Astronomy Amazing Facts

>The planet Pluto is so far away from Earth that the beam of torch, travelling at the speed of light, would take about five hours to get there

>Scientist believe that much of the universe may be made of something call 'dark matter'. This hidden mass may be a substance that people have never before encountered.

>Unlike galaxies, constellations are group of stars. People used to imagine connecting the stars to make pictures in the night sky. Most constellations are named after animals ang mythological figures. They still help astronomers and navigators locate certain stars.

>After our own Sun, the nearest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri. It is 4.3 light-years away, or almost 1.3 billion kilometres from Earth

>Scientist have found three planets orbiting the star Upsilon Andromedae, a star much like our Sun. Some think this means there could be life on one of the planets.

>Here's a surprise: not all asteroids are in outer space! Starfish are also called asteroids. The name that these two very different things share means 'starlike'.

>American author Mark Twain, who wrote Tom Sawyer, was born in 1835 on a day when Halley's Comet could be seen in the sky. Just as he predicted, he died when Halley's Comet was again seen in the sky. 1910.

> The Sun's temperature on the surface is about 5,537 to 6,093 degree celcious. That's 100 time hotther that a really hot day on Earth!

>It's not surprising that Mercury was named after the speedy messenger of the fods. The planet travels at an incredible 48 kilometres per second.

>Some scientish think that an unusual positioning of the planets Venus and Jupiter may have been the bright Star of Betlehem reported at the same time of Jesus Christ's birth.

>Since there's no wind or water on the Moon, the astronauts' footprints could still be there in 10 million years.

>The reason Mars appears red is that the planet's soil contains a lot of rusted iron.

>Jupiter has more than 50 known moons and Earth has only 1. But that seems fair because Jupiter is 1,500 times bigger than Earth.

>Saturn is more than ten times the size of Earth. But the planet is so light that it could float on an ocean of water.

>Between Uranus and Saturn lies Chiron, an objects first considered to be an asteroid, then reclassified as a comet. It's name reflects its confused identity: Chiron was a centaur - a half man, half horse iin Greek mythology.

>Neptune has a shorter day than Earth. So why is Neptune's year so much longer than ours?
{Hint: Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, and Earth is only the third.}

>It's more than just a little chilly on Neptune. The average temperature is -225 degree celcius. By comparison, Antartice - the coldest place on Earth - has recorded a mere -90 degree celcius at it's coldest.

>Some scientists think it might be possible to travel through black holes to other parts of the universe, assuming you could somehow survive the crushing gravity.

>Other 'female first' in space include Valentina Tereshkova of Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), the very first woman in space (1963), and Mae Jemison, the first African American woman astronaut, aboard the space shuttle Endeavor (1992)

>In order to leave the Earth's gravity and visit a space station, you hace to travel at a speed of 11 kilometres per second.

>Because different planets have different gravities, an astronaut's weigh would change from planet to planet. For example, an astronaut weighing 75 kilos on Earth would weigh only 28 kilos on Mars but 177 kilos on Jupiter.