A day on Venus is longer than its year
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to spin once on its axis but only about 225 Earth days to go around the Sun. It also spins backwards compared to most planets.
Read the fact →Space facts
Every fun fact in this category.
There are more stars than grains of sand on Earth
Astronomers estimate roughly 10^22 to 10^24 stars in the observable universe. Every beach and desert on Earth put together holds far fewer grains of sand.
Read the fact →The footprints on the Moon will last millions of years
The Moon has no wind, water or weather to wear them away. Apollo boot prints from 1969 are still crisp; only slow micrometeorite rain will eventually erase them.
Read the fact →Neutron stars are so dense a teaspoon would weigh a billion tonnes
A neutron star packs more mass than the Sun into a ball about 20 km across. Its surface gravity is around 100 billion times Earth’s.
Read the fact →Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach you
Light leaves the Sun’s surface and crosses 150 million km to Earth in roughly 8 minutes 20 seconds. The light you see from the Sun is always slightly old news.
Read the fact →It rains diamonds on Neptune and Uranus
Deep in their atmospheres, extreme pressure squeezes carbon from methane into diamond crystals, which sink slowly towards the core — a diamond rain, confirmed in lab experiments.
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