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Facts mined from the deepest regions of space

36 Celestial Bits of Trivia Which, When Witnessed by the Ancients, Were Thought to Be a Punishment for the Sins of Man

December 28, 2023

How far will we travel for the juiciest facts in the cosmos? Well, as we’ve learned on our intergalactic quest, the length of our journey can be measured in both distance and time. Because the celestial bodies we gaze upon are so far away that we see them as they were millions of years ago. Cue three dastardly sharp musical notes and an extreme close-up of our wide eyes!

36

Sky of Ghosts

SKY FULL OF GHOSTS CRACKED.COM In 1802, William Herschel discovered that a telescope is like a time machine. The sun's light takes just over 8 mins to reach us, so when we look at the sun, we see it as it was 8 mins ago. Не stated, Some stars are so far away that by the time their light reaches Earth, they are already dead. We see their light, but their bodies perished long ago. — Source

35

The Universe

THE UNIVERSE IS GETTING BIGGER, FASTER CRACKED.COM To continue that expansion thought... In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding. Then in 1998, the Hubble Telescope studied distant supernovas and found that, a long time ago, the universe was expanding slower than it is today. — Source

34

The Universe

REPULSIVE GRAVITY CRACKED.COM We always thought gravity sucked, but in most of the Universe, it blows. On a smaller scale, gravity keeps planets in orbit and our feet on the ground, but in 1998, astronomers found that dark energy's repulsive gravity pushes galaxies away from each other, accelerating cosmic expansion. — Source

33

95% OF THE UNIVERSE IS INVISIBLE CRACKED.COM Ordinary, observable matter like you, me, planets and stars make up a measly 5% of the universe (and, of that, only half has been spotted with telescopes). The other 95% of the universe is 68% invisible dark energy and 27% dark matter. — Source

32

Black Holes

A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE AT THE HEART OF EVERY GALAXY CRACKED.COM The light we see in galaxies doesn't come from its stars, but from heated matter swirling into a giant black hole up to 50 billion times the mass of the Sun. Almost every galaxy, including our Milky Way, has one. — Source

31

The Universe’s Temperature

IT STARTED HOT AND IT'S COOLING CRACKED.COM Going back to 1 second after the Big Bang, scientists predict the universe's temperature was 10 billion Kelvin, but after only a few minutes, it dropped to about 1 billion Kelvin. For reference, today's universe has an average temp of only 2.725 Kelvin. — Source

30

Venus

There's a permanent vortex constantly swirling over the South Pole of Venus. It rotates incredibly quickly - once every 44 hours. Which isn't so unusual, since Venus' atmosphere rotates 60 times faster than Venus. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Star Trek's Captain Kirk was named after the explorer of the Pacific, Captain Cook. CRACKED.COM The title of the pilot epi- sode was an homage to one of Cook's diary en- tries: ambition leads me ... farther than any other man has been be- fore me. — Source

28

A festival in Wisconsin is held to honor the Russian satellite, Sputnik. GRACKED.COM A piece of the first satel- lite in space, the Russian Sputnik, landed in Mani- towoc, Wisconsin upon re-entry and the towns- people created a festival in its honor. — Source

27

Venus flytraps were once thought to have been brought to Earth by meteors. CRACKED.COM Venus flytraps were believed to be an alien species because they seemed to grow in places where meteor- ites were found. — Source

26

The first woman in space was sent in a ship that wasn't programmed to descend Ground control was able to send and install a new program which allowed her to safely return. They also forgot to give her a toothbrush. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

We didn't always have the same North Star. Due to a slight wobble of the Earth's axis, the North Star changes. When humans were building the Pyramids, the star Thuban was used for Northern guidance. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Buzz Aldrin took communion on the moon The wafer and wine were the first food consumed on the moon's surface. Neil Armstrong respectfully watched but didn't comment on the Christian sacrement. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Pluto was a planet for less than one of its own years Pluto's orbit takes 248 Earth years. It was only considered a planet for 76 years. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Helium on the Moon

A helium balloon on the moon would plunge to the ground Without air to rise above, the helium might as well be lead. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Moon Litter

There are 96 bags of human waste on the moon. They were left behind by the six Apollo Missions. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

LONG DAYS, SHORT YEARS CRACKED COM A day is actually longer than a year on Venus. A Venusian trip around the sun is only 225 Earth days, but it takes 243 Earth days for it to make one full revolution, so that means 2 rounds of Christmas shopping happen every Monday. Hellish. — Source

19

MOST VOLCANOES CRACKED.COM You'd be tripping over them. With over 1600 known volcanoes, astronomers speculate up to 100,000 - far more than any other planet in the solar system. Venus' surface is dominated by 3,000 mile lava-borne canals and its largest volcano, Maat Mons, is almost the size of Mt. Everest. — Source

