Space Facts for Kids
Out-of-this-world facts about the universe
The first spacewalk in history was performed by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965, and lasted only 12 minutes. He nearly didn't make it back inside the airlock — his spacesuit had inflated so much that he had to let out air to squeeze back in.
Wormholes are theoretical tunnels through space-time that could connect two distant regions of the universe like a shortcut. While Einstein's equations allow for their existence, no wormhole has ever been detected, and scientists debate whether they could ever be stable enough to travel through.
Saturn has a bizarre, persistent hexagonal-shaped storm at its north pole that is larger than two Earths across. This six-sided jet stream has been rotating for at least 40 years. Nothing else like it has been found on any other planet.
Early astronauts had to eat food squeezed from tubes or bite-sized cubes. Today, ISS astronauts enjoy over 200 different food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables delivered by cargo ships. They eat with forks and spoons, though liquids have to be drunk from sealed pouches.
Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun at 4.2 light-years away, has at least one exoplanet orbiting in its habitable zone, called Proxima b. While still very far away, this is the nearest known potentially habitable exoplanet to Earth.
A 'blue moon' is the term for the second full moon in a single calendar month, which happens about once every 2.5 years. Despite the name, blue moons don't actually appear blue — although after large volcanic eruptions, ash in the atmosphere can sometimes make the Moon look bluish.
Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe — some shine with the energy of a trillion suns. They are powered by supermassive black holes at the center of ancient galaxies that are consuming enormous amounts of matter. The brightest quasars can be seen 13 billion light-years away.
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is the most powerful rocket ever built, capable of producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — 15% more than the legendary Saturn V that took astronauts to the Moon. It's designed to carry humans back to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
The Sun loses about 1.5 million tons of mass every second through the solar wind — a constant stream of charged particles blowing into space. Despite this, the Sun is so enormous that it has barely changed in size over its 4.6-billion-year lifetime.
The Moon's gravity is responsible for Earth's ocean tides. As the Moon orbits Earth, its gravity pulls on the oceans, creating a bulge of water on the side of Earth facing the Moon. This results in high and low tides that occur about twice a day.