The most incredible facts about space. Interesting facts about space, astronauts and planets

Space, perhaps, is currently one of the biggest mysteries for all mankind. People do not get tired of exploring the cosmos, discussing it, putting forward a wide variety of theories, building a wide variety of assumptions, but still the cosmos remains something incredible, mysterious, unidentified to the end. And does it have an end that can be reached, guided by science? Most likely no. Probably, the cosmos throughout the entire existence of mankind will, to one degree or another, remain a mystery, an unsolvable mystery, like a huge Sphinx, the question of which cannot be answered. But still they study it, and therefore we know a lot about space, which amaze and sometimes frighten. Let's take a closer look at some interesting facts about space and the universe.

1. About forty new stars are born in our galaxy every year. How many of them appear in the entire universe - it is difficult to even imagine the answer to this question.
2. Silence reigns in space, since there is no medium for sound to propagate. So for those who like to be silent, space would certainly be to their liking.
3. For the first time, man looked at space through a telescope about four centuries ago. It was, of course, Galileo Galilei.
4. Surprisingly, in space, all the flowers we know will smell completely different. And all because the smell of a flower depends on many different factors. environment.
5. An interesting fact about space and planets is that the sun is about one hundred and ten times larger than the earth. It is even larger than Jupiter, which, as you know, is the giant of our planet. solar system. But at the same time, if we compare the Sun with other stars in the Universe, then it will turn out to be incredibly tiny. For example, the star Canis Major is one and a half thousand times larger than the Sun.
6. The first terrestrial creature in space is the dog Laika, which was launched into outer space on Sputnik 2 in 1957. The dog died on the ship due to lack of air. And the satellite itself burned up in the Earth's atmosphere due to a violation of its orbit.
7. The first man in space is Yuri Gagarin. With a slight delay after Gagarin, Alan Shepard, an American cosmonaut, flew into space.
8. The first woman in space is Valentina Tereshkova.
9. Most of the atoms that make up human bodies were formed during the melting of stellar mass.
10. On Earth, due to the presence of gravity, the flame tends to rise in an upward direction, but in space it spreads in all directions.
11. A person will never be able to reach the edge of the universe, since there is a curvature of space in space, because of which a person, moving constantly in a straight direction, will eventually return to the starting point. Scientists are not yet able to explain this to the end.
12. On average, the distance between stars is thirty-two million million kilometers.
13. An interesting fact about black holes in space is that they are the brightest objects in the universe. In general, gravity inside a black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. But during its rotation, the black hole absorbs not only a variety of cosmic bodies, but also gas clouds, which begin to shine, spinning in a spiral. Meteors also start to burn when falling into a black hole.
14. Approximately ten tons of cosmic dust falls on Earth every day.
15. There are more than one hundred billion galaxies in the Universe, so there is a huge possibility that people are not alone within the boundaries of this Universe.

The most interesting facts about the cosmos can be collected and written down for an incredibly long time, since our Universe contains a huge number of secrets and mysteries, to which we can now, thanks to the development of science, come at least a few steps closer.

Since ancient times, space has attracted people, interesting facts about the universe can bring closer and interest in space even more!

1. The brightest object in the universe is a black hole.. The inner part of it has such a strong gravity that the light cannot escape. It would be logical if a black hole could not be seen in the sky. But as the hole rotates, it absorbs not only cosmic bodies, but also clouds of gas, twisting into a spiral shape. They make the Black Hole luminous and bright. In addition, meteors sucked into the Black Hole ignite inside it due to the high speed of movement.
2. There is a giant bubble in the universe, which contains only gas. It appeared, by the standards of the Universe, recently, only two billion years after the Big Bang. The length of the bubble is 200 million space years, and the distance from the Earth to the gas bubble is 12 billion space years.

   

3. The light we see is thirty thousand years old. How many years does it take photons to get out of solar center onto its surface. They get to the earth's surface very quickly - they spend only 8 minutes on it.

   

4. Saturn will not sink if immersed in a huge bathtub filled with water, but will remain on the surface. This happens because the density of all substances on this planet is two times lower than the density of water.

   

5. There is a body in the solar system that looks like Earth. It is called Titan and is a moon of Saturn. On the surface of the body there are rivers, volcanoes, seas, and the atmosphere has a high density. The distance between Saturn and its satellite is approximately equal to the distance from us to the Sun, the ratio of the masses of bodies is approximately the same. But intelligent life on Titan, most likely, will not be due to reservoirs - they consist of methane and propane.

