Fact One
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System to have water in its three states of matter: as a solid (ice), a liquid (sea, rain, etc.) and as a gas (clouds). Water is, of course, the most important liquid for life.
Fact Two
Earth is almost five billion years old, although life (resembling life as we know it) has only existed on the planet for the last 150 million to 200 million years. This means that life has only been present on Earth for only 5%-10% of its lifetime.
Fact Three
Earth and Mercury are the two most dense planets in the Solar System. This means that particles inside the planet are most closely packed together.
Fact Four
The length of time it takes for Earth to orbit the Sun is 365 and a quarter days. To make up this extra quarter which isn’t counted at the end of a year, we have an extra day every four years on 29th February. The next Leap Year will be in 2016. Note: a leap year is completely divisible by 4
Fact Five
Earth is gradually slowing down. Every few years, an extra second is added to make up for lost time. Millions of years ago, a day on Earth will have been 20 hours long. It is believed that, in millions of years time, a day on Earth will be 27 hours long.
Fact Six
The centre of the Earth, its core, is molten. This means that it is liquid rock which sometimes erupts onto the surface through volcanic eruptions. This core is 7,500°c, hotter than the surface of the Sun!
Fact Seven
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System not to be named after a mythical God.
Fact Eight
Despite being called Earth, only 29% of the surface is actually ‘earth.’ The rest of the planet’s surface (71%) is made up of water.
Fact Nine
From a distance, Earth would be the brightest of the planets. This is because sunlight is reflected off the planet’s water.
Fact Ten
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System known to be geologically active, with Earthquakes and volcanoes forming the landscape, replenishing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and erasing impact craters from meteors.
7 thoughts on “10 Fascinating Facts About SPACE”
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FACTS CONTINUE:
(1)EARTH:
The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing:
This deceleration is happening almost
imperceptibly, at approximately 17
milliseconds per hundred years, although the
rate at which it occurs is not perfectly
uniform. This has the effect of lengthening
our days, but it happens so slowly that it
could be as much as 140 million years before
the length of a day will have increased to 25
hours.
The Earth was once believed to be the
centre of the universe:
Due to the apparent movements of the Sun
and planets in relation to their viewpoint,
ancient scientists insisted that the Earth
remained static, whilst other celestial bodies
travelled in circular orbits around it.
Eventually, the view that the Sun was at the
centre of the universe was postulated by
Copernicus, though this is also not the case.
Earth has a powerful magnetic field:
This phenomenon is caused by the nickel-
iron core of the planet, coupled with its rapid
rotation. This field protects the Earth from the
effects of solar wind.
There is only one natural satellite of the
planet Earth:
As a percentage of the size of the body it
orbits, the Moon is the largest satellite of any
planet in our solar system. In real terms,
however, it is only the fifth largest natural
satellite.
Earth is the only planet not named after a
god:
The other seven planets in our solar system
are all named after Roman gods or
goddesses. Although only Mercury , Venus ,
Mars , Jupiter and Saturn were named during
ancient times, because they were visible to
the naked eye, the Roman method of naming
planets was retained after the discovery of
Uranus and Neptune .
Of all the planets in our solar system, the
Earth has the greatest density:
This varies according to the part of the
planet; for example, the metallic core is
denser than the crust. The average density of
the Earth is approximately 5.52 grams per
cubic centimetre.
(2)SUN: One million Earths could fit inside the
Sun:
If a hollow Sun was filled up with spherical
Earths then around 960,000 would fit inside.
On the other hand if these Earths were
squished inside with no wasted space then
around 1,300,000 would fit inside. The Sun’s
surface area is 11,990 times that of the
Earth’s.
Eventually, the Sun will consume the
Earth:
When all the Hydrogen has been burned, the
Sun will continue for about 130 million more
years, burning Helium, during which time it
will expand to the point that it will engulf
Mercury and Venus and the Earth. At this
stage it will have become a red giant
The Sun will one day be about the size of
Earth:
After its red giant phase, the Sun will
collapse, retaining its enormous mass, but
containing the approximate volume of our
planet. When this happens, it will be called a
white dwarf.
The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass in
the Solar System:
The mass of the Sun is approximately
330,000 times greater than that of Earth. It is
almost three quarters Hydrogen, whilst most
of the remaining mass is Helium.
The Sun is an almost perfect sphere:
There is only a 10 kilometre difference in its
polar diameter compared to its equatorial
diameter. Considering the vast expanse of
the Sun, this means it is the closest thing to
a perfect sphere that has been observed in
nature.
