Space Facts for Kids
Out-of-this-world facts about the universe
The large heart-shaped plain on Pluto, called Tombaugh Regio, is made of nitrogen and carbon monoxide ice that slowly churns and renews itself over millions of years.
The number of possible chess game sequences is estimated to exceed the number of atoms in the observable universe — a number known as the Shannon number.
In 2009, NASA confirmed that water ice exists on the Moon, trapped in permanently shadowed craters at the south pole — a discovery that could help future lunar missions.
Sunsets on Mars appear blue, not orange — the fine dust particles in the Martian atmosphere scatter blue light towards the observer while the rest of the sky looks pinkish-red.
In microgravity, bodily fluids shift towards the head, giving astronauts puffy faces and stuffy noses. Their legs also shrink because fluid drains away from them.
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion, is expected to explode as a supernova at some point in the next 100,000 years and will be briefly visible in daylight.
Saturn's moon Titan has rivers, lakes, and seas — but instead of water, they are filled with liquid methane and ethane at a temperature of minus 179 degrees Celsius.
Galaxies come in three main shapes: spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Our Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a rectangular bar of stars at its centre.
Apollo astronauts left laser-reflecting mirrors on the Moon's surface that scientists still bounce lasers off today to measure the exact distance to the Moon.
Mars has an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide, but it is only 1% as thick as Earth's atmosphere — too thin to protect you from radiation or keep you warm.