

3. There are a huge number of galaxies in the Universe that cannot be counted.

5. Time passes much slower near objects with great strength gravity.

6. All liquids in space freeze and boil at the same time. Even urine.

7. Toilets in space are equipped with special protective belts for the hips and feet for the safety of astronauts.

8. After sunset, you can see the International Space Station (ISS) with the naked eye, which revolves around the Earth.

9. Astronauts wear diapers during landing, takeoff, and spacewalks.

10. The doctrine believes that the Moon is a huge piece that was formed when the Earth collided with another planet.

11. One comet, caught in a solar storm, lost its tail.

12. The largest volcano, Pele, is located on the satellite of Jupiter.

13. White dwarfs are the name given to stars that lack their own sources of thermonuclear energy.

14. per second the sun loses 4000 tons of weight. per minute, per minute 240 thousand tons.

15. According to the theory “ big bang“The universe arose approximately 13.77 billion years ago from a certain singular state and has been expanding ever since.

16. At a distance of 13 million light years from earth there is a famous black hole.

17. Nine planets revolve around the Sun, which have their own satellites.

18. Potatoes are shaped like the moons of Mars.

19. The first time traveler was cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev. It rotated for a long time in the orbit of the earth at a speed of 27,000 km/h, and therefore ended up 0.02 seconds into the future.

20. 9.46 trillion kilometers is the distance that light travels in one year.

21. There are no seasons on Jupiter. Due to the fact that the angle of inclination of the rotation axis relative to the orbital plane is only 3.13°. The degree of deviation of the orbit from the circumference of the planet is also minimal (0.05)

22. No one has ever been killed by a falling meteorite.

23. Asteroids orbiting the Sun are called small astronomical bodies.

24. 98% of the mass of all objects in the Solar System is the mass of the Sun.

25. The atmospheric pressure at the center of the Sun is 34 billion times higher than the pressure at sea level on Earth.

26. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is about 6000 degrees Celsius.

27. In 2014, the coldest star of the white dwarf class was discovered, the carbon on it crystallized and the entire star turned into a diamond the size of the Earth.

28. Italian astronomer Galileo was hiding from persecution by the Roman Catholic Church.

29. In 8 minutes, light reaches the surface of the Earth.

30. The Sun will greatly increase in size in about a billion years. At a time when all the hydrogen in the sun's core runs out. Combustion will occur on the surface and the light will become much brighter.

31. A hypothetical photon rocket engine could accelerate a spacecraft to the speed of light. But its development, apparently, is a matter of the distant future.

32. The Voyager spacecraft flies at a speed of more than 56 thousand kilometers per hour.

33. The volume of the sun is 1.3 million times larger than the earth.

34. Proxima Centauri is our closest neighboring star.

35. In space, only yogurt will remain on the spoon, and all other liquids will spread.

36. The planet Neptune cannot be seen with the naked eye.

37. The first was the Soviet-made Venera 1 spacecraft.

38. In 1972, the Pioneer spacecraft was launched to the star Aldebaran.

39. In 1958, the National Space Administration was founded.

40. The science that models planets is called Terra formation.

41. The International Space Station (ISS) was created in the form of a laboratory, the cost of which is 100 million dollars.

42. Mysterious “dark matter” makes up most of the mass of Venus.

43. The Voyager spacecraft carries disks with congratulations in 55 languages.

44. The human body would stretch in length if it fell into a black hole.

45. A year on Mercury lasts only 88 days.

46. Diameter globe 25 times the diameter of the star Hercules.

47. The air in space toilets is cleared of bacteria and odors.

48. The first dog to go into space in 1957 was a husky.

49. There are plans to send robots to Mars to bring samples of Mars soil back to earth.

50. Scientists have discovered some planets that rotate around their own axis.

51. All the stars of the Milky Way revolve around the center.

52. On the moon, gravity is 6 times weaker than on earth. The satellite cannot contain the gases released from it. They fly safely into space.

