Outer space has always captivated human imagination, sparking wonder, curiosity, and a sense of mystery. It’s a realm so vast and incomprehensible that it challenges the limits of our understanding. Despite remarkable advancements in space exploration, we’ve only scratched the surface of what the cosmos holds. From the sheer scale of the universe to the peculiar phenomena that exist within it, outer space is a place of endless discovery. Every year, new scientific breakthroughs reveal more about the wonders of space, yet many of its secrets remain hidden.
The vast distances between stars, the bizarre behaviour of distant galaxies, and the unexplained forces like dark matter and dark energy remind us how little we truly know. As we continue to explore, each discovery only adds to the awe and fascination we feel when we look up at the night sky, imagining what else might lie out there waiting to be discovered.
Outer space amazing facts to know
If two pieces of the same metal touch in space, they will become stuck together
On Earth, if you press two pieces of the same metal against each other, you can typically separate them easily. However, in the vacuum of space, this doesn’t happen. In space, there is no atmosphere, and consequently, no oxygen or air molecules to form an oxidised (rusted) layer around the metal. Without this natural barrier, if the metal surfaces are smooth enough, they can actually bond together, a phenomenon called cold welding. This can present a problem for space missions, where spacecraft parts or tools might unexpectedly fuse together in space. Fortunately, since the materials used in spacecraft are from Earth and have been manufactured with this in mind, they often have protective coatings that prevent this from happening.
The Pistol Star is 10 million times brighter than the Sun
One of the most massive and luminous stars we know of is the Pistol Star, located about 25,000 light-years from Earth. Despite its distance, it’s believed to be roughly 100-150 times the mass of our Sun and shines about 10 million times brighter than our star. This makes it an incredibly luminous object in the universe. If you could see it with the naked eye, it would appear as a faint fourth-magnitude star, but interstellar dust obscures its view from Earth. Interestingly, about 10% of its infrared radiation reaches Earth, which is how astronomers can study it using infrared telescopes. The Pistol Star is also responsible for creating the Pistol Nebula, a cloud of gas expelled during violent outbursts in its past. This star’s exact age and fate remain a subject of study and intrigue.
99% of our solar system’s mass is contained in the Sun
The Sun is by far the dominant body in our solar system. In fact, it contains a staggering 99.86% of the total mass of the entire solar system. The remaining mass is spread out between the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and the smaller bodies like Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and various moons, comets, and asteroids. This helps to put into perspective just how tiny Earth is compared to the Sun, and underscores the Sun’s overwhelming gravitational influence. The Sun’s mass is made up primarily of hydrogen (about 75%) and helium (about 24%), with trace amounts of heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, and iron.
You could fit all the other planets in our solar system between Earth and the Moon
While the space between Earth and the Moon might seem vast, it’s actually smaller than you might think—at least when compared to the size of the other planets in our solar system. The average distance from Earth to the Moon is about 384,400 km (or 238,855 miles). Remarkably, if you were to line up the seven other planets in the solar system (not including Earth) side by side, their combined diameters would fit within this distance with some room to spare—about 8,030 km (4,990 miles) of space left over. This fact not only gives us a sense of the immense size of some of the planets, like Jupiter and Saturn, but also emphasises just how vast outer space truly is. Even though we’ve made incredible strides in space exploration, there’s still so much left to discover.
There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth
The universe is staggeringly vast, and understanding its true scale is nearly impossible. Astronomer Carl Sagan famously said that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the Earth’s beaches, a comparison that seems almost beyond comprehension. To test this idea, scientists conducted a study, performing complex calculations based on observations of the universe. Their findings confirmed that Sagan’s claim is likely true. The sheer number of stars in the observable universe is so vast that even imagining it is a challenge. This fact really puts into perspective the scale of the cosmos and reminds us of just how much we still don’t know about it.
There is a gigantic body of water floating in space
In 2011, scientists made an astonishing discovery: they found a vast reservoir of water in space, situated around a supermassive black hole about 12 billion light-years from Earth. This particular body of water is massive—estimated to be 140 trillion times the volume of all the Earth’s oceans combined! This is a mind-boggling amount of water, especially when you consider that space is generally thought of as dry and empty. This water exists in the form of vapour around a quasar—a highly energetic and luminous object powered by the black hole’s intense gravity. The water forms when energetic radiation from the quasar collides with hydrogen and oxygen atoms, resulting in water vapour. The discovery also reveals that conditions in the early universe could support the formation of water, even in the most extreme environments.
It takes around 230 million years for our solar system to orbit the Milky Way
While we’re familiar with Earth’s daily rotation and its yearly orbit around the Sun, what many don’t realise is that our entire solar system is also orbiting the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. This “galactic orbit” takes a mind-blowing 225 to 250 million years to complete. This period is referred to as a galactic year. To give you some perspective, the Big Bang occurred about 61 galactic years ago, and dinosaurs walked the Earth about one galactic year ago. The fact that it takes such an incredibly long time for our solar system to complete just one orbit around the galaxy really emphasises the immense scale of both time and space in the universe.
All the stars, galaxies, and planets only make up about 4% of the universe
Despite the vastness of everything we can see in space, astronomers believe that only about 4% of the entire universe is made up of “ordinary” matter—stars, galaxies, planets, and other detectable objects. The rest of the universe is composed of dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%), which are completely invisible and undetectable by current instruments. Dark matter is known to exist because of its gravitational effects on visible matter, but its exact nature remains a mystery. Dark energy, on the other hand, is thought to be the force driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. Together, these unknown components make up 96% of the universe, which remains one of the greatest puzzles in modern science.
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