Space, perhaps, is currently one of the biggest mysteries for all mankind. People do not get tired of exploring the cosmos, discussing it, putting forward a wide variety of theories, building a wide variety of assumptions, but still the cosmos remains something incredible, mysterious, unidentified to the end. And does it have an end that can be reached, guided by science? Most likely no. Probably, the cosmos throughout the entire existence of mankind will, to one degree or another, remain a mystery, an unsolvable mystery, like a huge Sphinx, the question of which cannot be answered. But still they study it, and therefore we know a lot about space, which amaze and sometimes frighten. Let's take a closer look at some interesting facts about space and the universe.

1. About forty new stars are born in our galaxy every year. How many of them appear in the entire universe - it is difficult to even imagine the answer to this question.
2. Silence reigns in space, since there is no medium for sound to propagate. So for those who like to be silent, space would certainly be to their liking.
3. For the first time, man looked at space through a telescope about four centuries ago. It was, of course, Galileo Galilei.
4. Surprisingly, in space, all the flowers we know will smell completely different. And all because the smell of a flower depends on many different environmental factors.
5. An interesting fact about space and planets - the sun more land about a hundred and ten times. It is even larger than Jupiter, which is known to be the giant of our solar system. But at the same time, if we compare the Sun with other stars in the Universe, then it will turn out to be incredibly tiny. For example, the star Big Dog more sun one and a half thousand times.
6. The first terrestrial creature in space is the dog Laika, which was launched in space on Sputnik 2 in 1957. The dog died on the ship due to lack of air. And the satellite itself burned up in the Earth's atmosphere due to a violation of its orbit.
7. The first man in space is Yuri Gagarin. With a slight delay after Gagarin, Alan Shepard, an American cosmonaut, flew into space.
8. The first woman in space is Valentina Tereshkova.
9. Most of the atoms that make up human bodies were formed during the melting of stellar mass.
10. On Earth, due to the presence of gravity, the flame tends to rise in an upward direction, but in space it spreads in all directions.
11. A person will never be able to reach the edge of the universe, since there is a curvature of space in space, because of which a person, moving constantly in a straight direction, will eventually return to the starting point. Scientists are not yet able to explain this to the end.
12. On average, the distance between stars is thirty-two million million kilometers.
13. An interesting fact about black holes in space is that they are the brightest objects in the universe. In general, gravity inside a black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. But during its rotation, the black hole absorbs not only a variety of cosmic bodies, but also gas clouds, which begin to shine, twisting in a spiral. Meteors also start to burn when falling into a black hole.
14. Approximately ten tons of cosmic dust falls on Earth every day.
15. There are more than one hundred billion galaxies in the Universe, so there is a huge possibility that people are not alone within the boundaries of this Universe.

The most interesting facts about the cosmos can be collected and written down for an incredibly long time, since our Universe contains a huge number of secrets and mysteries, to which we can now, thanks to the development of science, come at least a few steps closer.

The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

There is good news for all Star Wars fans. It is possible that all of us, following the example of Luke, will be able to watch how slowly sink into the horizon, one by one, two luminaries. And this is not a fantasy of George Lucas: two suns may well illuminate not only Tatooine, but also the old Earth. Yes, yes, any day we can see a double sunset and enjoy this spectacle for several weeks.

The double sun of Tatooine is a possible reality for us in case Betelgeuse explodes

Visit my site
19% solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere, 47% falls to Earth, and 34% returns to space.

The duration of the full solar eclipse does not exceed 7.5 minutes; complete lunar eclipse- 104 minutes.

The first star catalog was compiled by Hipparchus in 150 BC.

99 percent of the mass of the solar system is concentrated in the sun. The Sun produces more energy in one minute than the entire Earth uses in a year. The light of the Sun that you see is 30,000 years old.

The energy that we receive from the Sun was formed in its core 30,000 years ago - that is how long it takes for photons (light particles) to “break through” from the center of the star to its surface. After that, they reach the Earth in just 8 minutes. The temperature of the solar core is more than 13 million degrees, and all the energy generated by it must first pass through numerous layers to the surface in the form of light of other radiations.

