The region beyond the Earth's atmosphere is known as space. It's where we find all of our universe's asteroids, comets, planets, stars, solar systems, and galaxies. Space is almost empty, yet it is not fully empty, as it is a vacuum. Here are some really interesting facts about space that you might not have known before!
Fact 1: Space Is Almost Empty
Space is not filled with air or water, and it does not support life as we know it. Space is almost empty! Though space contains more than 100 billion galaxies—some of which have hundreds of billions of stars—and thousands upon thousands of planets, much of space is virtually uninhabited. Some asteroids may be home to microscopic organisms, but for all intents and purposes, space does not support any form of life. In fact, you could take every human on Earth and put them in a planet-sized area located deep in outer space (the distance from our Sun to Pluto), and there would still be room for more than 1 million Earths in that same spot!
Fact 2: We Are Made Of Stars
Astronomers have long known that interstellar dust and gas contains elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Some of these heavier elements are created in stars during nuclear fusion. Eventually, these heavy elements are released into space when a star dies, often creating colorful nebulae. The heavier elements contained in those nebulae can eventually be used to create rocky planets such as Earth - which means that we're literally made of stardust!
Fact 3: Gravity Keeps Us On Earth
Earth’s gravity pulls all objects toward its center. The moon, for example, orbits Earth because of gravity. Objects in space are often influenced by other objects’ gravity; for example, if you send a satellite into space, it will follow a path that takes it away from Earth’s center and toward one of those other objects.
Fact 4: There are over 100 Billion Galaxies In Our Universe
There are over 100 billion galaxies in our universe, and that is only counting what we can see. With all of these galaxies, each containing billions or even trillions of stars and planets, there are a lot of places where life can be present! But with all these places to find life, it may seem unlikely that intelligent life has yet to be discovered. With such a vast galaxy and so many other galaxies out there, surely intelligent life would have evolved on one of them, right? Well as it turns out there is a very good reason why we haven’t met any aliens yet...and if you ask me, it’s because aliens don’t exist.
Fact 5: We've Never Landed On An Asteroid
This is probably one of the coolest space facts out there. When most people think of asteroids, they tend to think of them as small, rocky objects in our solar system with moons and rings and whatnot. That's not how they're seen by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), though. NASA sees asteroids as potentially-lethal Earth-bound killers that need to be tracked down before they collide with our planet. So far, no mission has ever landed on an asteroid, so it's tough to say for sure what these things really look like in person. There are plenty of conspiracy theories about NASA covering up information about them; some even go so far as to suggest we've secretly been there many times over without telling anyone.
Fact 6: Pluto Is Not A Planet Anymore
Pluto has been a planet in our solar system since its discovery in 1930. In 2006, Pluto was officially taken out of our planetary lineup and instead reclassified as a dwarf planet. Scientists came to their conclusion after studying Pluto's orbit and size; it is only 2/3 of Earth's size and is slightly smaller than our moon. Despite not being technically classified as a planet, Pluto is still so far away from Earth that it can be considered one of many space facts!
Fact 7: Objects Orbiting The Sun Are Called Satellites Or Moons
This one is pretty simple. All objects orbiting a star or planet are satellites, also known as moons. The Earth has one moon and Jupiter has more than sixty known moons. If a moon orbits another planet, it's called an interplanetary satellite. The most famous of these is probably Pluto's satellite Charon (pictured above). Fact 6: Space Is Big: This one sounds obvious but trust us—it isn't always fully understood just how big space is. According to NASA, there are almost 1 billion trillion stars in our universe! A short way of writing that number is 1,000,000,000,000,000 or 1 x 10 with 21 zeros after it...the amount is so immense that scientists say we may never be able to count them all!
Fact 8: There Is Lava On Jupiter's Moon Io
NASA just discovered that there is a lot of lava on Jupiter's moon Io. Although Io was first discovered in 1610, it took humanity another 400 years to know for sure whether or not there were any active volcanoes on its surface. That happened in 1979, when NASA's Voyager mission sent data back to Earth confirming that indeed, Io was active and volcanic. In fact, it was one of only three celestial bodies known at that time to be both active and volcanoes (the other two are Earth and Neptune's moon Triton). Moreover, NASA says: With lava temperatures reaching as high as 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit (980 degrees Celsius), these eruptions could possibly be hot enough to melt rock.
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