53. Every 11 years in the cycle, the magnetic poles of the Sun change places.

54. About 40 thousand tons of meteorite dust settles annually on the surface of the Earth.

55. The area of bright gas from the explosion of a star is called the Crab Nebula.

56. The Earth travels around the Sun about 2.4 million kilometers every day.

57. The device, which provides a state of weightlessness, is called “Nautical”.

58. Astronauts who spend a long time in space often suffer from muscle dystrophy.

59. It takes about 1.25 seconds for the light of the Moon to reach the surface of the Earth.

60. In Sicily in 2004, local residents suggested that they had been visited by aliens.

61. The mass of Jupiter is two and a half times greater than the mass of all other planets in the solar system.

62. A day on Jupiter lasts ten Earth hours less.

63. In space, atomic clocks run more accurately.

64. Now aliens, if they exist, can pick up radio transmissions from the earth in the 1980s. The fact is that the speed of a radio wave is equal to the speed of light, so now radio waves from the 1980s would reach planets located more than 37 light years (data for 2017) from earth.

65. 263 extrasolar planets had been discovered until October 2007.

66. Since the creation of the solar system, asteroids and comets have been made of particles.

67. It would take you more than 212 years to get to the Sun in a regular car.

68. The night temperature on the Moon can differ by 380 degrees Celsius from the day temperature.

69. One day the Earth system mistook a spaceship for a meteorite.

70. A very low musical sound is produced by a black hole located in the Perseus galaxy.

71. At a distance of 20 light years from Earth there is a planet suitable for life.

72. Astronomers discovered a new planet with water.

73. By 2030, it is planned to build a city on the Moon.

74. Temperature - 273.15 degrees Celsius is called absolute zero.

75. 500 million kilometers - the largest tail of a comet.

Photo from the Cassini automatic interplanetary station. In the photograph of the rings of Saturn, the arrow indicates the planet Earth. Photo 2017

76. The International Space Station (ISS) is equipped with huge solar panels.

77. To travel through time, you can use tunnels in space and time.

78. The Kuiper Belt consists of residual fragments of planets.

79. Our Solar System, which exists for 4.57 billion years, is considered young.

80. Even light can easily be absorbed by the gravitational field of a black hole.

81. Longest day on Mercury.

82. As Jupiter passes around the Sun, it leaves behind a gas cloud.

83. Part of the Arizona desert is used to train astronauts.

84. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter has existed for more than 350 years.

85. More than 764 of Earth's planets could fit inside Saturn (if we take into account its rings). Without rings - only 10 planets Earth.

86. The largest object in the Solar System is the Sun.

87. Compacted solid waste from space toilets is sent to Earth.

89. More than 100 billion stars exist in a typical galaxy.

90. The lowest density is on the planet Saturn, only 0.687 g/cm³. The Earth has 5.51 g/cm³.

Internal contents of the spacesuit

91. In the Solar System there is the so-called Oort Cloud. This is a hypothetical region that serves as a source of long-period comets. The existence of the cloud has not yet been proven (as of 2017). The distance from the Sun to the edge of the cloud is approximately 0.79 to 1.58 light years.

92. Ice volcanoes spew water on Saturn's moon.

93. A day on Neptune lasts only 19 Earth hours.

94. In zero gravity, the respiratory process can be disrupted due to the fact that blood moves unstably throughout the body, due to the lack of gravity.

What do we know about space? Most of us cannot answer the simplest questions about this mysterious world, which, despite this, attracts and interests us. This article presents the most interesting general information about space, which will be useful for everyone to know.

We (all living beings) fly in the space environment at a certain speed, which is 530 km/second. If we take into account the speed of our Earth’s movement in the galaxy, it is equal to 225 km/second. Our galaxy (Milky Way), in turn, moves through space at a speed of 305 km/second.

A giant space object, the planet Saturn, actually has a relatively small weight. The density of this giant planet is a couple of times lower than that of water. Thus, if you try to drown this cosmic body in water, this will not work.
If the planet Jupiter were hollow, then all the known planets of our “Solar” planetary system could fit inside it.
Reducing the frequency of rotation of the planet Earth will move the Moon away from it by approximately four centimeters every year.
The first “star catalog” was compiled by Hipparchus (an astronomer) in 150 BC.

