SOME UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT SPACE

SATURN WOULD FLOAT IN WATER

If you put Saturn in water, it would float. The density of Saturn is so low that if you put it in a giant glass of water it would float. The actual density of Saturn is 0.687g/cm³ while the density of water is 0.998g/cm³. At the equator Saturn has a radius of 60,268.4 KM.

CONSTANTLY MOVING GALAXY

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"] milky way galaxy[/caption]

Our galaxy- the Milky Way is spinning at a rate of 225 km/sec. in addition, the galaxy is travelling through space at the rate of 305 km/sec. this means that we travelling at a total speed of 530 kilometers (330 miles) per second. That means in one minute you are about 19 thousand kilometers away from where you were.

FAREWELL OLD FRIEND

The moon is drifting away from the earth. Every year the moon moves about 3.8 cm farther from the earth. This is caused due to the tidal effects. Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by 0.0002 seconds per day.

LIGHT HITTING THE EARTH

The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the sun 30,000 years ago. It spends most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and it just takes 8 minutes to reach us once it has left the sun. The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 Kelvin.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="342"] DIPPER[/caption]

BIG DIPPER IS NOT A CONSTELLATION

Many people consider the Big Dipper to be a constellation but, in fact, it is an asterism. An asterism is a pattern of stars in the sky which is not one of the official 88 constellations. They are also composed of stars which are not physically related to each other and can be vast distances apart.

URANUS- GEORGE’S STAR

When Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he was given the honor of naming it. He chose to name it Georgium Sidus (George’s Star) after his new patron, King George III (Mad King George).

Earth HAS AT LEAST 4 MOONS

Okay- that is not actually true- but it is very close. In 1986, Duncan Waldron discovered an asteroid (5 KM across) that is an ellipse orbit around the sun with a period of revolution virtually identical to that of Earth. For this reason the planetoid and the Earth to be following each other.

COLD WELDING IN SPACE

This may should unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form into one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesn’t happen on the Earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces of the metals.