29 Creepy Space Facts That All Aspiring Astronauts Should Know

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), there are a total of 6,542 satellites orbiting the Earth out of which nearly half are inactive and contribute to the space debris, most of which can be seen clearly in the night sky.

Moreover, did you know that a single space shuttle mission by NASA has a cost of more than 450 million dollars? To know more fun and interesting facts about space and astronomy continue reading this article.

Since the discovery of craters on the surface of the moon and the planet Jupiter by Galileo in the 17th century, space exploration of our Solar System has come a really long way with missions like Apollo 11 and Voyager 1.

Here is one scary fact for you, the unseen dark matter makes up about 80% of the mass of the Universe? Like our Solar System, every Solar System is made of stars and planets.

The human race first escaped gravity and the realms of mother Earth in August 1961 with Vostok 1 of Soviet Russian which took astronaut Yuri Gagarin to space. According to a general record, more than 550 astronauts have since been to space after the Vostok 1 space mission.

According to scientists, space is defined as a boundary-less medium wherein the objects have been in relative positions and directions. There is no air in outer space as it is a perfect vacuum and you will fall unconscious within 15 minutes.

Classical physics correlates space with a three-dimensional medium whereas modern physics defines it in relation to time and within the realms of a four-dimensional arrangement. This modern definition explains the meaning of space-time. In much simpler terms, we can define Earth with the Earth as our prime subject.

Hence, in this context, space is the zone that begins after 62.5 mi (100 km) from the Earth’s sea level. Here, there is no air as a medium for respiration or scattering of light.

Also, since outer space has no medium and is a complete vacuum, no sound can travel through it as sound requires a medium for its transmission from one place to another.

But we cannot say that space is completely empty as it has billions of galaxies, stars, planets, moons, asteroids, scattered particles of dust and gases, in it. Contentions have also been raised over the size of outer space.

According to some astronomers, the idea of the extent of outer space can be known in relation to the Big Bang.

In space, since the celestial bodies and galaxies are at far-off distances, we use the unit of a light year for the measurement of distances, wherein one light-year is the distance traveled by light in one year which is approximately 5.8 million mi (9.3 million km).

With the use of modern-day equipment for space exploration, scientists have been able to discover galaxies as far as the Big Bang (13.7 billion light-years).

Hence we can conclude that our universe extends to these lengths. However, the question of whether our universe is the only one is still debatable.

Astronauts have claimed that space smells like hot metal or welding fumes.

After reading the creepy facts about space, also check Apollo 13 space mission and all female spacewalk.

The Space Station At Night

The ISS (International Space Station) is a module in outer space with an approximate height of 255 mi (408 km) above the Earth. It was a joint collaborative project which involves five participant nations- the United States of America (NASA), Russia (Roscosmos), Europe (ESA), Japan (JAXA), and Canada (CXA).

The space station is presently the largest satellite orbiting the Earth while serving as an outer space laboratory for conducting scientific research and experiment and also involved equipment testing for prolonged and much important future space missions. The ISS has two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment.

It was launched in 1998 with the first onboard crew reaching in November 2000.

Since then, the station has continuously been occupied with scientists. In the night sky, the space station can be seen through naked eyes with its star-like appearance.

This is made possible due to its low-lying orbit as the artificial object is present in the lower orbit of planet earth. The space station is able to complete more than 15 revolutions around the earth in 24 hours.

Now let’s see what it's like to work and sleep in a space station. Since there are no up and downsides and hence the astronauts basically float in the entirety of the probe.

They are able to stabilize themselves by locking their bodies to their workstations. Sometimes, they are even required to step out of the ISI for certain repair works.

For this purpose, the astronauts are made to wear specially designed space suits that perform a host of functions- from providing them and oxygen and keeping their bodies under normal pressure to helping them communicate with their on-site crew.

