Space Facts
Before you jump on a rocket to the moon, here are a few tips every aspiring space traveler should know:
Things You Should Know Before Going Into Space
- To reach outer space, you need to travel at least 80km (50 miles) beyond Earth's surface.
- The gravitational pull of a black hole is so strong, that nothing - not even light - can escape from it. That's why it's black, or rather, has a complete absence of color.
- Comets are icy wanderers that populate the solar system's outermost reaches. These "dirty snowballs" are chunks of ice and dust. When a comet ventures into the inner solar system, some of its ice evaporates.
- The brightest star in the sky is Sirius. It is 51 trillion miles away from Earth, and is one of the closest stars to Earth. Another name for Sirius is Dog Star.
- The Moon was created when a rock the size of Mars slammed into Earth, shortly after the solar system began forming about 4.5 billion years ago, according to the leading theory.
- The moon is not round; it's actually shaped like an egg. If you go outside and look up, one of the small ends is pointing right at you.
Every month, the moon goes through eight phases, which are named after how much of the moon we can see, and whether the amount visible kidsastronomy.com
The sun and eight planets make up our solar system. The planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
Discover more cool stuff about space, Earth, and technology from NASA: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. View Lucy's Planet Hunt to see how Lucy helped make a special space telescope to look for other Earth-like planets and then make your own Star Finder to learn your way around the night sky by finding some of the constellations
