Space Facts for Kids
Out-of-this-world facts about the universe
Scientists believe the Moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-sized object called Theia crashed into the early Earth. The collision blasted enormous amounts of material into orbit, which eventually clumped together to form the Moon.
Almost every element in your body — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron — was forged inside the core of a star and scattered across the universe when that star exploded as a supernova. As the astronomer Carl Sagan said, 'We are made of star stuff.'
The Space Shuttle traveled at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h) when in orbit. At that speed, it could fly from New York to Los Angeles in less than 10 minutes! The shuttle program flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011.
Jupiter acts like a giant gravitational shield for the inner solar system. Its enormous gravity deflects or captures many comets and asteroids that would otherwise be more likely to hit the inner planets. Some scientists call Jupiter Earth's 'cosmic bodyguard.'
Our solar system has only 8 official planets, but it contains at least 5 recognized dwarf planets — Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Ceres. Scientists believe there could be hundreds more dwarf planets yet to be discovered in the outer solar system.
The Sun sometimes releases enormous bubbles of plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which hurl billions of tons of charged particles into space at millions of miles per hour. If a large CME hits Earth directly, it can cause widespread power outages.
Mars has a canyon system called Valles Marineris that stretches over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) long — about ten times longer than the Grand Canyon and four times as deep. If placed on Earth, it would stretch across the entire continental United States.
After the first Moon landing in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were kept in quarantine for 21 days when they returned to Earth. NASA wanted to make absolutely sure they hadn't brought back any unknown lunar microorganisms.
All 27 known moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope — making them unique in the solar system. The four largest moons are called Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon.
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles — mostly protons — that travel through space at nearly the speed of light and bombard Earth constantly. They come from exploding stars and other violent cosmic events. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from most of them.