   

6. The most distant stars we see look like they did 14,000,000,000 years ago. The light from these stars reaches us through space through many billions of years, while it has a speed of 300 thousand kilometers per second.

   

7. The sun is losing its weight very quickly. It has solar winds, during which particles then fly away from the surface. In a second, the Sun loses up to a billion kilograms, since even the smallest particle of dust (the size of a poppy seed) can kill a person.

   

8. Ursa Major is the most popular constellation. But, in fact, this is not a constellation at all, but an asterism. This term refers to the clusters of stars that a person sees in the sky, but in fact the distance between them is many light years, and they are in different galaxies. The angle of the Earth in relation to these stars allows you to see the shape of the bucket.

   

9. If you put two pieces of metal together in space, they will fuse together.. On Earth, this does not happen due to instantaneous oxidation.

   

10. Since 1980, the surface of the moon has been sold. To date, 7 percent of the area of ​​the Moon has been sold. 10 acres on the Earth's satellite cost $30. Together with the paper on the ownership of the site, the buyer is also given a photo of the site taken from the satellite.

    

11. The Earth, in addition to the Moon, has three more satellites.. At the end of the 19th century, scientists discovered an asteroid five meters in diameter, which revolved around the Sun at the frequency of the Earth, and therefore revolved near the Blue Planet. For this reason, the asteroid was called the second satellite. After some time, three more similar satellites were discovered.

    

12. No sound is heard in space. Voyager tried to fix the noise in space using a plasma wave, but could not hear the sound, since the gas in interstellar space is not so dense. If a wave of sound passed through a cosmic gas cloud, the human ear would not hear anything, since the eardrums are not very sensitive.

    

13. People are made of stardust . When the Big Bang happened, the resulting particles combined with helium and hydrogen, then due to the heat combined into elements, including iron.

    

14. No one knows how many stars in the universe. They are considered in approximate numbers and only in the Milky Way. To count all the stars, the number of stars milky way must be multiplied by the number of galaxies. According to recent studies, there are about 60 sextillion stars.

    

15. In space, reduced pressure, which in zero gravity affects the spine. Astronauts during their journey can increase in height by about 3-5 centimeters.

    

For many centuries, space has been and remains the greatest mystery. Its boundless expanses contain many different secrets that man has not yet been able to unravel. In many ways, this is precisely the key reason for the frantic desire of people from early childhood to break away from the earth and, leaving the planet, go flying between the stars. Space beckons to itself and makes hundreds and thousands of people all over the Earth explore it. Some mysteries have already been solved, and we have combined them into one single list interesting facts about space.

1. Any flower, being in space, smells completely different. This is all due to the fact that their smells on Earth, whether it be daisies or roses, depend on a whole series of different environmental factors.

2. On the first moon landing, astronauts space shuttle"Apollo" smelled gunpowder, which greatly alerted them. They also noticed a strange soft dust, which penetrated even through protective suits.

3. Even if people had spaceships that could reach incredible speeds and overcome light years in moments, it would still not be possible to reach the edge of the universe. This is due to the curvature of space - any object or object flying along a perfectly even trajectory will sooner or later return to its starting point. Scientists have managed to establish this, but they still cannot explain why this happens.

4. Among the most interesting facts about space is cold welding, which exists here. It was possible to establish that outside the earth's atmosphere, two bars of metal, when touching each other, will connect, as if they were welded. If on our planet this requires a high degree of heat, then in space there is enough vacuum. The question immediately arises, what about shuttles and ships, because they are made of metal. Aren't there problems with them? Each of spaceships prudently covered with an oxidizing agent, which makes it impossible to materialize cold welding.

5. In fact, the incredible grouping of asteroids is just a cinematic device to increase the intensity of what is happening on the screen. After all, there is really a lot of space between them, through which you can easily and fearfully fly without colliding with anything significant.

6. It has long been known to everyone, thanks to the tireless efforts of scientists, that the rays of the sun reach our planet in eight minutes, overcoming a route that is approximately equal to one hundred million miles. But in fact, the rays that warm us on cold days and burn us on hot ones are more than 30 thousand years old. This is because they are born in the form of energy flows in the depths of the sun, and due to internal attraction, they reach its surface for so long.