The height of the Nix Olympic volcano, located on Mars, is more than 20 km. The atmosphere of Mars is 95% carbon dioxide. . Mountains on Mars reach a height of 20-25 kilometers.

2.5 km - the maximum thickness of the ice cover at the north pole of Mars.

When we look at the furthest of visible stars, we are looking at 4 billion years in the past. The light from it, traveling at a speed of almost 300,000 km / second, does not reach us until many years later. Of the twelve brightest stars, Capella is the northernmost.

Capella - the brightest yellow double star from the constellation Auriga at a distance of 42.2 light years from the Sun, it is also the 6th brightest star in the sky. Two components A and B - bright yellow stars spectral type G (A - G8IIIv and B - G1IIIe). The name of the star Capella means "little goat"
(lat. Capra - "goat").

About forty new stars appear in our galaxy every year. If you stretch the web to the nearest star in the constellation Centaurus, then it would weigh five hundred thousand tons.

In 10 minutes, the spacecraft can photograph up to 1 million square meters. km of the earth's surface, while such a surface is removed from an aircraft in 4 years, and it would take geographers and geologists at least 80 years to do this.

The only married couple who flew into space were American astronauts Jan Davis and Mark Lee, who were part of the crew of the Endever shuttle (September 12-20, 1992).

A car moving with average speed 60 miles per hour, it would take approximately 48 million years to reach our nearest star (after the Sun) Proxima Centauri.

12 billion years old is the age of the oldest galaxies photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

http://i.space.com/images/i/11216/i02/warped-galactic-ring.jpg?1311717034

Over the past 500 years, the mass of the Earth has increased by a billion tons due to cosmic matter. The pressure at the center of the Earth is 3 million times higher than the pressure in the Earth's atmosphere. Earth is the only planet not named after a god. About 200,000 meteorites fall to Earth every day. It takes about 8.5 minutes for sunlight to reach Earth. If the Earth rotated in the opposite direction around its axis, then there would be two days less in a year.

The distance to the nearest (after the Sun) star from us (Proxima Centauri) is 4.24 light years.

The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter.

All the planets in the solar system could fit inside the planet Jupiter.

The duration of the first spacewalk (Leonov) was 12 seconds.

The Mir orbital station was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986. During the entire existence of the Mir station, 135 people from 11 countries have visited it. There are more than 14 tons of various research equipment on board the Mir station.

The total mass of the Mir station with two docked ships is more than 36 tons.

The duration of one "year" on Pluto is 247.7 Earth years.

Yuri Gagarin's first space flight lasted exactly 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Asteroids 4147, 4148, 4149 and 4150 are named after the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively.

The largest lunar crater visible from Earth is called Bailey, or "death field." It has an area of ​​approximately 26,000 square miles.

The first maps of the moon were made in 1609 by Thomas Harriot. The highest temperature on the moon is 117 degrees Celsius. The most low temperature on the moon -164 degrees Celsius. The highest mountain on the moon is 11,500 meters high. The moon's diameter is 3476 kilometers. The earth weighs approximately 600 trillion tons. The moon is 80 times lighter than the earth.

The hottest planet in our universe is Venus. The period of rotation of Venus around its axis is long, about 243 Earth days, - more than the period of revolution around the Sun (224.7 days), therefore, on Venus, a “day” is longer than a year. The planet Uranus is visible from Earth to the naked eye. When the scientist William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, he was given the right to name his discovery. He chose the name Georgium Sidus (Star of George), in honor of King George III. Here is what the scientist said about this: “In past times, the names of the planets were given by the names of famous gods - Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc. In modern philosophical times, I want to do things differently. If descendants ask - when was the last planet of the solar system discovered? The answer will be very honorable - During the reign of King George III.

Uranus was also the first planet to be discovered with a telescope.
Ganymede, the largest of the moons of the planet Jupiter, is larger than the planet Mercury.

The solar surface area the size of a postage stamp shines with the same energy as 1,500,000 candles.

