Most People Don’t Realize These 18 Strange Things About Space
There have been some great space movies recently: from Gravity to Interstellar, it seems like everyone’s got space on the brain. And there’s good reason, too: space is awesome. Whether you’ve got dreams of space travel or just like to think about space, you’re sure to be floored by these 18 mind-blowing facts.
1.) The sun burns at about 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit.
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2.) There’s more than one moon orbiting Earth; there are six satellite asteroids currently orbiting Earth, including Earth’s “second moon”, Cruithne.
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3.) A recently discovered planet was overlooked for 21 years, lost in the glare of a supernova.
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4.) 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was hit by something about the size of Mars.
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5.) There’s been a storm brewing on Jupiter for 200 years. Known as the Great Red Spot, it’s 40,000 km-wide and could fit three Earths inside of it.
![Most People Dont Realize These 18 Strange Things About Space 1420032514887293 Most People Dont Realize These 18 Strange Things About Space](http://149.28.11.42/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1420032514887293.png)
6.) The Earth could fit inside the sun 300,000 times and then some!
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7.) For a photon to travel from the core of the sun to the surface takes 170,000 years.
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8.) Once it’s at the surface, though, it only takes 8 years to reach Earth.
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9.) Every 200 million years the Sun completes its revolution around the galaxy.
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10.) Here’s a trippy thought: you can fit all of the planets in the solar system in between Earth and the Moon.
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11.) Astronauts left a mirror on the Moon’s surface during the Moon landing. Scientists used this mirror to bounce a laser off it and accurately measure the distance to the Earth.
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12.) In the last 20 years, we’ve discovered over 1,000 planets.
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13.) Jupiter is HUGE! It’s 2.5 times the size of every other planet in the solar system…combined.
![Most People Dont Realize These 18 Strange Things About Space 1420032518512428 Most People Dont Realize These 18 Strange Things About Space](http://149.28.11.42/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1420032518512428.png)
14.) There have been three human deaths in space.
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15.) Mars is home to a volcano the size of Ireland; it’s the largest in the whole solar system at 21 km high and 60 km wide.
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16.) If you went to the moon tomorrow, you could see the footprints left in 1969 by Apollo 11.
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17.) 99.86% of all mass in our solar system consists of the Sun.
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18.) The Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the human eye on a clear night; it’s only about 2.2 million light years away.
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