Space Facts for Kids
Out-of-this-world facts about the universe
Despite being the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter has the shortest day. It completes one full rotation in about 10 hours.
Astronauts on the International Space Station see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every single day as they orbit the Earth.
Even though Pluto is a dwarf planet, it has five known moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.
The nearest star to our Sun is Proxima Centauri, about 4.24 light-years away. Even the fastest spacecraft would take thousands of years to reach it.
Mars can have dust storms so enormous that they engulf the entire planet and last for months.
Some neutron stars, called pulsars, can spin over 700 times per second, which is faster than a kitchen blender.
On Venus, it rains sulphuric acid, but the rain evaporates before it ever reaches the ground because the surface is so hot.
The Oort Cloud is a distant shell of icy objects that marks the very edge of our solar system, extending nearly two light-years from the Sun.
Stars are born inside giant clouds of gas and dust called nebulae. Gravity pulls the material together until it becomes hot enough to start shining.
Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano in the solar system at about 22 kilometres high — nearly three times the height of Mount Everest.