Neutron stars are the strongest magnets in the universe. The magnetic field of a neutron star is a million million times greater than the Earth's magnetic field. If you fill a teaspoon with the substance that makes up neutron stars, then its weight will be approximately 110 million tons!

If you put Saturn in water, it will float on the surface. The average density of Saturn's matter is almost 2 times less density water. If you can find an appropriate glass (with a diameter of at least 60 thousand km), then you can check it yourself.

Sunspots are one of the reasons for the special sound of the Stradivarius violin. Antonio Stradivari is an outstanding violin master who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Scientists cannot figure out why his violins sound special, but they found that the wood that. he used, is very important to the sound of the violin. in the period 1500-1800, the Earth experienced the Small ice Age associated with an increase in volcanic activity and a decrease in solar activity (Maunder minimum).

Hi all!

A very interesting collection of facts about space for children.

Where did the universe come from

The universe is so big that we don't even know if it has boundaries. It originated about 13.7 billion years ago when the Big Bang happened. At that moment, everything appeared: the matter from which the stars and planets are made, the forces of interaction between the particles of matter, even time and space were born in the process of the Big Bang. Why this happened, people still can not explain.

Time passed. The universe expanded in all directions and finally began to take shape. From the whirlpools of energy, tiny particles were born. Hundreds of thousands of years later, they merged and turned into atoms - “bricks” that make up everything that we see. At the same time, light arose, which began to move freely in space.

solar system

In our solar system eight planets, and they all revolve around the sun in the same direction. The force of attraction of the huge Sun, as if with an invisible rope, holds the planets, preventing them from escaping and flying into space. The first four planets - if you count in order from the Sun - are composed of rocks and are quite close to the star. They are called planets terrestrial group. You can walk on the solid surface of these planets. The other four planets are made entirely of gases. If you stand on their surface, you can fall through and fly through the entire planet. These four gas giants are much larger than the terrestrial planets, and they are located very far from each other.

It has long been thought that the most distant planet in our solar system is Pluto, which lies beyond Neptune in a region called the Kuiper belt. But not so long ago, scientists decided that Pluto still cannot be considered a planet, because there are other celestial bodies of the same size and even larger in the Kuiper belt (for example, Eris is a planetoid discovered in 2005).

If the Earth were a cherry tomato, how big would the rest of the planets be? If we held the Earth - a cherry tomato - in our hands, then the Sun would be 500 meters away from us and would have a diameter of only 4.5 meters.

Milky Way

All the stars that are visible to us from Earth are part of large groups - galaxies that look like giant cosmic whirlpools. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy, and is shaped like a fireworks pinwheel. There are as many stars in it as a person cannot count in his entire life. Our Galaxy is constantly rotating, only very slowly: for a complete revolution, it takes as much as 225 million years. The Milky Way can be seen with your own eyes. To do this, you need to go to nature, away from city lights, and look at the sky. There will be a milky white streak of light. This is the Milky Way.

First walk on the moon

On July 21, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to walk on the moon. They wore spacesuits that were multi-layered to protect them from cold and cosmic radiation, and air tanks that allowed them to breathe in a vacuum. The suits were personal, and it was possible to walk in them up to 115 hours. On Earth, such suits are very difficult to wear, but on the Moon they are almost weightless.

sun and earth

Every day we see the Sun passing through the sky, but this is an optical illusion. In fact, the Sun stands still, and the Earth rotates around it and around its own axis. During the day, the Earth makes a complete revolution around its axis, substituting different sides of the Sun. That is why it seems to us that the Sun rises and sets. It's like circling around a bright lamp: it seems that it appears and disappears.

In fact, even modern people very little is known about the vast universe in which they live.

Scientists are constantly conducting research and experiments that would make it possible to make a breakthrough in this area, and sometimes it succeeds.

This review contains the most interesting facts about space, which not everyone knows about.

1. 2 997 92 458 m/s

Any person interested in science fiction has probably imagined more than once how he flies through the galaxy at the speed of light (approximately 2,997,92,458 meters per second). However, reality can be much less exciting, and often downright deadly. When an object moves at the speed of light, hydrogen atoms turn into highly active particles that could easily destroy the crew of a starship and all its electronics in the blink of an eye. Just a few free-floating clouds of hydrogen in space at this speed can give out radiation, equivalent to the proton beam created at the Large Hadron Collider.