Light from the Sun takes eight minutes to
reach Earth:
With a mean average distance of 150 million
kilometres from Earth and with light
travelling at 300,000 kilometres per second,
dividing one by the other gives us an
approximate time of 500 seconds, or eight
minutes and 20 seconds. Although this
energy reaches Earth in a few minutes, it will
already have taken millions of years to travel
from the Sun’s core to its surface.
The Sun travels at 220 kilometres per
second:
The Sun is 24,000-26,000 light years from
the galactic centre and it takes the Sun
225-250 million years to complete an orbit
of the centre of the Milky Way.
The distance from the Sun to Earth
changes throughout the year:
Because the Earth travels on an elliptical
orbit around the Sun, the distance between
the two bodies varies from 147 to 152 million
kilometres. The distance between the Earth
and the Sun is called an Astronomical Unit
(AU).
The Sun is middle-aged:
At around 4.5 billion years old, the Sun has
already burned off about half of its store of
Hydrogen. It has enough left to continue to
burn Hydrogen for approximately another 5
billion years. The Sun is currently a type of
star known as a Yellow Dwarf
The Sun has a very strong magnetic
field:
Solar flares occur when magnetic energy is
released by the Sun during magnetic storms,
which we see as sunspots. In sunspots, the
magnetic lines are twisted and they spin,
much like a tornado would on Earth.
The temperature inside the Sun can
reach 15 million degrees Celsius:
At the Sun’s core, energy is generated by
nuclear fusion, as Hydrogen converts to
Helium. Because hot objects generally
expand, the Sun would explode like a giant
bomb if it weren’t for its enormous
gravitational force.
The Sun generates solar wind:
This is a stream of charged particles, which
travels through the Solar System at
approximately 450 kilometres per second.
Solar wind occurs where the magnetic field of
the Sun extends into space instead of
following its surface.
(3)MOON: The dark side of the moon is a myth:
In reality both sides of the Moon see the
same amount of sunlight however only one
face of the Moon is ever seen from Earth this
is because the Moon rotates around on its
own axis in exactly the same time it takes to
orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is
always facing the Earth. The side we see is lit
by reflected sunlight, while the side facing
away from Earth lies in darkness and has
only been seen by the human eye from a
spacecraft.
The rise and fall of the tides on Earth is
caused by the Moon:
There are two bulges in the Earth due to the
gravitational pull that the Moon exerts; one
on the side facing the Moon, and the other on
the opposite side that faces away from the
Moon, The bulges move around the oceans
as the Earth rotates, causing high and low
tides around the globe.
The Moon is drifting away from the Earth:
The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm
away from our planet every year. It is
estimated that it will continue to do so for
around 50 billion years. By the time that
happens, the Moon will be taking around 47
days to orbit the Earth instead of the current
27.3 days.
A person would weigh much less on the
Moon:
The Moon has much weaker gravity than
Earth, due to its smaller mass, so you would
weigh about one sixth (16.5%) of your weight
on Earth. This is why the lunar astronauts
could leap and bound so high in the air.
The Moon has only been walked on by 12
people; all American males:
The first man to set foot on the Moon in
1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11
mission, while the last man to walk on the
Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo
17 mission. Since then the Moon has only be
visited by unmanned vehicles.
The Moon has no atmosphere:
This means that the surface of the Moon is
unprotected from cosmic rays, meteorites
and solar winds, and has huge temperature
variations. The lack of atmosphere means no
sound can be heard on the Moon, and the sky
always appears black.
The Moon has quakes:
These are caused by the gravitational pull of
the Earth. Lunar astronauts used
seismographs on their visits to the Moon,
and found that small moonquakes occurred
several kilometres beneath the surface,
causing ruptures and cracks. Scientists think
the Moon has a molten core, just like Earth.
The first spacecraft to reach the Moon
was Luna 1 in 1959:
This was a Soviet craft, which was launched
from the USSR. It passed within 5995 km of
the surface of the Moon before going into
orbit around the Sun .
The Moon is the fifth largest natural
satellite in the Solar System:
At 3,475 km in diameter, the Moon is much
smaller than the major moons of Jupiter and
Saturn . Earth is about 80 times the volume
than the Moon, but both are about the same
age. A prevailing theory is that the Moon was
once part of the Earth, and was formed from
a chunk that broke away due to a huge object
colliding with Earth when it was relatively
young.
The Moon will be visited by man in the
near future:
NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon
to set up a permanent space station.
Mankind may once again walk on the moon
in 2019, if all goes according to plan.
During the 1950’s the USA considered
detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon:
The secret project was during the height cold
war was known as “A Study of Lunar
Research Flights” or “Project A119″ and
meant as a show of strength at a time they
were lagging behind in the space race.