When we look at the most distant (faint) stars in the night sky, we see them as they were approximately fourteen billion years ago.
In addition to our star, we have another nearby star, Prosky Centauri. The distance to this space object is equal to 4.2 light years.
The "red giant" named "Betelgeuse" has a huge diameter. For comparison, its diameter is a couple of times greater than the orbit of our Earth around the star.
Every year, the galaxy in which our planetary system is located produces about 40 new stars.
If one teaspoon (teaspoon) of the substance is removed from the “neutron star”, then the weight of this spoon will be equal to 150 tons.

The mass of our star is more than 99% of the mass of its entire planetary system.
The age of the light emitted by our luminary can be equated to only 30 thousand years. It was thirty thousand years ago that a certain energy was formed in the star, which reaches the Earth to this day. By the way, solar photons reach the above-mentioned planet on which we live in just eight seconds.
The eclipse of our star can last no more than seven and a half minutes. The lunar eclipse, in turn, has a longer duration - 104 minutes.
The “solar wind” is the cause of the loss of mass of our star. In 1 second, this star loses more than 1 billion kg due to this “wind”. By the way, one “windy particle” can destroy an ordinary person by approaching him at a distance of 160 kilometers.
If our Earth rotated in a different, opposite direction, then the length of the year would be shorter by a couple of days.
Every day our planet experiences a “meteor bombardment”. Why don't we see this? Most of the space objects falling on us are very small, so they do not have time to reach the surface and dissolve in our atmosphere.

Our planet has more than one satellite. Modern scientists have determined that four objects are flying around it at once. Of course, the most famous of them is the Moon. Besides it, there is an asteroid flying around us (diameter 5 kilometers), which was discovered in 1896. To be more precise, this object rotates around the star, but with a certain frequency, the same as ours. That's why he is always near us. It is impossible to see it with the naked eye.
The condensation of “cosmic matter” is the reason for the periodic increase in the mass of our planet. Every 500 years its mass increases by about one billion tons.
Ursa Major is not a constellation, as many people believe. In reality, this is an “asterism” - a visual cluster of stars that are quite impressively distant from each other. Some Ursa Ursa stars are even located in different galactic formations.

Initially, the planet Uranus, discovered by W. Herschel in 1781, was called “George’s Star.” This was ordered by George III, who wanted the last discovered planet of the “Solar System” to be named after him.

If two parts of a meteorite come into contact in outer space, they are welded together. If this happens on our native planet, then they will not unite, since on our planet it is common for metals to oxidize. The equipment that astronauts use while working outside the space station spontaneously oxidizes on Earth, so it does not stick together in space.

Satellite devices created by engineers during flight in space obey certain physical laws, which were first described by Newton.

Since 1980, areas of our companion, the Moon, have been officially sold, and they cost a lot. To date, about seven percent of the natural satellite's surface has been sold. The cost of forty acres now is no more than $150. The lucky person who bought the plot receives a certificate and photographs of his “lunar land”.

In 1992, the official couple Jen and Mark went into space. To this day, they are considered the first and only spouses to visit space together. The couple flew into space on the ship Endever.
All those who have been in space for a certain time (1-2 months) grow by about five centimeters due to spinal stretching, which then, after returning to Earth, can negatively affect their health.
A satellite orbital system can photograph three million square kilometers of the Earth in half an hour, an airplane in twelve years, a person manually in approximately 100 years.
In 2001, they conducted an interesting experiment, after which they found out that astronauts who snore at home in outer space lose this bad habit.

It turns out that our satellite, the Moon, moves away from us every year by about 4 cm. This depends on the decrease in the planet’s rotation period by 2 miles of a second per day.

Forty new stars are born every year in our Galaxy alone. It’s hard to even imagine how many of them appear in the entire Universe.

The universe has no boundaries. It seems that everyone is familiar with this statement. In fact, no one knows whether space is infinite or just gigantic.

All the stars, galaxies and black holes in the Universe make up only 5% of its mass. It's amazing, but 95% of the mass is uncountable. Scientists decided to call this mysterious substance “dark matter” and to this day no one can accurately determine its nature.

Our solar system is terribly boring. If you think about our neighbors, they are all unremarkable balls of gas and pieces of stone. Multiple light voids separate us from the nearest star. Meanwhile, other systems are full of all sorts of amazing things.

