Ever thought about space? I mean the black stuff that appears at night time and is filled with shiny little stars. Space is cool, there is no denying that fact. So many questions get asked, like “how big is space” and “are we alone”. I can answer these ones. It’s massive. And it’s unlikely we’re alone. We’ve all seen Alien right?

Anyways, I’ve rounded up a few of my favourite facts about the cold vastness of space. *if this was a movie, I’d want the X-files theme music playing in the background while you read. Feel free to do this at home.

• In space, any free moving liquid will form itself into a sphere due to its surface tension.

• The first time humans actually left planet earth was December 21st, 1968 – unless you count jumping as leaving the earth. If you do it probably occurred the first time a man saw a sabre tooth tiger charge at him.

• There is a volcano on Mars that is the biggest found (so far) in the solar system. It measures an astounding 370 miles across and rises 15 miles into the sky.

• Next time you fall in the sea, try to forget the fact that we know more about space than the oceans. And that thing that just brushed passed your leg? It’s probably just a Kraken.

• The space age began on October 4th, 1957.

• The UK sucks when it comes to space – we have only ever launched one satellite, which was called the Black Arrow.

• You may feel safe walking around your countryside estate, but you have a reason to be fearful: 1 in 5 billion people could be killed by falling space debris. Just like the lottery ‘it could be you’.

• The earth’s revolution time speeds up every year – by .0001 seconds a year.

• If you had some kind of astro car, it would take you 258 days to drive round one of Saturn’s rings, at a steady sped of 75mph.

• When Neil Armstrong stepped off the shuttle for the first time, he stepped with hs left foot first.

• If you shouted in space quite literally no one could hear you scream – even if they were standing/floating right next to you.

• Proving that women love to do things differently, Venus is the only planet to rotate clockwise.

• When Apollo 11’s lunar module touched down on the moon, it had just 20 seconds of fuel left on board.

And that’s your lot. Cool huh? If you know anymore awesome facts send me a comment.

Tags: facts, Space
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.