Space Facts for Kids
Out-of-this-world facts about the universe
NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in 2021, carries a device called MOXIE that can produce oxygen from Mars's carbon dioxide atmosphere. This technology could one day help future human explorers breathe on Mars.
The Big Bang happened about 13.8 billion years ago, when the entire universe exploded from an incredibly tiny, hot, dense point into the vast cosmos we see today. In the first second, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light.
Jupiter has at least 95 known moons — the most of any planet in our solar system. Four of them, discovered by Galileo in 1610, are large enough to see with binoculars from Earth on a clear night.
While space is mostly silent, sound waves can travel through plasma in space — the superheated gas found in stars and solar wind. In fact, the Sun produces sound waves, though humans would never be able to hear them.
The sky on Mars appears pink or butterscotch-colored during the day, not blue like Earth's sky. This is because tiny reddish dust particles in Mars's thin atmosphere scatter sunlight differently. At sunrise and sunset, the Martian sky can turn blue.
NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars used its own science instruments to play 'Happy Birthday to You' on its first Mars anniversary — making it the first music ever performed on another planet. It used its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to do it.
In 2015, scientists detected gravitational waves for the very first time — ripples in the fabric of spacetime created by two black holes colliding 1.3 billion light-years away. Einstein had predicted these waves exactly 100 years earlier.
Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect that makes its surface the hottest of any planet in our solar system — hot enough to melt lead! Average surface temperatures reach 900°F (465°C), even though Venus is not the closest planet to the Sun.
Space tourism is becoming a reality! Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have already sent private civilians to space. In 2021, SpaceX launched the Inspiration4 mission — the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight in history, with no professional astronauts onboard.
Halley's Comet is the most famous comet and returns to the inner solar system about every 75-76 years. The last time it was visible from Earth was 1986, and it will return in 2061. It has been observed and recorded since at least 240 BC.