In the vastness of the Universe there is a very amazing thing - giant gas bubble. Its length is about 200 million light years, and it is located 12 billion of the same years from us! This interesting thing formed just two billion years after the Big Bang.

Sun more than Earth about 110 times. It is even larger than the giant of our system - Jupiter. However, if you compare it with other stars in the Universe, our luminary will take a place in the manger kindergarten, that's how small it is.
Now let's imagine a star that is 1500 times larger than our Sun. Even if we take the entire Solar System, it will not occupy more than a pixel of this star. This giant is called VY Canis Major, whose diameter is about 3 billion km. How and why this star was blown to such dimensions, no one knows.

Science fiction authors have imagined about five different types of planets. It turns out that there are hundreds of times more of these species. Scientists have already discovered about 700 types of planets. One of them is a diamond planet, in every sense of the word. As you know, carbon needs very little to turn into a diamond; in this case, the conditions coincided in such a way that one of the planets hardened, and it turned into a jewel on a universal scale.

A black hole is the brightest object in the entire Universe.

Inside a black hole, the force of gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. Logically, the hole should not be noticeable in the sky at all. However, during the rotation of the hole, in addition to cosmic bodies, they also absorb gas clouds, which begin to glow, twisting in a spiral. Also, meteors falling into black holes light up due to incredibly sharp and fast movement.

The light of our sun, which we see every day, is about 30 thousand years old. The energy we receive from this celestial body was formed in the core of the Sun about 30 thousand years ago. This is exactly how much time, and no less, it takes for photons to break through from the center to the surface. But after “liberation” they need only 8 minutes to get to the surface of the Earth.

We are flying in space at a speed of about 530 km per second. Inside the Galaxy, the planet moves at a speed of about 230 km per second, the Milky Way itself flies through space at a speed of 300 km per second.

About 10 tons of cosmic dust “fall” on our heads every day.

There are more than 100 billion galaxies in the entire Universe. There's a chance we're not alone.

Interesting fact: Every day about 200 thousand meteorites fall on our planet!

The average density of Saturn's substances is half that of water. This means that if you put this planet in a glass of water, it will float on the surface. You can check this only, of course, if you find the corresponding glass.

The sun is losing weight by a billion kilograms per second. This is due to the solar wind - a stream of particles that move from the surface of this star in different directions.

If we wanted to get by car to the nearest star after the Sun - Proxima Centauri, then at a speed of 96 km/h it would take us about 50 million years.

Even on the moon there are earthquakes, which are called moonquakes. But, nevertheless, in comparison with earthly ones they are insignificantly weak. There are more than 3,000 such moonquakes every year, but this total energy would only be enough for a small fireworks display.

The strongest magnet in the entire Universe is considered to be a neutron star. Its magnetic field is millions of billions of times greater than that of our planet.

It turns out that in our solar system there is a body resembling our planet. It is called Titan, and it is a satellite of the planet Saturn. It also has rivers, seas, volcanoes, a dense atmosphere, just like our planet. Surprisingly, even the distance between Titan and Saturn is equal to the distance between us and the Sun, and even the ratio of the weights of these celestial bodies is equal to the ratio of the weights of the Earth and the Sun.
Still, intelligent life on Titan is not even worth looking for, because its reservoirs are let down: they consist mainly of propane and methane. But still, if the latest discovery is confirmed, then it will be possible to say that primitive forms of life exist on Titan. Beneath Titan's surface there is an ocean that is 90% water, the remaining 10% may be complex hydrocarbons. There is an assumption that it is this 10% that can give rise to the simplest bacteria.

If the Earth rotated around the Sun in the opposite direction, the year would be two days shorter.

The duration of a total lunar eclipse is 104 minutes, while the duration of a total solar eclipse is only no more than 7.5 minutes.

Isaac Newton first stated physical laws, to which artificial satellites are subject. They were first published in the work “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” in the summer of 1687.

The funniest fact! The Americans spent more than one million dollars to invent a pen that could write in space. The Russians used a pencil in zero gravity without making any changes to it.