2. Runaway Moon

Every year, the Moon moves away from the Earth by 4 centimeters. While such a figure may not seem like much, it could have devastating consequences for our planet in the future. Although the Earth's gravitational field should keep the moon in Earth's orbit, its removal will eventually slow the planet's rotation to the point where one day lasts more than a month.

3. Concentration of matter and gravity

As a rule, black holes are formed after the death of massive stars. These are regions of space with a superdense concentration of matter and gravity so unimaginable that they distort light and time. Even a small black hole in our solar system could knock all the planets out of their orbits and tear the Sun to pieces. If that's not scary enough, it's worth knowing the following fact: black holes can rush through the Galaxy at a speed of several million kilometers per second, leaving chaos and destruction in their path.

4 Dinosaurs And Gamma Rays

The most powerful type of explosion in the universe, gamma rays are intense, high-frequency bursts of electromagnetic radiation that emit as much energy in milliseconds as the Sun does in its entire lifetime. If such a burst of radiation hit the Earth, it could deprive the atmosphere of ozone in a matter of seconds. Some scientists even attribute the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which occurred 440 million years ago, to a burst of gamma radiation that hit the Earth.

5. Weightlessness and psychosis

FROM scientific point This is called microgravity. This state occurs when an object is in free fall, i.e. weightlessness. Although at first glance it seems funny, prolonged time in zero gravity can lead to long-term mental and physical impairment of a person.

6. No atmosphere, no oxidation

On Earth, gases in the atmosphere react with metals, creating a thin layer of oxide. In a vacuum, there is no atmosphere and, therefore, no oxidation occurs on the metal, which leads to a rather interesting reaction. This reaction is called "cold welding" and occurs when two pieces of metal pressed together are joined together permanently, without additional heat. This caused quite a few problems when launching the first satellites.

7. Fermi Paradox

The universe is so huge and old that there are very good chances of finding other planets similar to Earth. However, according to the Fermi paradox, the high probability of extraterrestrial life in space is contradicted by the lack of visible evidence to support this. At this point, people aren't even sure what's scarier: the fact that they're not alone in the universe, or that there's someone else around.

8. Space tramps

The so-called rogue planets were "thrown" into outer space after the formation of their planetary systems, which roam freely in space. Because they don't orbit their star, rogue planets are often frozen through the surface. However, since these planets must have molten cores, some scientists believe that these "free-roaming" planets may have vast subterranean oceans that harbor life.

9. Four years before the star Proxima Centauri

In 1969 lunar module Apollo 11 3 days after launch landed on natural satellite Earth. Although technology has not stood still since then, it takes 7-9 months for people to fly to Mars, and as much as 10 years to reach Pluto. Distances outside of our solar system are becoming even more extreme: even if traveling at the speed of light, it takes more than 4 years to get to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri), and to get to the center Milky Way- over 100,000 years old.

10. From minus 270 degrees Celsius

In space, quite extreme conditions are found literally everywhere. The temperature of a supernova can reach over 50 million degrees Celsius, i.e. five times higher than the temperature nuclear explosion. On the other hand, in open space the temperature is minus 270 degrees Celsius.

11. Darkness

The fear of the dark is not just a stupid prejudice of children, it is a consequence of evolution. It has developed in people in order to protect themselves from the dangers lurking in the unknown. The only reason adults aren't afraid of what they can't see nowadays is because they've learned from experience that the likelihood of monsters lurking under the bed is very low. In space, darkness is a completely unexplored void that stretches into infinity. And it is quite possible that many dangers are hidden in it.

12. Magnetars

Magnetars are incredibly dense neutron stars. In fact, this is a whole huge star, compressed into a sphere with a diameter of only 25 kilometers. One teaspoon of magnetar substance weighs as much as 900 Great Pyramids of Giza. These neutron stars have the strongest magnetic fields in the known universe, so powerful that anything that gets too close to a magnetar is destroyed at the atomic level.

