Something cosmic. Educational information about space that everyone should know

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Very interesting selection facts about space for children.

Where did the Universe come from?

The universe is so big that we don't even know if it has boundaries. It arose about 13.7 billion years ago when the Big Bang occurred. At that moment, everything appeared: the matter from which stars and planets are made, the forces of interaction between particles of matter, even time and space were born in the process of the Big Bang. People cannot yet explain why this happened.

Time passed. The universe expanded in all directions and finally began to take shape. Tiny particles were born from the vortexes of energy. After hundreds of thousands of years, they merged and turned into atoms - the “bricks” that make up everything we see. At the same time, light appeared and began to move freely in space.

solar system

There are eight planets in our solar system, and they all revolve around the sun in the same direction. The gravitational force of the huge Sun holds the planets like an invisible rope, preventing them from breaking free and flying into space. The first four planets - if you count in order from the Sun - consist of rocks and are located quite close to the star. They are called planets terrestrial group. You can walk on the solid surface of these planets. The other four planets are composed entirely of gases. If you stand on their surface, you can fall through and fly right through the entire planet. These four gas giants are much larger than the terrestrial planets, and they are located very far from each other.

It has long been believed that the outermost planet in our solar system is Pluto, which lies beyond Neptune in a region called the Kuiper belt. But not so long ago, scientists decided that Pluto still cannot be considered a planet, because in the Kuiper belt there are other celestial bodies of the same size and even larger (for example, Eris, a planetoid discovered in 2005).

If the Earth were a cherry tomato, what size would the other planets be? If we were holding the Earth - a cherry tomato - in our hands, then the Sun would be at a distance of 500 meters from us and would have a diameter of only 4.5 meters.

Milky Way

All the stars that are visible to us from Earth are part of large groups- galaxies that look like giant cosmic whirlpools. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy, and is shaped like a fireworks spinner. There are so many stars in it that a person cannot count in his entire life. Our Galaxy is constantly rotating, but very slowly: it takes as much as 225 million years to complete a revolution. You can see the Milky Way with your own eyes. To do this, you need to go out into nature, away from city lights, and look at the sky. There will be a milky white streak of light visible. This is the Milky Way.

First walk on the moon

On July 21, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. They wore spacesuits, the multilayer coating of which protected them from cold and cosmic radiation, and air tanks that allowed them to breathe in vacuum conditions. The suits were personal, and you could walk in them for up to 115 hours. On Earth, wearing such spacesuits is very difficult, but on the Moon they are almost weightless.

Sun and Earth

Every day we see the Sun moving across the sky, but this is an optical illusion. In fact, the Sun stands still, and the Earth rotates around it and around its own axis. In one day, the Earth makes a complete revolution around its axis, exposing different sides to the Sun. That is why it seems to us that the Sun rises and sets. It's like spinning around a bright lamp: it seems that it appears and then disappears.

We still know very little about the vast universe in which we live. Check out our list of 25 thought-provoking space mysteries.
Space contains all sorts of dangers, from deadly radiation to exploding superstars.
However, humanity is determined to go out and explore space, so to make sure we know exactly what we're up to, here are 25 space facts that will definitely surprise you.

Speed ​​of light

Everyone likes to imagine themselves flying through the galaxy at the speed of light, approximately 299,792,458 meters per second; however, the reality can be less fun and much more fatal. Upon contact with an object moving at the speed of light, hydrogen atoms turn into highly radioactive particles that can easily destroy a starship's crew and destroy electronics in a matter of seconds. Even a few stray bubbles of hydrogen gas floating in space could have a radioactive output equivalent to the beam of protons produced by the Large Hadron Collider.

Moon


Every year our moon is approximately 400,000 km away from Earth, and while this may not seem like a big deal at first, it could have devastating consequences for our planet in the future. Although the Earth's gravitational field should be sufficient to allow the moon to spin freely in space, the increasing distance between it and Earth will eventually slow down our planet's rotation to the point where one day will take more than a month, and our oceans will not there will be tides..

Black holes


Black holes, typically formed due to the death of massive stars, are super-dense regions of space with such a strong gravitational pull that they trap light and time. Just a small black hole in our solar system would throw planets out of orbit and tear our sun apart. This in itself is not scary, but black holes can rush across the galaxy at speeds of several million miles per second, leaving a trail of destruction in their path.