In the orbit of our planet there is a dump of waste from the development of astronautics. More than 370,000 objects weighing from a few grams to 15 tons orbit the Earth at a speed of 9,834 m/s, colliding with each other and scattering into thousands of smaller parts.

The leading contender for the title of habitable extrasolar system planet, “Super-Earth” GJ 667Cc, is located at a distance of only 22 light years from Earth. However, the journey to it will take us 13,878,738,000 years.

Our closest galaxy, Andromeda, is located at a distance of 2.52 million years. The Milky Way and Andromeda are moving towards each other at enormous speeds (Andromeda's speed is 300 km/s, and the Milky Way's is 552 km/s) and will most likely collide in 2.5-3 billion years.

"Cosmic spinning top" called a neutron star- this is the fastest spinning object in the Universe, which makes up to 500 revolutions per second around its axis. In addition, these cosmic bodies are so dense that one tablespoon of their constituent substance will weigh ~10 billion tons.

In space, tightly compressed metal parts spontaneously weld together. This occurs as a result of the absence of oxides on their surfaces, the enrichment of which occurs only in an oxygen-containing environment (a clear example of such an environment is the earth’s atmosphere). For this reason, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) specialists treat all metal parts of spacecraft with oxidizing materials.

Earth's gravity compresses the human spine, so when an astronaut enters space, he grows approximately 5.08 cm. At the same time, his heart contracts, decreasing in volume and begins to pump less blood. This is the body's response to increased blood volume, which requires less pressure to circulate normally.

The weight of our planet– this quantity is not constant. Scientists have found that every year the Earth gains ~40,160 tons and sheds ~96,600 tons, thus losing 56,440 tons.

The official scientific theory is that a person can survive in outer space without a spacesuit for 90 seconds, if all the air is immediately exhaled from the lungs. If a small amount of gas remains in the lungs, they will begin to expand with the subsequent formation of air bubbles, which, if released into the blood, will lead to embolism and inevitable death. If the lungs are filled with gases, they will simply burst. After 10-15 seconds of being in outer space, the water in the human body will turn into steam, and the moisture in the mouth and before the eyes will begin to boil. As a result, the soft tissues and muscles will swell, leading to complete immobility. This will be followed by loss of vision, icing of the nasal cavity and larynx, bluish skin, which in addition will suffer from severe sunburn. The most interesting thing is that for the next 90 seconds the brain will still live and the heart will beat. In theory, if during the first 90 seconds a loser cosmonaut who has suffered in outer space is placed in a pressure chamber, he will only get away with superficial damage and mild fright.

The largest meteorite that fell to Earth is the 2.7 meter Hoba., discovered in Namibia. The meteorite weighs 60 tons and is 86% iron, making it the largest naturally occurring piece of iron on Earth.

Venus is the only planet in the solar system, which turns counterclockwise. There are several theoretical justifications for this. Some astronomers are confident that this fate befalls all planets with a dense atmosphere, which first slows down and then spins the celestial body in the opposite direction from its initial rotation, while others suggest that the cause was the fall of a group of large asteroids onto the surface of Venus.

Contrary to popular belief, space is not a complete vacuum, but it is close enough to it, because. There is at least 1 atom per 88 gallons (0.4 m3) of cosmic matter (and as they often teach in school, there are no atoms or molecules in a vacuum).

The density of 5.6846 x 1026 kg Saturn is so low that if we could place it in water, it would float on the very surface.

February 5, 1843 astronomers discovered a comet, which was given the name "Great"(aka the March comet, C/1843 D1 and 1843 I). Flying near the Earth in March of the same year, it “lined” the sky in two with its tail, the length of which reached 800 million kilometers. Earthlings observed the tail trailing behind the “Great Comet” for more than a month, until, on April 19, 1843, it completely disappeared from the sky.

Martian volcano Olympus Mons is the largest in the solar system. Its length is more than 600 km and its height is 27 km, while the height of the highest point on our planet, the peak of Mount Everest, reaches only 8.5 km.

1 Plutonian year lasts 248 Earth years.

Solar matter the size of a pinhead, placed in the atmosphere of our planet, will begin to absorb oxygen at an incredible speed and in a split second will destroy all life within a radius of 160 kilometers.