7. Few people know, but in outer space there is an alcoholic cloud and it is not named because of a bizarre shape or color. This is because it consists entirely of vinyl alcohol. Called Sagittarius B2, it is 26,000 light-years away.

8. In 1843, dangerously close to the planet, a comet flew past the Earth, which was given the name "Great". Its tail stretched behind it for almost 800 million kilometers, so about a month after the comet flew by, the inhabitants of the Earth saw its flourish in the night sky.

Incredible Facts

Sometimes it's hard to imagine how big is space.

We can observe only a small part of the Universe, and the Earth is just a small scene in a vast outer space.

Here are some interesting facts about space that might make you think about your place in this world.

1. The sun makes up 99.8 percent of the mass of the solar system.

Namely 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. All other planets, satellites, asteroids and other matter, including all people on Earth fit into the remaining 0.2 percent.

2. A gas cloud in the constellation Eagle contains enough alcohol to create 200 septillion liters of beer.

The amount of ethanol was measured in 1995 and scientists found 30 other chemicals in the cloud, but alcohol was the main one.

3. We have discovered more than a thousand planets outside the solar system in the last 20 years.

So far, 1822 planets have been confirmed to exist.

4. The sound of interstellar space sounds creepy

The Voyager 1 spacecraft recorded the sound of vibrating dense plasma in interstellar space in 2012 and 2013. Here's how it sounds.

Planets of the solar system

5. All the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon.

Distance between the Earth and the Moon (384,440 km) - [Diameter of Mercury (4879 km) + diameter of Venus (12,104 km) + diameter of Mars (6771 km) + diameter of Jupiter (138,350 km) + diameter of Saturn (114,630 km) + diameter of Uranus (50,532 km) + diameter of Neptune (49,105 km)] = 8069 km

6. It takes a photon an average of 170,000 years to travel from the Sun's core to the surface.

But only 8 minutes to reach Earth.

7. We won't be able to hear any sounds in space.

Voyager attempted to record the sound of interstellar space with a plasma wave instrument, but since the gas in interstellar space is less dense, we won't be able to hear the sound ourselves.

If a sound wave traveled through a large cloud of gas in space, only a few atoms per second would reach the eardrum, and we would did not hear the sound, because our eardrum is not sensitive enough.

8. The rings of Saturn disappear from time to time.

Every 14-15 years, the rings of Saturn turn edge-on towards the Earth. They are so narrow compared to how big Saturn is that they seem to disappear.

9. Saturn has an additional huge ring, discovered only in 2009.

The ring begins about 6 million kilometers from Saturn, and its length is 12 million km, which would fit 300 Saturns. Saturn's moon Phoebe rotates inside the ring, and some astronomers believe that it is he who is the source of the ring.

10. There is a hexagonal cloud at the north pole of Saturn.

The hexagonal vortex extends nearly 30,000 km across.

11. In our solar system there is an asteroid with rings, like Saturn.

The asteroid Chariklo has two dense and narrow rings. This fifth object in the solar system that has rings, along with Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.

12. Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive (heavier) than all the planets in the solar system combined.

Its weight is equal to the weight of 317.8 planets like the Earth.

13. More solar energy hits the Earth in an hour and a half than we used in all of 2001.

14. If you fell into a black hole, you would be stretched like noodles.

The phenomenon is called spaggification.

15. If nothing disturbs the Moon (for example, a meteorite), then the traces left on its surface will remain intact forever.

Unlike Earth, there is no erosion caused by wind and water.

16. A star has recently been discovered that has been hiding in the brilliance of a supernova for 21 years.

The star and its companion, which exploded and hid it from view, are in the galaxy M81, located at a distance of 11 million light-years from Earth.

17. Dung beetles navigate the Milky Way.

Birds, seals, and humans use the stars for orientation, but African dung beetles use the entire galaxy, not individual stars, to make sure they are moving in a straight line.

18. An object the size of Mars collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago.

This is by far the most plausible explanation of how the moon formed. A chunk broke off from the object, which became the Moon, and caused the Earth's axis to tilt slightly.

Stars of the Universe

19. We are all made of stardust.

After the Big Bang, tiny particles coalesced into hydrogen and helium. Then, in the very dense and hot centers of the stars, they combined to create the elements, including iron.

Since humans and other animals and most of matter contain these elements, we can be said to be composed of stardust.

20. There are countless stars in the known universe.

We don't know how many stars there are in the universe. For now, we're using ballpark estimates to find out how many stars there are in our Milky Way galaxy. Multiplying this number by the estimated number of galaxies in the universe, we can say that there is an unimaginable number of stars.

