Amazing Facts » Space And The Universe

There is so much that God has created down here on the planet, which is awe-inspiring that we often forget to appreciate, and know the wondrous facts that are created and exists up in the space. The vast and limitless space is filled with extremely astounding and unbelievable facts that we have the faintest idea bout. Go ahead and test yourself at a few of these facts.

• The weight of the Sun is estimated to be 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000 billion kilograms, which is equivalent to the weight of 330,060 Earths. Phew! Now, that is a lot of weight.
• A year on Mercury is only about 88 earth days.
• The first celestial object that had been identified as being spiral was the Whirpool Galaxy (M51).
• Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus planets are known as gas giants.
• The center or the nucleus of a comet is made up of ice. It differs in size for different comets ranging from meters to kilometers wide.
• The weight of our planet Earth equals to the weight of 54,807,339,449,541,284,403 blue whales that is approximately 55 Quintillion.
• The planet Venus has more volcanoes on its surface than any other planet in the solar system.
• The Sun would appear twice the size it appears from Earth when seen from Mercury.
• The axis of Uranus is tilted at an angle of 97 degrees, which makes it south-pole point straight towards Earth.
• A day on the planet Venus is equal to 243 Earth days.
• If the Sun could be filled with Earths, then 960,000 spherical Earths could be stuffed inside the Sun. The count would rise to 1,300,000 if the Earths were squashed inside a hollow Sun without wasting any space.
• Each time a comet moves towards the Sun, it loses mass. This process is known as sublimation. Eventually, after many years of moving around the Sun, comets break down due to smaller size and great speed.
• Mercury is 4,878 kilometers wide, which is just about bigger than the size of the Moon.
• Uranus’ atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, methane, and helium. The methane absorbs red light emitted from the sun and reflects blue light.
• Hence, Uranus appears to be in blue color when seen from far.
• Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light years wide.
• The cold ice in the center of the comet is a mixture of super cold methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, dust, rocks and other debris from the space.
• Earth does not take 24 hours to complete a rotation. Instead, it takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds to complete its rotation. It is famously called as a sidereal day by all scientists.
• Surface area of the sun is 11,990 times more than the surface area of Earth.
• The time needed by the planet Pluto to complete one revolution around the sun once is equivalent to 1028 years on Mercury.
• Uranus takes up to 84 Earth years to revolve around the Sun.
• A person weighing 100 kilograms on Earth would only weigh 38 kilograms on Mercury. Isn’t that amazing!
• 70% of Earth is covered with water. Only 3% of this content is fresh water, while the remaining 97% is salt water.
• Apart from the eight planets in our solar system, and one dwarf planet- Pluto, there are other four other dwarf planets in the orbit under the Sun’s gravitational pull. These four dwarf planets are known as Ceres, Haumer, Makemake and Eris.
• The comet, Halley, is a very famous comet that enters the solar system after every 76 years of Earth.
• Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system with average surface temperature of -224 degree Celsius.
• The temperature on Venus could rise up to 470 degrees Celsius due to the thick dense atmosphere.
• Mercury’s magnetic field is absolutely weak. It is only about 1% that of the Earth’s magnetic field.
• Uranus is approximately 2.57 billion kilometers far from planet Earth.
• Comets absorb 96% of light that falls on them; the rest four percent is reflected back.
• The Sun is 4.6 billion years old and is said to be in its Main Sequence stage, which is the middle age of a star. Hence, the Sun is halfway through its life and is also known as Yellow dwarf.
• Only half of Mercury has been seen from far, because it is extremely close to the Sun and the Hubble telescope would be vandalized.
• The solar system is approximately 4,500 million years old and is said to last for another 5000 million years by great scientists.
• Uranus moves absolutely in a slow motion through the night sky, so much that it was thought to be a star. However, on March 13, 1781, Sir William Herschel discovered that it was indeed a planet.
• There are people who fear comets. This fear allowed several business people to publicize anti-comet pills, umbrellas, gas masks, etc.
• Only two spacecrafts - MESENGER and Mariner 10 have been successful in visiting the planet Mercury, as of 2012.
• The Sun is made up of 75% of hydrogen and 25% of helium. Sun’s mass also contains less than 0.1% of various other metals.
• Earth spins from west to east, and Venus and Uranus spin from east to west.
• Pluto was the smallest planet in our solar system.
• Uranus’ orbital speed is about 6.6 kilometers per second.
• The nucleus of the comet is surrounded by dust and gas known as “coma.” Each comet has a tail which is part of the coma that is been blown away.
• Olympus Mons, highest mountain known to man, is located on Mars. It is three times higher than Mount Everest with a height of 25 kilometers (15 miles) high.
• Venus and Mercury are the only two planets who don’t have a moon orbiting.
• There has been no spacecraft been sent towards Uranus, and there seems to be no plans in future too.
• The distance covered by light in one year is termed as a light year, which is equivalent to six billion miles.
• Apart from the Sun and the moon, which are considered as the brightest objects in the night sky, Venus is also known as the next brightest object in the space during night.

These were some of the mystical and breath-taking facts about our solar system. Moons, stars, sun, planets create very captivating stories in the space. Visit us for regular such facts.