Followers

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Most Amazing Space Facts!

Welcome back to Galactic Astrodub! Today I bring you the natural wonders of space.

It's normal to think as space as boring, the planets in our solar system appear to be empty rocks or balls of gas; you'll find a whole lot of nothing before you get to the next star while in the meantime Hollywood is making it seem like there's monsters and aliens that probe. When the real space is actually much; much weirder.

1.  One of the universe biggest showoff actually used to be a star, it started off life as one of two parts of a binary star. The larger twin made like an atom bomb and supernova-ed. What was left behind was just a pulsating star (Pulsar) and a white dwarf. The dwarf stabilized just far enough away from its brother to lose matter to it but kept it's carbon core. Carbon is a ton of heat and pressure away from becoming a diamond. On Earth this happens naturally with underground pressure. In this particular spot in space the conditions were just right for the entire interior of the former star to harden, crystallize and turn into a planet sized gem.

2. Scientists have found a huge pool of water floating freely out in the cosmos. This massive reservoir of floating space water vapor is the biggest collection of water in our galaxy. It's 100,000 times larger than the sun and holds 140 trillion times more water than all of our oceans combined.

3. For a while scientists have known that lightning isn't unique to Earth because they've observed lightning on Mars and Saturn. What they didn't know is that lightning can hit anywhere in space with a force equal to a trillion lightning bolts. Imagine a bolt of lightning 50% longer than the milky way galaxy.

4. One of the very first lessons you learned about the cosmos in school was that the sun is hot. The surface of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and several thousand times hotter at the core. Recently scientists discovered that not every sun is hot. They found one that is 20 degrees hotter than a cup of coffee and even weirder they found one that is only 80 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning we could land on it in space helmet and shorts. It's known as a brown dwarf and these little guys begin their lives like a normal star but lack the mass to undergo hydrogen fusion, which releases energy from a star in the form of heat.


5. One of the most difficult parts about space is grasping the sense of scale since it really is so unique we see something that size in its entirety. Our sun is 109 times larger than earth and if you gathered all the mass in our solar system; the sun would still contain 99% of that mass. Now imagine a star that is as big compared to the sun as the sun is to the Earth. It is almost impossible to show the scale because the solar system wouldn't even take up a pixel next to this sun. VY Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant roughly 1.7 billion miles in diameter which means it takes eight hours for its own light to travel from one side to the other. It's also a million times brighter than our sun and it's so far away that scientists haven't had much time to study it.

6. We used to be taught that we were a form of time travelers. We're told that the sunlight all around us is from over eight minutes ago, and by glancing up at the sky we are viewing the past. Telescopes have continually progressed and with progression comes new data and images; and their getting stranger and stranger.  The random blob floating around space is made up of gas (we think). The galactic gas cluster spans across 200 million light years; and it took nearly 12 billion years to reach our retinas, meaning that it is essentially a chunk of whatever blew off from the big bang. Inside this gas bubble lays galaxies that are clumped together, four times closer than the rest of the universe.

I hope you all enjoyed the read!

32 comments:

  1. I knew most of these already. But rereading it really makes me feel small. :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It makes me big. Huge rager right now.

      Delete
  2. I used to intrigued about this space and physics then came my nutjob teacher then I lost interest , maybe when I need to teach kids. Interesting read, will you get offended if I call you geek?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahaha you truely say what's on your mind which I respect. I wouldn't call myself a geek but more of a hobbyist (skate/snowboarding/hip-hop/drinking/smoking/space/music). But you can call me whatever you like :P

      Delete
    2. Geek is a compliment. :)
      Where is the interesting spam comment?

      Delete
  3. Is there really just a floating body of water in space??? Oh my!! That's crazy!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder if you could scuba dive through that??

      Delete
    2. LOL Probably!! Are there fishies in there?? Now that would be real cool! lol

      Delete
  4. This is a cool blog post, thanks for the nice comment too! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. This was a fascinating post. I really enjoyed reading it. I had no idea there was a free-floating blob of water out there. I guess you learn something new every day. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I wonder what swimming through that huge pool of water in space feels like.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, did not know about the entire pool of water in space. I'll definitely have to share this with some folks

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good post, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a random, yet interesting group of facts! I think the coolest is the random pool of water floating around!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Now if only I could tow back to earth that planet size gem, I'll be the riches man.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice post I enjoyed all abut the space!
    Thanks by your comment, Im following you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow I wonder how all that water got there, that's amazing. Never knew any of this.

    ReplyDelete
  13. interesting space facts! I love space.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The sun isn't hot here, it's bloody freezing! I love space pictures, they're captivating. Interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
  15. wonder if we'll ever get to that water

    ReplyDelete
  16. Pretty interesting stuff here. I'm a bit dumb when it comes to space stuff so I enjoyed reading this. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh yes, I did enjoy the read. I love stuff to do with space. I was one of those kids who wanted to grow up to be an astronaut.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fact two is unbelievable. I've learned something today. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Always amazed by space facts. Just so much we don't know.

    ReplyDelete