According to a study by the Australian National Institute, the number of stars is approximately 70 sextillion, which is 70,000 million million million.

by Notes of the Wild Mistress

1. If you could put Saturn in a huge bathtub, it would float. The planet is less dense than water.

2. A teaspoon of neutron star matter would weigh about 112 million tons on Earth.

3. If you could travel at the speed of Light (almost 300,000 km per second), it would take you 100,000 years to circle our galaxy!

4. Betelgeuse, a bright star in the left shoulder of Orion, it is so big that if it were located in the place of our Sun, it would swallow the Earth, Mars and Jupiter! In diameter, this star is 1000 times larger than the sun! According to some scientists, it should explode in the next 2-3 thousand years. At the peak of its explosion, which will last at least two months, the luminosity of Betelgeuse will be 1,050 times greater than that of the sun, making it possible to observe its death from Earth even with the naked eye.

5. When you look at the Andromeda galaxy (which is 2.3 million light-years away), the light you see took 2.3 million years to reach you. Thus, you see the Galaxy as it was 2.3 million years ago.

6. Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach us, so we see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago. It could explode 4 minutes ago and we won't know about it!

7. The Earth is not spherical! In fact, it is shaped like an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles and convex at the equator exactly in the direction of its axis of rotation.

8. Jupiter weighs more than all the other planets combined

9. If the Sun were the size of a dot in a typical sentence, then the nearest star would be 16 km away. from her.

10. 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 pumping less blood. This is the body's response to an increase in blood volume that requires less pressure to circulate normally.

11. At the equator, you are 3% lighter than at the poles, due to the fact that the centrifugal force of the Earth acts on you.

12. If you are standing on the equator, you are rotating at a speed of about 1.5 km / h, just like the Earth, whose atoms rotate at a speed of 108,000 km / h around the Sun.

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

14. The mass of the Sun is 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system, the remaining 0.14% are planets and asteroids.

15. Solar substance 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.

16. An explosion (flash) of a supernova is accompanied by the release of a gigantic amount of energy. In the first 10 seconds, an exploding supernova produces more energy than the Sun in 10 billion years, and generates more energy in a short period of time than all objects in the galaxy combined (excluding other erupted supernovae). The brightness of such stars easily outshines the luminosity of the galaxies in which they flared up.

17. On 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 watched the tail trailing the Great Comet for more than a month, until, on April 19, 1983, it completely disappeared from the sky.

18. In 2011, astronomers discovered a planet made up of 92% superdense crystalline carbon - diamond. Precious heavenly 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.

19. In space tightly compressed metal parts spontaneously weld. This occurs as a result of the absence of oxides on their surfaces, the enrichment of which occurs only in an oxygen-containing environment ( good example such an environment can serve earth atmosphere). For this reason, NASA specialists US National Aeronautics and Research Administration outer space(Eng. National Aeronautics and Space Administration) - an agency owned by the US federal government, reporting directly to the Vice President of the United States and funded 100% from the state budget, responsible for the country's civilian space program. All images and videos obtained by NASA and its affiliates, including those from numerous telescopes and interferometers, are published in the public domain and may be freely copied. treat all metal parts of spacecraft with oxidizing materials.

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

21. Venus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates counterclockwise. There are several theoretical justifications for this. Some astronomers are sure that such a fate befalls all planets with a dense atmosphere, which first slows down and then spins the celestial body in the opposite direction from the initial rotation, while others suggest that a group of large asteroids fell on the surface of Venus.

22. Since the beginning of 1957 (the year of the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik-1), mankind has 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 satellite "Olympus" (Olympus), owned by the European Space Agency (European Space Agency), was destroyed in a collision with an asteroid.

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

24. A person can survive in outer space without a spacesuit for 90 seconds if they immediately exhale all the air from their lungs.

If a small amount of gases 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, then they will simply burst.

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

The most interesting thing is that the next 90 seconds the brain will still live and the heart will beat. Reports public Science and Technology.

In theory, if during the first 90 seconds an unsuccessful astronaut who has been exhausted in outer space is placed in a pressure chamber, then he will get off with only superficial injuries and a slight fright.

25. The weight of our planet is a variable value. Scientists have found that every year the Earth recovers by ~40,160 tons and dumps ~96,600 tons, thus losing 56,440 tons.