Crazy Facts About Space

28 Insane Space Facts That'll Make You Happy to Be Alive

2 May, 2018 by Annie Gabillet

Ever find yourself miles away from big-city lights on clear night? Look up, and the amount of stars can unsettle you. Who knew they were always there blanketing the sky? You just start to grasp the scale of our universe. Match that sense of awe with hard facts gathered by scientists, and you will look at our world at home and beyond our atmosphere much differently. Here are 28 mind-blowing facts about space to get you started.

We are made of stardust, because the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in our bodies come from long-lost stars created 4.5 billion years ago.
The universe contains at least 100 billion galaxies.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains at least 100 billion stars, including our sun.
It takes our solar system 230 million years to rotate around the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is located in The Local Group of 30 other galaxies.
Our neighbor galaxy is Andromeda, 2.5 million light-years away. There could be life there looking out at the Milky Way.

Source: Flicker user Hubble Heritage

The universe is 68 percent dark energy and 27 percent dark matter, none of which has been observed by us. Normal matter, including everything on Earth, only makes up five percent of the universe.
The universe is getting larger. Only 14 billion years ago, it could be compressed into a single point in space.

Source: Flickr user NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The sun accounts for 99.8 percent of the mass of our entire solar system.
To scale: the sun is the size of a front door and Earth is the size of a nickel.
The sun rotates at different rates since it's not solid. In the center, it rotates every 25 Earth days and at the poles every 36 days.
The sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit at its core.
Our solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
During an equinox, both the Northern and Southern hemispheres on Earth receive the same amount of sunlight, because the Sun is above the equator. Equinox means "equal night."
On Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
Surface temperatures on Venus can rise past 800°F, and space probes are destroyed by the planet's temperatures in hours.
About 275 million stars are born and die each day, and in about 5 billion years our star — the sun — will die.

Source: Flicker user NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The moon is the only celestial body visited by a human, besides Earth of course.
The moon is much larger than all the astroids combined.
Uranus rotates horizontally.
Many of Uranus's 27 moons are named for Shakespearean characters, like Oberon and Titania.
Saturn's rings aren't solid, and the particles range from the size of a grain of sand to the size of a skyscraper.
Saturn is pastel colored.