SPACE FACTS

The home of interesting space facts for kids and adults.

Interesting facts about space

Facts about Galaxies

There are three main types of galaxies. Spirals, Ellipticals and irregulars are all defined by shape.

More facts about galaxies
Facts about solar systems

194 moons, 3583 comets and 796,289 asteriods have been found in our solar system
More facts about the solar system
Facts about planets

Within our solar system there are eight planets. Up until 2006 Pluto was classed as a planet.

More facts about planets
Facts about moons

There are 194 moons within our solar system. Saturn has the most moons with 82, Jupiter follows with 79.

More facts about moons
Facts about space satellites

The first satellite named Sputnik was launched by the Soviet on the 4th October, 1957
More facts about space satellites
Facts about space stations

The first space station named Salyut 1 was launched by the Soviet Union on the 19th April, 1971
More facts about space stations

10 Facts about Space you didn't know.

1. Space is silent

There is no atmosphere in space. Sound cannot travel without medium.

Did you know?

Astronauts use radio's to stay in contact while in space. Radio waves can still be send and recieved.

Photo of a space telescope against night sky

2. There is floating water in Space.

Astronomers have found the largest discovery of water ever discovered. It is located approximately 10 billion light years away. This water vapour cloud holds 140 trillion times Earth's Oceans

Did you know?

Astronauts have to use a straw to drink so that the water does not float away from the container.

3. The Sun's mass takes up 99.86% of the solar system.

The sun is made of 3/4 Hydrogen and helium for its remaining mass. It accounts for 99.86% of the mass within our solar system

Did you know?

The sun's mass is 330,000 times that of Earth.

4. The largest known asteriod is 965 km wide.

Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, a dwarf planet in 1801. It was the first and largest object to be considered an Asteroid.

Did you know?

The Chicxulub Impactor, also known as the Chicxulub Asteriod struck Earth 66 million years ago. Scientist believe that this caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

5. The universe is observed to be 13.8 billion years old

Scientists determined that space is approximately 13.8 billion years old. Scientists estimated the age of the universe by dating the stars within it. The universe cannot be younger than the objects within it.

Did you know?

Our sun is approximately 4.5 billion years old. That's a lot of zero's.

6. The temperature in the void of space -273.15°C

Cosmic background temperature us a base level of 273.15°C. Which is just 2.72 degrees above absolute zero.

However, gas's between stars and solar wind, classed as empty space can be thousands, even millions of degrees.

Did you know?

Minimum temperatures in the Arctic region are around −50 °C. Space is nearly 6 times colder.

7. Space does not start a specific altitude.

The Kármán line at 100 km above sea level is a commonly used definition for the start of space.

Did you know?

The highest commercial flight was at 60,000ft (18.2 km) by Concorde. Virgin Galactic test flight reached 82.7 km in 2018 still 17 km of the Kármán line.

Photograph of the curvature of the earth from space

8. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earths Beaches.

Did you know?

In our galaxy, the Milky Way. There are between 100-400 billion stars. In the observable universe there are an estimated 2 trillion galaxies.

9. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space on April 12th 1961. He completed a 108 minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft.

Did you know?

Alan Shepard became the first American in space less than a month later.

10. Planet of Diamonds

Research by Yale scientists suggest a planet named 55 Cancri e is made up of granite and diamonds. This planet is 40 light years away but is visible to the naked eye in the constellation of Cancer.

Did you know?

Cancri e has a mass eight times greater than Earth, and has a radius twice Earths.

What is outerspace?

Space is the area outside the upper limits of the Earths atmosphere. It is a vacuum, which means that it contains almost nothing, all the matter is so spread out that its almost empty. There is no gravity