Fun Facts About Space

By Yoni

Facts about Solar system

There are 8 planets in the solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. 

Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and Jupiter is the largest. Mercury and Venus are the only 2 planets that have no moons.
Mars has the largest mountain, its name is Olympus-Mons.
You can’t walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune because they are made of gas. 

Solar System. Credit: NASA

Facts about Universe

Scientists don’t know much about the universe because it is big and expanding. Our universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

Some scientists think that there are other universes, but we can’t travel to them because they are many light-years away. Light-year is how far light travels in a year, that is about 6 trillion miles.  AU stands for astronomical units or 93 million miles, Earth is 1 AU away from the sun. There are supernovas in the universe. A supernova is an explosion of a star. That is how a black hole forms.

Crab Nebula (type of Supernova).
Credit: Wikipedia

Facts about Space Junk

Space junk is like trash only in space. Space junk is mostly satellite and rocket parts, wrenches and even a glove. There are about 500,000 pieces of space junk. Space junk can be as small as snowflakes and as big as a refrigerator. 

Space junk. Credit: University of Miami