35 Space facts

The planets

1. Valentina Tereshkova from Russia was the first woman in space.
2. Saturn’s rings are made up of particles of ice, dust and rock.
3. Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon.
4. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane-like storm system that was first detected in the early 1600’s.
5. Our Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of 66,700 mph. Contrary to a popular myth that earth travels really slow, this is extremely fast movement, only we don't realize it.
6. Halley’s Comet appears about every 76 years.
7. Some large asteroids have their own moon.
   
   
8. Asteroids and comets are believed to be ancient remnants of the formation of our Solar System (More than 4 billion years ago!).
9. The only planet that rotates clockwise is Venus.
10. The most dangerous asteroids, those capable of causing major regional or global disasters, usually impact the Earth only once every 100,000 years on average.
11. No matter is able to escape the immensely powerful gravitational pull of the black holes. Even light can not escape them.
12. There are over 20 million observable meteors per day.
13. Jupiter's moon Europa is completely covered with ice.
14. There are over 170 billion galaxies in the universe.
15. The hottest planet in our Solar System is not Mercury, Venus is the hottest planet with a surface temperature of 450 degrees Celcius.
16. The risk of a falling meteorite striking a human occurs once every 9,300 years.
17. Being closest to the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are often referred to as the inner planets.
18. A manned rocket reaches the moon in less time than it took a stagecoach to travel the length of England.
19. Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way where our Solar System is located.
20. The Sun is 1.4 million kilometers wide, so it can hold 109 Earths across its surface.
21. According to the history, second man on the moon was Buzz Aldrin. Moon was his mother's maiden name.
22. 99.86% mass of our Solar System is Sun. This means that all the planets with their moons and asteroids in the Solar System make up to 0.14% mass of the Solar System.
23. Mercury and Venus have no moons.
24. Did you know that Saturn has such a low density that it will float on water? But we'll have to find a large enough pool first to do so.
25. A person weighing 100 kg on Earth would weigh 38 kg on Mars because of lower gravity there.
26. Jupiter has 63 confirmed moons. Maybe there are more but at least 63 have been confirmed to be Jupiter's moons.
27. A comet's tail will always point away from the Sun.
28. The Moon is moving away from the Earth. Every year it moves 3.8 cm away from Earth and will keep on doing so.
29. Did you know that Uranus was also called George’s Star?
30. The nearest known black hole is 1,600 light years (10 quadrillion miles/16 quadrillion kilometers) away.
31. Temperature at core of the Sun is 15.5 million Celsius (28 million degrees Fahrenheit).
32. Surface temperature of Sun is about 5500 degrees Celsius (10,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
33. Did you know Milky Way is constantly moving through space? It covers a distance of 305 kilometers every second and also spins at a speed of 225 kilometers per second.
34. The largest found meteorite was found in Hoba, Namibia. It weighed 60 tons.
35. The largest mountain in Solar System is actually a volcano on planet Mars. It is 27 km high as compared to the Mount Everest which is only 8.85 km high.