Space a mystery

​What is Space?

​Space holds many secrets. It contains places where human beings can be stretched into spaghetti shapes, or boiled, or frozen solid: that's why astronauts wear protective clothing in space.

​Rare facts about Space

​Until about 30 years ago, astronomers thought that the universe followed the same rules- it was entirely baryonic matter. Over a last few decades, however, scientists have found that on 5% of the universe is composed of baryonic matter- and they can't even detect the other 95%.

​Mercury

​It was a thin atmosphere, and it doesn't have any Moons. Mercury likes to keep things simple. Mercury spins slowly compared to the Earth, so one day lasts a long time. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation.

​Venus

​As Venus is the brightest object in the night sky, it is bright enough to cast shadows on the surface of the Earth. Only to other celestial objects are capable of this: the Sun and the Moon. However, a very good eyesight is needed to see these Venusian shadows.

​Earth

​Earth has never been perfectly round. The planet bulges around the equator by an extra 0.3% as a result as a fact that it rotates about it's axis. Earth's diameter from the North Pole to South Pole is 12,714 km (7,900) miles, while through the equator it is 12,756 km (7,926) miles.

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​Mars

​Mars was formed at the same time, as the rest of the Solar System from a large spinning disk of gas and dust. Astronomers think all this happened about 4.6 billion years ago! So Mars is about 4.6 billion years old.

​Jupiter

​Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar System. It is similar to a star, but it never got big enough to start burning. Jupiter is covered in swirling cloud stripes. It has big stripes like the Great Red Spot, which has been on for hundreds of years.

​Saturn

​Jupiter is the 5th planet from the Sun and is the largest planet in the Solar System-more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Jupiter's stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.

​Uranus

​The upper layer of Uranus is made up of hydrogen and helium, an icy mantle which surrounds it's rocks and iron core. It also has an upper atmosphere of water, ammonia and methane ice crystals.