25 Astronomical Facts That You Should Know

1. The Drake Equation was used to identify the possibility of other living organism in our universe.

2. Group that is responsible for searching the extraterrestrial organism is called SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). They send a radio wave signal to outer space and wait for a contact to happen.

3. The supermassive black hole is said to be responsible for creating the galaxies. In fact, scientists now have proved that black hole exists in the center of every galaxies.

4. 100 000 light years are needed in order for sun to orbit the Milky Way.

5. The biggest star known in our universe is called Cygnus, or the Swan. This hyper giant star is almost a million times bigger than the sun.

6. Mars is red because it contains oxidized iron in its soil.

7. Big Bang theory started when Hubble telescope proved that the universe is expanding, which led us to believe that it was once stayed in one place.

8. Slingshot is a technique used by space probes in order to save fuel while on its journey to distant planets. It uses the nearby planet's gravity to catapult them away.

9. Ganymede, one of the many moons that Jupiter have, is the biggest moon known in our Solar System.

10. In Uranus, the winter caused darkness to last for 20 years. During summer, the sun will not set for 20 years and in autumn, the sun rises and sets every 9 hours.

11. Halley's comet was named after Edmond Halley. He discovered that the comet will come back and it really did, 16 years after he died. In fact, he was the first person to ever succeeded in predicting the arrival of a comet.
12. Yuri Gagarin was the first man ever to be in space.

13. Dog Laika was the first living creature to ever be in space in the first to die in space too.

14. The closest galaxy to our Milky Way is named Andromeda. Its only 2.5 million light years from Earth.

15. The geology in Mars, essentially the riverbed, led scientists to believe that there was once water flowing in Mars.

16. The cost of a spacesuit is 11 million USD.

17. The universe is believed to be 15 billion years. But the oldest star was found to date around 18 billion years ago. So either the calculation for that star is wrong, or the universe is older than that.

18. A mirror was left during the first moon landing to reflect the laser beam fired from earth to calculate the distance from the moon to the earth and is done with amazing accuracy.

19. Nicholas Copernicus was the first man to suggest that the Sun was at the center and the Earth is orbiting it. And he learned that not from watching the sun, but by learning ancient astronomy.

20. Titan on Saturn, Lo on Jupiter, and Tritan on Neptune are the three moons thought to have their own moon.

21. Neptune's Triton is the coldest place on solar system. It is estimated to be around -236 degree Centigrade.

22. A supernovae emits 10^44 joules of energy. (1 followed by 44 zeros!!)

23. The biggest asteroid in the Solar System is named Ceres, after the goddess of agriculture in ancient Roman religion.

24.  Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity (1905) shows that all measurements are relative, including time and speed. In other words, time and speed depends upon where you measure them.

25. The Milky Way belongs to a cluster of 30 galaxies called the Local Group, which is 7 million light years across.

Source: http://amazingspacefacts.50webs.com/index5.html

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