What is your favourite space fact/s to pass on to others?

I often find myself out in the backyard staring at the night sky with my kids, they find the whole subject fascinating, as do i.

However i'm no expert, therefore i pass on a few bits of info here and there from what i've read here and in books.

I'm after either basic facts, or amazing ones that can captivate them and their imaginations. Even things like the light you see from the stars actually being many years old, is fascinating and unheard of to many people.

I like the thought that one day my kids can be sat around a camp fire with thier mates, or thier own kids and say, "Hey, look up there....did you know that......*insert your fact here*.

Like i say, i'm a total amateur so anything will be a help. I will of course being Googling info too, but i like the way the members here think, so i thought i'd pick your brains.

Thank you.

CX.

At the center of almost every galaxy is a super-massive black-hole weighing in at over 4 million times as much as our sun.

:" Ever heard of a process called cold welding? It’s a process when two metals are stuck together in space. Two pieces of metal without coating on them will then begin to form as one. It’s not a big problem to space stations because their already coated with material from Earth.
Did you know the sound of the sunspots can sing? Scientists believe that sunspot activity might be the reason for the beautiful sound of stringed violins. Antonio Stradivari, a famous violin maker, made the most special voilin ever in his life and it was the most beautiful sound that everyone ever heard. And the sunspots—they sound 3 times better"

scienceray.com...

and also

spaceplace.nasa.gov...

space is awesome , but its secrets are even greater !

Space has been defined as a vacum that is expanding.....

I sometimes share details about how far away certain objects are, telling them how long it would take to get there at the speed of light.

I tell my kids we are looking out into the past, because in many cases the light that is reaching us is very, very old; it took a looooong time to get here.

I explain the reason why stars scintillate. I always point out Sirius because it scintillates so brightly.

I tell them details about certain objects in the sky, for example, I might tell them the size of Betelgeuse compared to our own sun, or the fact that it is expected to go nova any time now, possibly in their lifetimes.

I point out the planets and I tell them about the probes and/or rovers we have sent there and what they found.

Not too long ago I had my kids look through binoculars at Jupiter; we could see three of its moons!

Sometimes I explain alternate theories to my kids, such as the sun being electric, time behaving differently than we think, or modern ideas of redshift being incorrect.

I started doing this at a very young age, before they could comprehend it. Now they are 13 and 11, and they "get" it more these days.

I would suggest investing in a telescope. You can get a nice one for pretty cheap. I have a 99$ Celestron Powerseeker 114AZ. You can easily observe Saturn and her rings and Jupiter's bands and many moons. As well as several other awesome objects in the sky.

1-Space Is not absolute vacuum.
2-Our Sun is a medium-sized star.
3-On January 19, 2011 there were 1183 potentially hazardous asteroids(source: Spaceweather)
4-Jupiter Has 63 Moons(that have been discovered to this date)
5-The Oldest star on our galaxy is aprox. 13.2 billion years old.

ill post more on the future

One of my most favorite facts has to do with the pleaides, I tend to throw it out when people start talking about the "pleadians" and ancient alien star systems. The star system is very young (around 100 million years) and is unable to sustain life. Its believed the system will disapate/disappear in around 250 million years from now.
I find it funny some people would rather beleive in jelly moulds and forged/hoaxed photos about alien vistors from this system than the actual facts.

Seven of those "satellites" you see moving are actually SR-71's that went too high.
Sorry, "geek-conspiracy-military-secret" moment.

Wow! So many great ones....thank you very much indeed.

A telescope is on the cards, just want to get the right one. I mean i don't want waste money on a poor quality one.

CX.

Originally posted by beezzer
Seven of those "satellites" you see moving are actually SR-71's that went too high.
Sorry, "geek-conspiracy-military-secret" moment.

A sr-71 on LEO? wow,thats one hell of an engine(two,actually)

Originally posted by Dumbass
Cake

Yeah,no. you are not getting stars for that.

reply to post by jpsdasnake


What I heard is, they bumped, when trying to achieve highest altitude for a jet. Stratophere levels or something of the sort.

reply to post by beezzer


to orbit earth on at least LEO,you need high speed(no,mach 3 is not enought) and high altitude(no,80 thousand feet is not enought).

Originally posted by CX
Wow! So many great ones....thank you very much indeed.

A telescope is on the cards, just want to get the right one. I mean i don't want waste money on a poor quality one.

CX.

I recomend a high aperture dobsonian,nothing too fancy,like motorized equatorial mount,if you are not into astrophotography.

reply to post by jpsdasnake

Then what was told to me was wrong.



Sorry, 'bout that. (kicks foot and wishes silly people would stop fibbing to him)

Fun space facts


Nasa spent a few million dollars developing a pen that can write in space.. The Soviets used a pencil.

Recently we discovered that our Solar system was not origionally part of the Milkyway Galaxy. We were a member of a much smaller galaxy that was and still is being absorbed into the Milkyway.

The origional V mini movies (80's) was adapted from a novel written in the 30s that put forth the scenario of the US becoming a fascist state. The movie people turned it down, so it was rewritten as a Sci Fi movie. In that movie, the V's are reptilian from the Sirus star system, which intrestingly enough mirrors current thoeries put forward about our History.

During the cold war the Soviets actually got the blueprints for our Space shuttle and made their own. It only flew once.

Voyager 1, if sent to the closest Star system to ours, would take over 73k years to get there. If it could travel at the speed of light, it would take a little more than 4 years to get there.

Patience is a virtue.... Taco is a noun.

Size matters


Venus is the only plane in our Solar System whose rotation is clockwise.

The moon is actually moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year - In about 50k years the moon will be able to break away from the gravitational pull of the Earth.

Jupiter's moon Ganymede, is larger than the planet Mercury

There are more stars in this universe than grains of sand on this planet!

Makes you think.

P&L

reply to post by beezzer


yeah its ok...plus the sr-71 is larger than most satellites,so if there where any on LEO,it would be easily tracked by earth observers.