50 astronomical little things! Want to test your knowledge of astronomy? It is enough to know that 15

1. If you throw Saturn into water, it will float.

2. If you take a pin-sized piece of sun and place it on ground, you will die if you get closer than 145 km (90 miles) from it.

3. Space is not a complete vacuum, there are about three atoms per cubic meter.

4. Only 5% of Universe is made up of ordinary matter, remaining 25% is dark matter, and 70% is dark energy.

5. The density of atomic stars is very high, and mass of a spoonful of atomic stars is roughly equivalent to sum of masses of all people on Earth.

6. The Sun is 400 times larger than Moon, but it is also 400 times further away than Moon, so they appear to be about same size.

7. The Star of Lucy in Centaurus is a diamond weighing 10 to 34th power.

8. On Uranus, each season lasts 21 years, and at two poles, 42 years of polar day and polar night each.

9.Venus is different, it has no seasons at all (because period of rotation coincides with period of revolution).

10.1 Mercury years consist of less than 2 Mercury days.

11. The number of oxygen atoms in one breath is approximately equal to how many times atmosphere can breathe.

12. Helium is only substance in universe that cannot solidify, and temperature cannot drop that low.

13. The coldest place on Earth is laboratory of Wolfgang Ketterles in Massachusetts, where temperature reaches 0.000000000001 Kelvin.

14. The Pistol Star is brightest known star, about 10 million times brighter than Sun.

15. Saturn's moon Titan has a liquid ocean of natural gas.

16. (According to leading hypothesis) All planets in solar system are about same age: 4.544 billion years.

17. The Moon likely formed after an early planet called Theia collided with Earth.

18. Over 8,000 planets can be seen on Earth with naked eye, 4,000 in each hemisphere, and 2,000 each day and night.

19. More than 90% of ordinary matter in universe is hydrogen.

20. Only 55% of Americans know that sun is a star.

21. Given speed of the Sun, a solar eclipse can last up to 7 minutes 58 seconds.

22. A lunar eclipse can last an hour and 40 minutes!

23. All coal, oil, combustible gas, wood and other energy sources on earth can only support sun for a few days.

24. A full moon is nine times brighter than a crescent.

25. If moon is directly above your head, or if you are standing on equator, you are a little lighter than usual.

26. The energy produced by a quasar is roughly equivalent to one trillion suns.

27. For a short time after Big Bang, all matter in universe was liquid.

28. The planet, nicknamed "Genesis Planet", is 12.7 billion years old, making it oldest planet ever discovered

29. The shape of universe is very similar to a brain cell.

30. Each year, Moon will be at a distance of 3.8 cm from Earth.

31. The rotation period of moon is same as period of revolution, so we always see same side of moon.

32. υA B in Andromeda always faces its star on one side, this side is hot, like magma, and other is cold, like a glacier.

33. On average, there are "only" 40 billion stars in a nebula.

34. Astronomers will not get taller in universe, but their hearts will get smaller.

35. The surface of Mars is covered with iron oxides (rust).

36. Only one to two billionth of energy released by sun reaches earth.

37. Rogue planets are not bound to any star, brown dwarf, or other planet, allowing them to roam galaxy freely.

38. Sweeps 10 is planet with shortest known orbital period, taking about 10 hours to orbit its star.

39. 85% of stars in our galaxy are multiple star systems.

40. Some brown dwarfs rain liquid iron.

41. The light emitted by sun is 30,000 years old (it takes time from sun's core to surface).

42. Of 20 million meteors observed every day, only one or two reach surface.

43. There are about 3,500 astronomers in USA, but about 15,000 astrologers.

44. The closest black hole to Earth is only 1,600 light-years away.

45. There are at least 10^24 stars in universe.

46. Several "earthquakes" have been observed on neutron stars.

47. In open space, a free-flowing fluid will form a ball due to surface tension.

48. Approximately one in 5 billion is hit by space debris and dies.

49. A neutron star can spin another 500 times in one second.

50. The largest known structure in universe is Sloan Great Wall, a supergalactic cluster 1.37 billion light years in diameter.

Links

1. Encyclopedia of Wikipedia

2. Astronomical terms

3. Fish-seven

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