There is so much about space, our solar system, and the galaxy that we still don’t know! Space is vast. With billions of galaxies and stars, and planets in our own solar system yet to be fully explored or understood, scientists’ knowledge of space is always evolving.
1. SPACE IS COMPLETELY SILENT
In space, no one can hear you scream. This is because there is no air in space – it is a vacuum. Sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum. ‘Outer space’ begins about 100 km above the Earth, where the shell of air around our planet disappears.
2. THE HOTTEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS 450° C.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system and has an average surface temperature of around 450° C. Did you know that Venus isn’t the closest planet to the sun? That is Mercury. You would think that Mercury would then be the hottest, but Mercury has no atmosphere (which regulates temperature), resulting in big fluctuations.
Its thick atmosphere is full of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and it has clouds of sulfuric acid. The atmosphere traps heat, making it feel like a furnace on the surface.
3. THE SUNSET ON MARS APPEARS BLUE
Just as colors are made more dramatic in sunsets on Earth, sunsets on Mars, according to NASA, would appear bluish to human observers watching from the red planet. Fine dust makes the blue near the Sun’s part of the sky much more visible, while normal daylight makes the Red Planet’s familiar rusty dust color the most perceptible to the human eye.
Mars’ atmosphere is very tenuous. Its pressure is equivalent to about 1 percent of Earth’s. It is made of carbon dioxide and has a lot of dust. This fine dust tends to scatter red light so that the sky appears reddish, which lets the blue light through
