What are some mind-blowing facts about space?

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50 mind-blowing facts about space.

1. Earth is the only known planet to harbour life.

2. The biggest known star in the universe is UY Scuti.

3. In July 2018 12 new moons were discovered orbiting Jupiter.

4. SWEEPS-11 is the most distant known exoplanet located 27,710 light years from Earth.

5. TrES-2b is the darkest known planet in the universe reflecting less than 1% of the light that hit it.

6. The observable universe measures 93 billion light years in diameter.

7. Voyager 1 is the most distant space probe from Earth at a distance of 13 billion miles.

8. Alien life is statistically very likely to exist, however so far there is no evidence of life beyond Earth.

9. One light year is equal to around 6 trillion miles in distance.

10. The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known place in the universe with a temperature of -272 degrees celsius.

11. The planet 55 Cancri e could be made of diamond and be worth $26.9 nonillion dollars.

12. Alpha Centauri is the closest star to Earth beside the sun at a distance of 4 light years.

13. Billions of years in the future the Sun will expand into a red giant and consume the inner planets Mercury, Venus and Earth.

14. The highest mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars and is 21287 meters/69841ft tall.

15. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space.

16. There are rogue planets which drift through space instead of orbiting a star.

17. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972.

18. The icy moons Europa and Enceladus may have subsurface oceans that harbour alien life.

19. The hottest known exoplanet is KELT-9b with a temperature of 4600 kelvin.

20. The Milky Way Galaxy measures around 100,000 light years across.

21. Only 536 people have flown in space.

22. The moon is 400 times smaller and 400 times closer than the Sun.

23. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth.

24. HE 1523-0901 is oldest known star and is 13.2 billion years old.

25. American astronomer Eugene Shoemaker was the first person to be buried on the moon.

26. The New Horizons probe is carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto.

27. Each star has a goldilocks zone which is the distance where a planet could have liquid water and support life.

28. Humans can survive brief exposure to the vacuum of space.

29. Russian cosmonaut holds the record for longest continuous stay in space at 437 days.

30. It might rain diamonds on the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.

31. Moon dust smells like gunpowder or wet ashes in a fireplace.

32. Scientists estimate that the asteroid belt contains up to 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometre.

33. Pizza Hut is the only company to have delivered pizza into space.

34. Our solar system accounts for less than a trillionth if the matter in the universe.

35. In about 4 billion years the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide.

36. One million Earths could fit inside the Sun.

37. A day on Mars is 24 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds long.

38. There are more volcanoes on Venus than on any other planet in our solar system.

39. We know more about space than we do about the bottom of the ocean.

40. Light takes 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth.

41. There are approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

42. There are three main types of galaxy which are spiral, elliptical and irregular.

43. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closet galaxy to us at a distance of 2.5 million light years.

44. Coca-Cola was the first drink consumed in space.

45. The universe is around 13.8 billion years old.

46. The first artificial satellite ever launched into space was called Sputnik.

47. There are five named dwarf planets in our solar system. Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

48. Red Dwarf stars can burn for up to 10 trillion years.

49. The Hillary and Norgay montes on Pluto are named after the first climbers to scale Mount Everest.

50. Saturn would float in water due to its low density.