Gamma radiation


The most powerful type of explosion in the Universe, gamma rays are intense, high-frequency bursts. electromagnetic radiation, which carry as much energy in milliseconds as our sun will produce over its lifetime. If one of these rays hit Earth, it could strip the atmosphere of ozone in a matter of seconds, and some scientists believe gamma rays are responsible for the mass extinction event 440 million years ago on Earth.

Zero gravity


Scientifically speaking, microgravity occurs when an object is in free fall and appears weightless. Although it may seem fun to float around like astronauts, long time in the absence of gravity leads to long-term mental and physical disorders of a person.

Cold welding


Here on Earth, gases in the atmosphere react with metals to create a thin layer of oxidation. However, the vacuum of space has no atmosphere and therefore does not cause oxidation on metals, which leads to an interesting reaction. This reaction is called cold welding, and it occurs when two metals of the same molecular composition are pressed together and gradually fuse together as if they were one. While this may sound strange, this caused a lot of problems on the first satellites and made repairs in space difficult.

Extraterrestrial life


The universe is massive and incredibly old, so the chances of other planets evolving like Earth is unlikely. According to the Fermi Paradox, the high probability of extraterrestrial life in space is contradicted by the lack of obvious evidence to support it. On this moment We're not sure which is scarier; the fact that we cannot be alone in the universe or the possibility that we are.

Rogue Planets


Launched into space after the formation of their planetary system, these planets are bodies that can move freely through space, crashing into anything they encounter along the way. Since they do not orbit the Sun, these planets low temperatures surfaces. However, due to their molten cores and icy insulation, some scientists theorize that these free planets may contain massive underground oceans that support life.

Trips


In 1969, the third lunar module, Apollo 11, took 3 days to land on Earth's natural satellite, the Moon. Since then, our technology has grown rapidly; We could expect to get to Mars in 7-9 months, and getting to Pluto would take about 10 years. Distances beyond our solar system become even more extreme; even traveling at the speed of light, it would take us more than 4 years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centurion, and more than 100,000 years to reach the galactic center of the Milky Way.

Extreme temperatures


Depending on where you are in space, you will most likely end up in extreme conditions. The heat emitted by a supernova can reach temperatures of 50 million degrees Celsius or more, which is five times higher than nuclear explosion. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the cosmic background temperature of space is measured at minus 270 degrees Celsius, just warmer than absolute zero. You definitely don't want to forget your jacket.

Darkness


Fear of the dark is not just a fear that children experience; it is an evolutionary trait created by humans to protect against dangers lurking in the unknown. The only reason The reason why adults today are not afraid of what they cannot see is because they have learned from experience that the likelihood of monsters hiding under the bed is very small. However, in space, darkness is a completely unexplored void that goes on forever, so fearing the dangers that lurk beyond our vision is an understandable reaction.

Magnetars


Magnetars are incredibly dense neutron stars. In fact, they're basically an entire star crushed into a sphere that's only 15 miles in diameter. One teaspoon of magnetar contains the same mass as 900 Great Pyramids of Giza. They are also host to the strongest magnetic fields in our universe, fields so strong that anything that gets too close is torn apart at the atomic level.

Musculoskeletal atrophy

Astronauts visiting the International Space Station show signs of significant muscle wasting after just six weeks in space.

Venus


Despite taking its name from the Roman goddess of love, Venus is perhaps the most hellish planet in our solar system. With surface temperatures of around 500 degrees Celsius, the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth, and the constant sulfuric acid rain just landing on Venus will kill you in minutes. This is definitely not a planet you'd want to have a picnic on.

Dark Matter/Dark Energy


We know very little about our universe. In fact, we've only seen less than 5% of the material it's made from. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy. About a quarter of the Universe is made up of dark matter, mass that we cannot see or detect. The rest of the Universe is dark energy, the true nature of which is largely unknown. However, we are confident that it plays a crucial role in the expansion of the Universe.

Source radiation


The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from some really nasty things, namely radiation. cosmic rays, solar winds and electromagnetic particles permeate the universe, so much so that astronauts traveling between Earth and Mars will be exposed to whole body radiation for 5-6 days. Those who do not succumb to radiation sickness before achieving their goal will almost certainly develop cancer for the rest of their lives.