13. Atrophy of the musculoskeletal system

Maintaining a proper level of health through exercise is difficult enough even on Earth, but in zero gravity it can be even more difficult. The astronauts who worked on the International space station, showed signs of significant muscle atrophy after just six weeks in space, even though they had a rigorous fitness program.

14. Sulfuric acid rain + 500 degrees Celsius

Despite being named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus is arguably the most hellish planet in the solar system. The surface temperature is about 500 degrees Celsius, Atmosphere pressure 90 times more than on Earth and there is a constant rain of sulfuric acid.

15. Dark matter / dark energy

People know very little about the universe. In fact, they've seen less than 5% of the material it's made of. The remaining 95% are dark matter and dark energy. About a quarter of the universe is made up of dark matter, which humans still can't see or find in space, but simply must be due to its effect on the behavior of everything it surrounds. The rest of the universe is made up of dark energy, the true nature of which is largely unknown. However, scientists are confident that it plays a crucial role in the expansion of the universe.

16. Background radiation

Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect people from some really nasty things, namely radiation. Cosmic rays, solar wind and electromagnetic particles permeate the universe, so astronauts who one day go to Mars will receive a huge dose of radiation every day. If protection against this is not invented, then even those astronauts who do not develop radiation sickness will subsequently develop a severe form of cancer.

17. Expansion of the Sun

Inside the Sun, nuclear fusion processes are constantly taking place, during which hydrogen and helium combine to support combustion. However, hydrogen is not infinite. As it ends, the Sun will get hotter. Eventually, it will become so hot that the Earth's atmosphere will completely burn up and the oceans will boil away and completely evaporate. Then, when the Sun runs out of hydrogen, it will begin to expand, turning into a red giant and swallowing the Earth once and for all.

18. Hypernovae

They release 100 times more energy than standard supernovae. Hypernovae are powerful explosions that occur after the death of a massive star. Although the factors that cause a star to go hypernova are unknown, scientists know that the result is often a black hole or neutron star. Hypernovae are also the source of gamma-ray bursts in the universe, and they are bright enough that an ordinary telescope could see the explosion of such a star millions of light-years from Earth.

19. Electromagnetic vibrations

Space is in a near-perfect vacuum, which means that no sound will be heard from outside the ship. Although the thought of complete silence can be maddening in itself, you will actually hear something, but it will be really creepy. Sounds can be transmitted in space using electromagnetic oscillations. NASA has recorded some of the electromagnetic oscillations of individual celestial bodies in our solar system and played them on sound equipment. As a result, scientists heard "music" that could be safely included in any horror movie.

20. 30% of people who went into space died ...

There is no room for error in space - even the smallest mistake can lead to death. Of the 430 people who flew into space, 18 did not return home. Advances in technology have made space flights today is much safer than before. And in the 1970s, almost 30% of the people who went into space died. However, until now people have flown maximum to the moon. Traveling to Mars would result in a tenfold increase in risk.

The temperature in space, in Earth's orbit is +4°C

To be precise, it is not in the orbit of the Earth, but at a distance from the Sun equal to the distance of the Earth's orbit. And for a completely black body, i.e. one that completely absorbs the sun's rays without reflecting anything back.

It is believed that the temperature in space tends to absolute zero. Firstly, this is not entirely true, since the entire known Universe is heated up to 3 K, by cosmic microwave background radiation. Secondly, the temperature rises near the stars. And we live pretty close to the sun. Strong thermal protection is needed for space suits and spacecraft because they enter the shadow of the Earth, and our luminary can no longer warm them up to the indicated + 4 ° C. In the shade, the temperature can drop to -160 ° C, for example at night on the moon. It's cold, but it's still far from absolute zero.

Here, for example, the readings of the onboard thermometer of the TechEdSat satellite, which rotated in low Earth orbit:

It was also affected by the earth's atmosphere, but in general, the graph does not show the terrible conditions that are usually represented in space.