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18

BACKWARDS AND UPSIDE DOWN CRACKED.COM Venus constantly has its shirt tag out and on its chest. A massive collision with another celestial body tilted Venus so far off its axis that it's now upside down and rotating backwards. The sun rises in the west and sets in the east, and that's just confusing. — Source

17

HOTTEST PLANET GRACKED.COM Even though Venus is twice as far from the sun as Mercury, it is 62 degrees с hotter. The surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead, regularly hitting 870 degrees F (465 degrees C) making Venus the hottest planet in our Solar System. And those temps don't even drop at night! — Source

16

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CRACKED.COM Getting out of bed is hard enough. On Earth, the air presses down on us at 14.5 Ibs per square inch, but at 92 times the pressure on Venus, that's an extra 1,334 Ibs per square inch, so walking on Venus would feel like walking 1 km under the sea. — Source

15

Historical Pranks JUMPING TO EXPERIENCE LOWER GRAVITY On April 1, 1976, Sir Patrick Moore, an astronomer on BBC Radio 2, tricked people into believing that if they jumped at 9:47 a.m., they would feel the effects of Pluto and Jupiter aligning and temporarily reducing Earth's gravity. CRACKED — Source

14

EVERY SPARE INCH IS USED FOR STORAGE. FUEL, FOOD, PARTS, MED SUPPLIES... Those are the systems whose sharp corners you will continually be banging against every time you make a sudden movement. Designers can't throw in extra head room just to make you comfortable. Every extra bit of ship is going to cost somebody millions. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

IN MOVIES, SHIPS TOUR COLORFUL NEBULAE. BUT SPACE IS ALMOST ENTIREL Y EMPTY. You'll generally be looking out at nothing. Even if you stare right at one of the few sights, it'll never look like the cool colorful photos from the Hubble telescope. NASA adds those colors to depict types of atoms detected by different filters. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Astronauts

YOUR HEART WEAKENS IN SPACE. OVHD TIPO YOUR ONL Y REMEDY? CONSTANT EXERCISE. You have to exercise a good 2.5 hours a day, every day, as long as you're out there. You'll spend those hours strapped into one of the three exercise contraptions available, forever grinding in a tiny room that's filled with cables and presumably smells like jock straps. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

STEERING WHILE IN ORBIT IS CRAZY HARD. ACCELERATE? THAT RAISES YOUR ORBIT. To lower your orbit, you now need negative force from your rockets. But since you're getting closer to Earth, and gravity's growing, your kinetic energy actually increases, so you're likely to accelerate again. Confused? You should be. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

MEN MUST PEE USING A FUNNEL. WOMEN MUST PEE USING A CUP. Pee's converted into drinking water, because up there, every drop of liquid counts. The real trick is knowing when you need to go. When there's no gravity to push waste downward through you, your body becomes unreliable at giving you its regular cues. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

ROMANCE IS FORBIDDEN AMONG ASTRONAUTS. NASA SAYS COUPLES CAN'T SHARE A SHIP. The one exception was when the couple married right before launch, and it was too late to change plans. NASA knows the true power of love is its ability to make even brilliant people turn crazy. That simply can't be allowed to happen on a starship. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Space Farts

AN UNANTICIPATED THREAT SHOOK NASA IN THE 1960s. SPACE FARTS. Farts don't really go away in zero-G because there's no convection. Floating bubbles of turd-gas just hover like space mines. That's your future: Hordes of people spewing anal gases until the air turns brown. The inevitable purging fire will come as sweet relief. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Scientists didn't know the the length of a day on Saturn until 2019 It's 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds. It was difficult to figure out because the gas planet has no solid surface to follow its rotation and an unusual magnetic field. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

6

We don't know what Neil Armstrong took to the moon. His record for his personal property kit has never been made public. During his moon trip, he took an unscheduled visit to Little West crater, off-camera. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Pizza Hut delivered a pizza to space. Pizza-Hut para 2018 5 The company paid $1 million for the promotional gesture of sending pizza to the International Space Station. The pizza had salami instead of pepperoni due to the meat's shelf-life. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

4

The Inventor of the TV

The inventor of the TV was unimpressed by his invention until he watched the moon landing. His wife said, We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, 'Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.' Before then, he wasn't too sure. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

3

If NASA's funding stayed at Apollo levels, they were planning a manned mission to Mars by 1983 The Space Task Group planned to develop a lunar orbit station in 1978 and a lunar surface base in 1980. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

2

The planet Uranus was discovered before the continent of Antarctica. Antarctica was discovered in 1820, but Uranus was the first planet discovered via telescope in 1781. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Rogue planets (planets that don't rotate stars) could outnumber the stars in our galaxy They are hard for astronomers to spot as they don't emit light or much heat. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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