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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Outer Space

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Outer Space

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A planet made of diamonds? A 20-year winter season? Technology is making the great unknown more mysterious than ever. The more we learn, the less we know. The incredible discoveries help us understand the smallness of the planet we inhabit and the sheer magnitude of the universe. But more importantly, some of it is just plain cool. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about outer space.

Sources: Space.com, Science.NationalGeographic.com, TheOuterSpace.net, Wikipedia.org, NASA.gov

 

Birds.com
Birds.com

Birds can never be sent to space because they need gravity to swallow

Though birds defy gravity every day, they actually depend on it in order to swallow. The esophagus of a bird cannot contract, meaning it relies on gravity to shoot food down an essentially empty tunnel, which explains why birds lift their heads back while eating. Not that birds would make good astronauts anyway, but it’s a bummer to not even have the option.

NASA.gov
NASA.gov

The energy produced by the sun is equivalent to 100 nuclear bombs…every second

Everybody knows the sun is incredibly powerful, but trying to imagine the amount of energy produced — 100 Hiroshimas every second — is difficult. This is even more mind-boggling when you learn that the sun is also losing a billion kilograms every second due to solar winds. These are ejected from the surface of the sun due to the high energy and temperature.

Celestial-Alchemy.com
Celestial-Alchemy.com

Planet Mercury is actually a frigid tundra…sometimes

As Mercury has nearly no atmosphere, it lacks the gravitational pull to hold onto gases or heat. Therefore, the temperatures on the surface are entirely dependent on the sun. During the day, temperatures reach as high as 840 degrees Fahrenheit, but then they fall to as low at minus-280-degrees Fahrenheit. Try packing for a vacation with that kind of weather variation!

NASA.gov
NASA.gov

Footprints on the moon forever

Astronauts who have visited the moon have left a serious impression, in more ways than one. With no air or wind, the surface of the moon is stagnant, and footprints and other markings are likely to last forever. That means the imprint of that golfball hit 2,400 feet by Astronaut Alan Shepard is there to stay as well.

News.NationalGeographic.com
News.NationalGeographic.com

You are taller in outer space

Short of surgical leg bone extensions, it’s pretty difficult to grow when your body has decided it’s done. But in space, the lack of gravity elongates the spine, and astronauts have been known to grow up to two inches. Unfortunately, the height disappears upon returning to Earth and its pesky gravity, but you’ll at least be able to impress your fellow astronauts with your new vital statistics.

CaliforniaExaminer.net
CaliforniaExaminer.net

There is a planet made of diamonds

If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then Planet PSR J1719-1438 b is a girl’s best planet. It just wouldn’t fit as well in a song as the song made famous by Marilyn Monroe. Either way, this former star went through supernova stage and was left with a carbon core — the starting point of diamonds. The conditions in that area of space provided enough heat and pressure to compress the carbon, crystallizing it into a giant diamond. Now the next step is to tow it the 50-million light years back to Earth and hawk it off to Tiffany’s.

WallpapersWA.com
WallpapersWA.com

Lightning storms can happen in space

Lightning storms can be scary on Earth, but they’re a whole other story in space. Lightning strikes can occur on other planets and in the in the middle of space, with each one containing the force of 1 trillion regular (Earth-sized) bolts. This can be caused by black holes with strong magnetic fields that can generate absurd amounts of electricity.

Blog.KoldCast.tv
Blog.KoldCast.tv

Cold welding

In the vacuum of space without an atmosphere, there’s no need to crack out the blowtorch to meld some metals together. On Earth, a layer of oxidized material forms on surfaces, preventing them from joining without outside forces being applied. But in the vacuum of space, two clean, flat surfaces of similar metals will adhere together as if they’d been torched. This discovery has been used extensively in micro- and nano- technology.

AbsurdIntellectual.com
AbsurdIntellectual.com

Waste from space ships is freeze dried

If you’ve ever wondered where astronauts go to the bathroom, here is your answer. Spacecraft “toilets” are really just devices that suck away the waste from the user (which would otherwise get messy with the whole lack-of-gravity thing). Solid waste is then freeze dried and dumped from the craft into space, while liquids are saved and later disposed of upon returning to Earth.

UniverseToday.com
UniverseToday.com

Seasons last for 20 years on Uranus

Anybody who has complained about the length of winter here on Earth while slogging through three months of slush and snow would be in for a surprise upon visiting Uranus. During winter, the darkness lasts for 20 years, and similarly, the sun won’t set for 20 years during the summer. More typically, the sun rises and sets every nine hours during the autumn. Maybe that’s prime vacation season?