Expanding Sun


Our Sun constantly uses nuclear fusion to combine hydrogen and helium together to burn; however, its hydrogen is not infinite, and as it is depleted, the Sun will become hotter and hotter. Eventually it will get so hot that the Earth's atmosphere will burn up and our oceans will boil and evaporate completely. Then, once all of the Sun's hydrogen is gone, it will expand into a red giant and consume Earth once and for all.

Hypernovas


With 100 times more energy than a standard supernova, hypernovae are powerful explosions that occur after the death of a massive star. Although the factors that cause a hypernova star to form are widely disputed, we know that the result is often a black hole or neutron star. Hypernovae are also the source of gamma-ray bursts in the Universe, and they are bright enough to be seen by telescopes millions of light years away.

Electromagnetic vibrations


Space is a near-perfect vacuum, which means you can count on your ears not picking up sound while you're in outer space. While the thought of complete silence may be crazy in itself, don't believe that just because you can't hear anything there's no sound. Due to the lack of gases to move them, sound waves are absent in space, but sounds are still transmitted in space using electromagnetic vibrations. NASA recorded some of these vibrations from celestial bodies in our solar system and played them back, resulting in some truly terrifying sci-fi sounds.

Anything can kill you


There is no room for error in space; even the smallest mistake can kill you. Of the 430 people sent into space, 18 never return home. Today's improvements in spaceflight make it much safer than before. In the 1970s, almost 30% of people who went into space died; however, the furthest we travel is to the moon. A trip to Mars would increase the risk tenfold.

Time distribution


Imagine an astronaut traveling through space at close to the speed of light. Now imagine a person standing on the Earth. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, an astronaut will experience time much more slowly than a stationary person. When the astronaut finally returns home, even if he has been on earth for many years since he left, it will only be a fraction of that time. This is called time dilation, and while we have yet to develop the technology to move people fast enough to notice its effects, we have seen examples of it when studying high-speed particles in the laboratory.

Stars with hyperspeed


Believed to be the result of a close encounter with a black hole, hypervelocity stars are stars that have been ejected from their systems and sent into intergalactic space at speeds of up to 2 million miles per hour. While most of the hypervelocity stars we've identified so far are the same size and mass as the Sun, they could theoretically be any size and reach even more incredible speeds.

Solar flares


Despite the random sunburn, our Sun has given us warmth and light for billions of years. Don't let our local star fool you, though. Our Sun is a huge incandescent plasma that can make massive bursts of solar radiation at random. Although they are unlikely to directly threaten life on Earth, these solar flares can create electromagnetic pulses that destroy power networks, interfere with radio communications and invalidate technology.

Depressurization


Apparently there is no air in space; however, this means more danger than simply holding your breath for a long time. The human body is adapted to the atmospheric pressure on Earth, so when you go up in an airplane or travel on mountain roads, ear problems arise. There is no air pressure in a vacuum space. Within a few seconds, when you go beyond your spaceship, all the water in your body will boil and evaporate, rapidly expanding until you burst like an overfilled balloon.

Big Bang: contraction or expansion?


Everything must come to an end, but will there be an end to everything? Scientists agree that this will most likely be the final end of the universe, but how this will happen is still uncertain. One prevailing theory is that there will come a point at which the gravitational forces in the universe will reach their limit and cause the entire universe to stop expanding and begin to contract, gradually converging into an infinitesimal point, and then disappear altogether. Another theory, known as the big bang theory, states that the universe will expand to such an extent that gravity becomes meaningless and the cosmos literally falls apart; even particles in atoms eventually float away from each other. We honestly can't decide which is more scary.

Space is perhaps one of the biggest mysteries for all of humanity at the moment. People never tire of exploring space, discussing it, putting forward a wide variety of theories, making a wide variety of assumptions, but still space remains something incredible, mysterious, and completely unidentified. And does it have an end that can be reached, guided by science? Most likely no. Probably, throughout the entire existence of mankind, space will, to one degree or another, remain a mystery, an insoluble riddle, like a huge Sphinx whose question cannot be answered. But still it is studied, and therefore we know a lot about space that amazes and sometimes frightens. Let's take a little closer look at some interesting facts about space and the Universe.

