Marvels of the Cosmos A Journey Through Space and Time
Silence of Space: Space is completely silent because it’s a vacuum, meaning there’s no medium for sound waves to travel through.
Venus’ Heat: Despite not being the closest planet to the Sun, Venus is the hottest in our solar system due to its thick atmosphere trapping heat, with average surface temperatures around 450°C.
Life on Mars?: Mars is considered the most likely candidate in our solar system to host life, with potential fossils of microscopic organisms found in a rock from Mars.
Countless Stars: The exact number of stars is unknown, but our Milky Way galaxy alone contains an estimated 200-400 billion stars.
Halley’s Comet: This famous comet, last seen in 1986, won’t orbit past Earth again until 2061.
Expensive Space Suits: A full NASA space suit costs around $12,000,000, mainly due to the backpack and control module.
Neptune’s Moon Triton: Triton orbits Neptune backwards, which is unique among the large moons in our solar system.
Black Hole Encounters: If a star gets too close to a black hole, it can experience “gravitational redshift” where its light loses energy due to the black hole’s intense gravity.
Olympus Mons: The tallest mountain known is on Mars, standing at 16 miles (25 km) high, nearly three times the height of Mount Everest.
Future of the Sun: In about 5 billion years, our Sun is expected to become a Red Giant and potentially engulf Earth as it expands.
These facts reflect the vastness and wonder of the cosmos, as well as the ongoing quest to understand it. The future possibilities, like witnessing Halley’s Comet again or the fate of our Sun, remind us of the ever-changing nature of space.