As human beings, we have always had a fascination with the final frontier, outer space. There are so many things about space that are almost difficult to comprehend. Here are four fascinating things about outer space that will blow your mind.
There Are a Lot of Satellites in Orbit
As of January 2022, it’s estimated that there are about 4900 active artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. They’re artificial because we human beings put them there, and they’re used for all manner of things. They’re not all at the same height either. Some are in low Earth orbit, others in medium Earth orbit, and others are in what we call a geosynchronous orbit, meaning they’re orbiting at the same speed as the Earth, which makes them appear still from Earth. Of these satellites, a vast majority are American (2800), and many of these are owned by SpaceX (1650), a private space company.
That’s a lot of satellites! If you’re interested in keeping up with our space adventures, pay a visit to thespacereport.org, which has a wealth of information about our space adventures.
It’s Silent
On Earth, sound waves are able to travel quite well and cover long distances thanks to our atmosphere. Because these sound waves need a medium to travel through, and space is nothing but an infinite vacuum, it’s not possible for there to be any sound in space. Of course, while humans are in space they are usually in an artificial atmosphere, so it’s still possible for sound to travel and be heard. However, if you could exist in thelack of any sort of atmosphere in the void of space outside of a spacecraft or spacesuit, it would be completely silent.
The Sun Makes Up 99% of the Mass of the Solar System
It’s sometimes difficult to understand just how large celestial bodies are but to give it some perspective, if we were to weigh the Sun and every planet in the solar system, the Sun would make up for 99% of that total mass.It’s so big that almost a million Earths could fit comfortably inside it.
The mass, however, is not all about how enormous the size of the Sun is but also because of how dense it is. It’s so dense and so big in fact, that it converts about 4 million tons of matter into energy every second. If it wasn’t for the Sun being this heavy, however, all the solar system’s planets would float off into space. It’s the Sun’s mass that is keeping everything just like it is and all the planets rotating around it.
Sunset on Mars is Blue
Here on Earth, the beautiful hues of pinks, purples, and oranges we associate with the setting sun look completely different on other planets. These colors we experience on Earth are another product of our atmosphere, and on another planet with a different atmosphere, or one without an atmosphere altogether, like Mars, sunset would look completely different. According to NASA, sunsets would appear as shades of blue from the surface of Mars.
Isn’t space just incredible? You could learn something new about space every day for your whole life and still never run out of things to learn!