1. Every year about forty new stars are born in our Galaxy. How many of them appear in the entire Universe is difficult to even imagine the answer to this question.
2. There is silence in space because there is no medium for sound to propagate. So those who like to remain silent would probably like space.
3. Man first looked at space through a telescope about four centuries ago. It was, of course, Galileo Galilei.
4. Surprisingly, in space all the flowers we know will smell completely different. And all because the smell of a flower depends on many different environmental factors.
5. Interesting fact about space and planets - the sun more land approximately one hundred and ten times. It is even larger than Jupiter, which, as is known, is the giant of our solar system. But at the same time, if you compare the Sun with other stars in the Universe, it turns out to be incredibly tiny. For example, the star Canis Major is one and a half thousand times larger than the Sun.
6. The first earthly creature in space was the dog Laika, which was launched into space on Sputnik 2 in 1957. The dog died on the ship due to lack of air. And the satellite itself burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere due to a violation of its orbit.
7. The first man in space is Yuri Gagarin. With a slight delay after Gagarin, Alan Shepard, an American astronaut, flew into space.
8. The first woman in space is Valentina Tereshkova.
9. Most of atoms that make up human bodies, were formed during the melting of stellar mass.
10. On Earth, due to the presence of gravity, the flame tends upward, but in space it spreads in all directions.
11. A person will never be able to reach the edge of the Universe, since in space there is a curvature of space, due to which a person, constantly moving in a straight direction, will eventually return to the starting point. Scientists are not yet able to fully explain this.
12. On average, the distance between stars is thirty-two million million kilometers.
13. An interesting fact about black holes in space is that they are the brightest objects in the Universe. In general, the gravity inside a black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape. But during its rotation, the black hole absorbs not only a variety of cosmic bodies, but also gas clouds, which begin to shine, twisting in a spiral. Meteors also begin to burn as they fall into the black hole.
14. Approximately ten tons of cosmic dust fall to Earth every day.
15. There are more than one hundred billion galaxies in the Universe, so there is a huge possibility that people are not alone within the boundaries of this Universe.

The most interesting facts about space can take an incredibly long time to collect and write down, since our Universe contains a huge number of secrets and mysteries, which we can now, thanks to the development of science, get at least a few steps closer to.

On January 27, 1967, an international document was signed that formed the basis of space law and declared Space the property of all mankind. And for this day we have prepared for you a selection of the most amazing facts about the universe

1. A day on the planet Venus lasts longer than a year. And all because this planet rotates around the Sun noticeably faster than around its own axis.

2. It is much easier to hide emotions in space, because due to the lack of gravity, it is simply physically impossible to cry there.

3. There is no wind on the Moon, so any trace left there will remain for centuries and even millennia.

4. The larger the planet, the stronger the force of gravity on it. So if on Earth a person weighs 60 kilograms, then on Jupiter (whose radius is more than 10 times the radius of the Earth) his weight would already be 142 kilograms.

5. The density of Saturn is almost half that of water. It turns out that if such a huge glass of water could be found, Saturn would float on its surface.

6. If you connect two metal parts in space, they will instantly weld to each other. On Earth, this is hindered by oxides that form on the surface of metals under the influence of our atmosphere.

7. Every year the Moon moves away from the Earth by almost four centimeters.

8. Due to the lack of atmosphere, all shadows on the Moon are completely black.

9. Anyone who is sure that there is nothing valuable in the outer space surrounding our planet should change their minds. In 2011, scientists discovered the planet PSR J1719-1438 b, almost entirely composed of diamond.

10. Lightning often occurs in space; scientists observe them on Mars and Saturn. In most cases, “black holes” are to blame for their appearance.

11. Everyone knows that falling stars visible from the Earth are actually meteors burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. But the stars themselves can also move, just very, very rarely; This happens to only one celestial body out of a hundred million.

12. The water discovered on Mars is heavier than that on Earth: it contains five times more deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with an additional neutron.

13. It has been proven that there is no magnetic field. However, the stones brought by the astronauts from the satellite had magnetic properties.

14. If even an insignificant amount of solar matter (for example, the size of a pinhead) fell on Earth, it would begin to absorb oxygen at such an incredible speed that it would destroy all life within a radius of 160 kilometers in less than a second!

15. The largest volcano known to mankind is located on Mars. The giant named “Olympus” has a length of more than 600 kilometers, and its height is 27 kilometers. Which means it's three times higher highest point earth - Mount Everest.