(4) STARS:
A star is a massive, bright, sphere of very
hot gas called plasma which is held
together by its own gravity .
Stars radiate energy created from nuclear
fusion , which is a process that takes
place in a star’s core and involves
hydrogen fusing (burning) to make
helium.
As a star is near the end of its life, it
begins to change the helium into heavier
chemical elements, such carbon and
oxygen, and the star will begin to change
color, density, mass and size.
The nearest star to Earth is the Sun,
which is classified as a G2 yellow dwarf
star.
After the Sun in our Solar System , the
nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri.
It is about 39.9 trillion km away or 4.2
light years. This means it takes light from
this star 4.2 years to reach Earth. Using
the newest, fastest space probe
propulsion systems would still take a
craft about 75,000 years to get there.
There are approximately 200-400 billion
stars in our Milky Way Galaxy alone.
Each galaxy contains hundreds of billions
of stars and there is estimated to be over
100 billion galaxies in the universe. So
the total number of stars in the universe
is mind boggling, estimated to be at least
70 sextillion and possibly as high as 300
sextillion, that’s
300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!!!!!
Stars are usually between 1 and 10
billion years old. Some stars may even be
close to the age of the observed Universe
at nearly 13.8 billion years old.
Binary stars and multi-star systems are
two or more stars that are gravitationally
linked, they orbit around each other.
Stars form in nebulas, which are large
gases areas. As gravity attracts more and
more gas, young stars (called protostars)
start to form in thick molecular gases
cloud areas of the nebula.
Once nuclear fusion has began in the
core, a star is sufficiently fuelled to spend
the majority of its life as a main
sequence star in its most stable form.
The most common star, are red dwarfs.
They are less than half the size and mass
of our Sun, and burn their fuel very slowly
so live longer than any other type of star,
over 100 billion years. Red dwarfs are
cooler than most stars and so shine less,
eventually getting dimmer they do not
explode.
A brown dwarf forms if a star cannot get
hot enough to reach nuclear fusion. Its
failed to become a proper star but is still
not a planet because it does glow dimly.
As yellow dwarf stars like our Sun start to
run out of hydrogen fuel, the core shrinks,
heats and pushes out the rest of the star
turning it into a red giant.
Red supergiants, such as Betelgeuse in
the constellation Orion make our Sun look
small, 20x its mass, and 1,000x larger.
Red hypergiants such as the largest
known star VY Canis Majoris are even
bigger, over 1,800x the size of the Sun.
When smaller stars such as red dwarfs or
red giants use up all their fuel and
nuclear fusion slows they start to die, and
become small “white dwarf” stars which
will emit white light until they finally
darken into “black dwarfs”.
Big stars like supergiants and hypergiants
have shorter lives as they consume their
fuel at a faster rate than smaller stars. As
these massive stars die they explode as
massive bright supernova.
Very heavy stars that have gone
supernova can actually turn into black
holes.
Other supernova leave behind very small
20 to 40km (25 mi) in diameter white
neutron stars, that have dense cores
made of neutrons.
Star matter blown away by supernova
explosions form new stellar nebula and
the process of making stars begins again.
Stars range in color depending on how
hot they are, in order from lowest to
highest temperature they are can be
brown, red, orange, yellow, white, or blue
in color.
The light from stars takes millions of
years to reach Earth, therefore when you
look at the stars you are literally looking
back in time.
Stars do not actually twinkle. They only
appear to twinkle due to turbulences in
the Earth’s atmosphere deflecting the light
that reaches our eyes.
The stars have played a very important
role throughout human history. They have
formed part of religious practices, been
grouped into constellations, used in
astrology star signs, helped to design
calendars and were very important
navigational tools for early explorations
across land and seas.
(5)COMET:
What Is A Comet?
A comet is a very small solar system body
made mostly of ices mixed with smaller
amounts of dust and rock. Most comets are
no larger than a few kilometres across. The
main body of the comet is called the nucleus,
and it can contain water, methane, nitrogen
and other ices.
When a comet is heated by the Sun, its ices
begin to sublimate (similar to the way dry ice
“fizzes” when you leave it in sunlight). The
mixture of ice crystals and dust blows away
from the comet nucleus in the solar wind,
creating a pair of tails. The dust tail is what
we normally see when we view comets from
Earth.
A plasma tail also forms when molecules of
gas are “excited” by interaction with the solar
wind. The plasma tail is not normally seen
with the naked eye, but can be imaged.
Comets normally orbit the Sun, and have
their origins in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt
regions of the outer solar system.
Did you know all these things yourself?
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