Space facts are always interesting to learn!

As time goes by, technological advancements have seen us learn more facts about space in the past century than in all time before that.

We’ve literally searched the universe for the most amazing space facts, including facts about the planets in our solar system, moons, the Milky Way, and beyond! We’re pretty sure #100 will make you smile!


#51 The closest galaxy to us is the Andromeda Galaxy – it’s estimated at 2.5 million light-years away.


Before the discovery of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud was believed to be the closest galaxy to us.

#52 The first Supernovae observed outside of our own galaxy was in

This Supernovae was called the S Andromedae, located in the Andromeda galaxy.

This was observed by Ernst Hartwig in Estonia and was only made possible due to the recent invention of the telescope.

#53 The first ever black hole photographed is 3 million times the size of Earth.

The photo was released in April 2019 and shows a halo of dust and gas 310 million trillion miles from Earth.

It was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of eight linked telescopes, and was also captured due to the algorithm of programr Katie Bouman.

#54 The distance between the Sun & Earth is defined as an Astronomical Unit.


An Astronomical Unit (AU) equates to roughly 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.

#55 The second man on the moon was Buzz Aldrin. “Moon” was Aldrin’s mother’s maiden name.


She was born as Marion Moon and later married Edwin Eugene Aldrin.

#56 Buzz Aldrin’s birth name was Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.


He got the nickname “Buzz” from his sister’s mispronunciation of the word “brother”, which became “buzzer”.

In 1988, he legally changed his first name to “Buzz”.

#57 On Venus, it snows metal and rains sulfuric acid.


This is because Venus is a scorching planet choked with sulfuric acid, which causes the planet’s metals to become gas and then liquid in the atmosphere, before raining down to the ground after the freezing temperatures turn it into a solid.

#58 The Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft that visited Mercury in 1974.


It was launched at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 1973, and flew by Venus 3 months later. It then crossed into Mercury’s orbit managing to photograph 45% of Mercury’s surface.

The second spacecraft to visit Mercury was the “Messenger”, it completed mapping of 100% of Mercury’s surface in 2013.

#59 Space is completely silent.


This is because there is no air in space, and air is needed to carry the sound vibrations.

So if you shouted to someone next to you in space they wouldn’t be able to hear you. How’s that for a fun space fact!?

#60 Coca-Cola was the first commercial soft drink that was ever consumed in space.


The first food ever eaten in space was applesauce and was eaten by John Glenn in space during the Friendship 7 mission in 1962.

#61 Astronauts can grow approximately two inches (5 cm) in height when in space.


This is due to the lack of gravity in space causes the discs between the vertebrae to expand a little.

However, this extra height is lost when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and being subjected to the Earth’s gravity again.

#62 The Kuiper Belt is a region of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune.


The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy bodies and is where Pluto is located.

#63 The first woman in space was a Russian called Valentina Tereshkova.


She launched into both history and space during the Vostok 6 mission on June 16th, 1963.

She spent almost three days in space and orbited the Earth 48 times in her space capsule before returning to Earth.

#64 If Saturn’s rings were 3 feet long, they would be 10,000 times thinner than a razorblade.


The rings around Saturn are so thin because they are made up of pieces of dusty water ice ranging in size from dust grains to boulders.

#65 The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.


Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 15,000 scientific papers. Those papers have been cited in other papers 738,000 times.

#66 The first artificial satellite in space was called “Sputnik”.


It was launched by the Soviet Union into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4th October 1957.

#67 Exoplanets are planets that orbit around other stars.


All of the planets in our solar system orbit around the Sun. But what about other solar systems?

In 2009, NASA launched a spacecraft called Kepler to look for exoplanets, and has discovered thousands since its launch.

#68 The center of the Milky Way smells like rum & tastes like raspberries.


This was discovered by the IRAM radio telescope zeroed in on a gas cloud called Sagittarius B2 at the center of the our galaxy.

The IRAM detected a chemical called ethyl formate which gives rum its distinct smell and raspberries their distinct flavor.

#69 Our moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.6 inch (4 cm) per year!


Scientists do believe that eventually the Moon will move out of the field of Earth’s gravity; however this won’t happen for billions of years to come.

#70 Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld, not the Disney Dog.


The name for the planet was suggested by Venetia Burney, an eleven-year old British schoolgirl, to the planet’s discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.

#71 Spacesuit helmets have a Velcro patch, to help astronauts itch.


This is the Velcro patch’s one and only purpose.

#72 The ISS is visible to more than 90% of the Earth’s population.


When you see the International Space Station (ISS) in the night sky it appears as a fast-moving star crossing from horizon to horizon.

#73 Saturn is the only planet that could float in water.


Although Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system, it is also the lightest planet.

Saturn could float in water because it is mostly made of gas – although the real fact here is that you would need a giant bath tub!

#74 Asteroids are the byproducts of formations in the solar system, more than 4 billion years ago.


The birth of Jupiter in our solar system prevented any planetary bodies forming between Mars and Jupiter, causing the small objects that were there to collide with each other and fragment into asteroids.

#75 Astronauts can’t burp in space.


This is because the lack of gravity in space means the air in astronaut’s stomach doesn’t separate and rise up from ingested food.

To Be Continued...