16. Warming and giving us life solar energy originated in the solar core 30,000 years ago. She spent all these years trying to overcome the super-dense shell of the heavenly body.

17. Venus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates counterclockwise.

18. Official scientific theory claims that a person is able to survive in outer space without a spacesuit for as long as ninety seconds, but only if he immediately exhales all the air from his lungs.

19. Scientists from Harvard University have proven that some of the Earth's rocks are of Martian origin. True, a very small part: only 0.67 percent.

20. Earth's gravity makes us lower: in outer space, the human spine “unclamps” by more than five centimeters.

Since ancient times, space has attracted people, interesting facts about the universe can bring you closer and interest you in space even more!

1. The brightest object in the Universe is the Black Hole. Its interior has such strong gravity that light cannot escape. It would be logical if the Black Hole could not be seen in the sky. But when the hole rotates, it absorbs not only cosmic bodies, but also clouds of gas that twist into a spiral shape. They make the Black Hole glow and bright. In addition, meteors drawn into the Black Hole ignite inside it due to the high speed of movement.
2. There is a giant bubble in the Universe, which contains only gas. It appeared, by the standards of the Universe, recently, only two billion years after the Big Bang. The length of the bubble is 200 million cosmic years, and the distance from Earth to the gas bubble is 12 billion cosmic years.

   

3. The light we see is thirty thousand years old. Photons spend so many years trying to get out of the solar center to its surface. They reach the earth's surface very quickly - they spend only 8 minutes on it.

   

4. Saturn will not sink if you immerse it in a huge bathtub filled with water, but will remain on the surface. This happens because the density of all substances on this planet is half the density of water.

   

5. IN Solar System there is a body that looks like the Earth. It is called Titan and is a satellite of Saturn. On the surface of the body there are rivers, volcanoes, seas, and the atmosphere has a high density. The distance between Saturn and its satellite is approximately equal to the distance from us to the Sun, the ratio of body masses is approximately the same. But intelligent life on Titan, most likely it will not be due to the reservoirs - they consist of methane and propane.

   

6. The most distant stars we see look like they did 14,000,000,000 years ago. The light from these stars reaches us through space after many billions of years, and has a speed of 300 thousand kilometers per second.

   

7. The sun is losing its weight very quickly. It has solar winds that blow particles away from the surface. The Sun loses up to a billion kilograms per second, since even the smallest particle of dust (the size of a poppy seed) can kill a person.

   

8. Ursa Major is the most popular constellation. But, in fact, this is not a constellation at all, but an asterism. This term refers to the clusters of stars that a person sees in the sky, but in fact the distance between them is many light years, and they are in different galaxies. The angle of the Earth relative to these stars allows us to see the shape of the bucket.

   

9. If you put two pieces of metal next to each other in space, they will fuse together. This does not happen on Earth due to instantaneous oxidation.

   

10. Since 1980, the surface of the moon has been sold. To date, 7 percent of the Moon's area has been sold. 10 acres on the Earth's satellite cost 30 dollars. Along with the paper declaring ownership of the plot, the buyer is also given a photo of the plot taken from a satellite.

    

11. The Earth, besides the Moon, has three more satellites. At the end of the 19th century, scientists discovered an asteroid with a diameter of five meters, which revolved around the Sun at the frequency of the Earth, and therefore revolved next to the Blue Planet. For this reason, the asteroid was called the second satellite. After some time, three more similar satellites were discovered.

    

12. No sounds can be heard in space. Voyager tried to detect noise in space using a plasma wave, but it was not possible to hear the sound, since the gas in interstellar space is not so dense. If a sound wave passed through a cosmic gas cloud, the human ear would not hear anything, since the eardrums are not very sensitive.

    

13. People are made of stardust. When did it happen Big Bang, the resulting particles combined with helium and hydrogen, then, due to the high temperature, combined into elements, including iron.

    

14. No one knows how many stars there are in the Universe. They are counted in approximate numbers and only in the Milky Way. To count all the stars, number of stars milky way must be multiplied by the number of galaxies. According to recent research, there are approximately 60 sextillion stars.

    

15. In space there is low pressure, which in zero gravity affects the spine. Astronauts can increase in height by about 3-5 centimeters during their journey.