After a tiring day, the astronauts still have no escape from the zero-gravity conditions. Hence, to solve this problem, they are made to sleep in specially designed cells/capsules which support only one astronaut at a time for rest.

Death Star Near Saturn

If you are amongst the fans of the biggest fiction hit of all time, The Star Wars, you must be familiar with the word ‘Death Star’. The Death Star was a fictional space station in the movie which housed approximately 1.7 million army personnel and had a diameter of 99 mi (158.4 km).

This fictional space station had a circular indentation on its surface with a prominent circumference.

Now, if we look closely at one of the 82 moons of Saturn, Mimas, we would observe that the celestial body has a similar indentation which is actually a crater formed on its surface. This crater was named Hershel.

This unique characteristic feature of the moon was discovered by NASA’s Cassini Space probe which took close pictures of Mines in February 2010. It even estimated the length of this crater at an astonishing 80.7 mi (130 km).

Black Holes

Everything present in the vicinity of space forms matter which is scattered in all directions. But interestingly, this matter contributed to less than 4% of the whole of outer space while the remaining area is occupied by dark energy.

But imagine if this matter was so densely packed at a point that none of it could escape from that cluster, not even light. This statement aptly defines a black hole.

Modern astronomy defines a black hole as a body with a gravitational pull that is strong enough to squeeze large quantities of matter in a small space. These points are formed at locations of a dying star.

Since light does not get to escape these locations and hence a black hole is invisible and thus derives its name from this unique characteristic.

The only method that NASA has claimed to perceive a black hole, is to observe its surroundings. For instance- when a star reaches close to a black hole, it rips apart and its matter is pulled inside the black hole.

NASA has divided black holes into three categories based on their size and mass

Primordial black holes with the size of an atom and mass of a mountain.

Stellar black holes are giant black holes formed from dead stars which can reach sizes of up to 20x that of our Sun.

Supermassive black holes are a million times bigger than the Sun.

While the top two categories have been discovered by space explorers, the last category is yet to be explored by humanity. A giant black hole roams around space at speeds of 5 million mph (8 million kph).

Gravity Changes

Every object in space possesses a gravitational pull. The gravitational pull is often expressed in the unit of G; the gravitational pull experienced by us on Earth is equivalent to one G. 

However, as one moves away from these scattered gravity-exerting bodies, their gravitational pull grows weaker and ultimately reaches a point where it is no longer to exert this gravitational force. Some may call gravity the universe’s glue that joins and keeps the universe from falling apart.

The Earth’s gravitational pull is highest at its center. Astronauts also experience this rather scary change in gravity upon their entry as well as an exit in and out of the realms of the earth.

It is this gravitational change that makes them feel weightless once they reach outer space, in the earth’s orbit. This change in gravity is also the reason behind several physical anomalies which the astronauts face during and post their space missions.

However, if there was no gravity on Earth, it would have been impossible for it to sustain life. Earth's gravity keeps its atmosphere intact and also prevents the water present on our planet from escaping, making life possible on Earth.

Changes In Time

Time is often measured in space differently. This difference in time is a result of gravitational changes over the extent of space. Although it may seem befuddling, time can be curved and its speed can be modulated with change in gravity and energy.

This phenomenon is called ‘time dilation'. In simpler words, it can be said that time slows down with the increase in gravitational pull. This means that time would be fastest at the center of the Earth. Let’s understand this with an example.

If a person lives in the International space station for his entire life, he or she will turn 50 just a fraction of a second slower than her chronological twin if the two were born at the same time. So if you want to live longer, you might consider spending your remaining life in the International Space Station.

Just imagine if you are thrown into outer space without any human contact. The crew of Apollo 13 went through a similar situation.

The crew, destined to land on the Moon, had to abort the mission after an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks of the lunar probe. The crew was completely cut off from their in-ground counterparts for hours but eventually made a successful landing after five days into the mission.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for creepy space facts then why not take a look at 10 facts about space, or 1961 space chimp name.