Lead snow falls in places on Venus

This is probably the most amazing fact about space that I have learned not so long ago. Conditions on Venus are so different from anything we could imagine that Venusians could easily fly to hell on earth to rest in a mild climate and comfortable conditions. Therefore, no matter how fantastic the phrase "lead snow" may seem, for Venus it is a reality.

Thanks to the radar of the American probe Magellan in the early 90s, scientists discovered a certain coating on the tops of the Venusian mountains that has a high reflectivity in the radio range. Initially, several versions were assumed: the consequence of erosion, the deposition of iron-containing materials, etc. Later, after several experiments on Earth, they came to the conclusion that this is the most natural metallic snow, consisting of bismuth and lead sulfides. IN gaseous state they are released into the planet's atmosphere during volcanic eruptions. The thermodynamic conditions at 2600 m then favor compound condensation and precipitation at higher elevations.

There are 13 planets in the solar system... or more.

When Pluto was demoted from the planets, it became a rule of good manners to know that there were only eight planets in the solar system. True, at the same time, they introduced a new category of celestial bodies - dwarf planets. These are "underplanets", which have a rounded (or close to it) shape, are not anyone's satellites, but at the same time they cannot clear their own orbit from less massive competitors. Today it is believed that there are five such planets: Ceres, Pluto, Hanumea, Eris and Makemake. The closest to us is Ceres. In a year, we will learn much more about her than now, thanks to the Dawn probe. So far, we only know that it is covered with ice and water evaporates from two points on its surface at a rate of 6 liters per second. We will also learn about Pluto next year, thanks to the New Horizons station. In general, as 2014 in astronautics will become the year of comets, 2015 promises to be the year of dwarf planets.

The remaining dwarf planets are located beyond Pluto, and we will not know any details about them soon. Just the other day, another candidate was found, though officially it was not included in the list of dwarf planets, just like its neighbor Sedna. But it is possible that they will find more, several larger dwarfs, so the number of planets in the solar system will still grow.

The Hubble telescope is not the most powerful.

Thanks to the huge amount of images and impressive discoveries made by the Hubble telescope, many have the idea that this telescope has the most high resolution and is able to see such details that cannot be seen from the Earth. For a while, this was true: despite the fact that large mirrors can be assembled on Earth on telescopes, the atmosphere introduces a significant distortion in the images. Therefore, even a "modest" by earthly standards mirror with a diameter of 2.4 meters in space, allows you to achieve impressive results.

However, over the years that have passed since the launch of Hubble and terrestrial astronomy has not stood still, several technologies have been developed that allow, if not completely getting rid of the distorting effect of air, then significantly reducing its impact. Today, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile can provide the most impressive resolution. In the optical interferometer mode, when four main and four auxiliary telescopes work together, it is possible to achieve a resolution that exceeds that of Hubble by about fifty times.

For example, if Hubble gives a resolution on the Moon of about 100 meters per pixel (hello to everyone who thinks that this is how you can see the Apollo landers), then VLT can distinguish details up to 2 meters. Those. in its resolution, American landers or our lunar rovers would look like 1-2 pixels (but they will not look because of the extremely high cost of working time).

A pair of telescopes at the Keck Observatory, in interferometer mode, are capable of ten times the resolution of Hubble. Even individually, each of Keck's 10-meter telescopes, using adaptive optics technology, is able to outperform Hubble by a factor of two. For example, a photo of Uranus:

However, Hubble does not remain without work, the sky is large, and the breadth of the space telescope's camera exceeds ground capabilities.

Bears in Russia are 19 times more common than asteroids in the main asteroid belt.

An American popular science site cites, and the Computer translates, curious calculations that show that travel in the asteroid belt is not as dangerous as George Lucas imagined. If all asteroids larger than 1 meter are placed on a plane, equal area In the main asteroid belt, it turns out that one stone falls on about 3200 square kilometers. Russia's 100,000 bears are to be distributed one by one for every 170 square kilometers of territory. Of course, both asteroids and bears try to stay close to their own kind and defile pure mathematics with their uneven distribution, but for the sake of a holiday, such trifles can be neglected.