Space is the final frontier it is a vast and mysterious space that has fascinated us for centuries, but as much as we know about it, there are still many things that they have lied to us about. Let us look in this article at some of the biggest lies that have been told to us about space.
1. We all have this perception that space is just a place of untouched, pristine nature, but that's not entirely true. We've been spewing debris into space for decades, from old satellites to rocket parts.
- There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris orbiting Earth right now, causing all kinds of problems for future space missions.
- So if you plan to visit space anytime soon, watch where you go, as you never know what type of waste might be floating around you.
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2. Did you know that the sun is not yellow it is green? Well, it is like that. As you can see, scientists measure the temperature of stars through the spectrum of colors they emit. Cooler stars appear in red, while hotter stars appear in blue.
- Our sun emits most of its energy in wavelengths close to green, but because it emits other wavelengths as well, all of these colors blend and your eyes see this vibrant mixture of white.
- From the Earth, the sun appears yellow because our atmosphere scatters blue light very efficiently. If our star were yellow, the Earth would turn into a frozen rock and we would all become polar flies.
3. In addition, the sun is not burning. It is a large ball of gas consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium. It is like a giant nuclear reactor, where hydrogen atoms are constantly fusing to form helium inside its nucleus. This process releases huge amounts of energy, which is why the sun is so hot.
4. Speaking of things catching fire, explosions in space are not real. Apologies to Star Wars fans. A spaceship cannot explode because there is no air in space. No air means there is no oxygen, and no oxygen means there is no fire.
5. Now you might also think that there are too many stars in the night sky to count them but in reality, you can do that according to the Yale University Catalog of Bright Stars there are 9,110 stars that you can see from Earth with the naked eye so in theory you can count them but I wouldn't be surprised if you got it wrong count.
6. If you're worried about flying through the asteroid belt, don't worry, although it contains trillions of space rocks that range in size from space dust to a quarter the size of the moon, they are very far from us.
- The width of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is 225 million kilometers, which is equivalent to one and a half times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
- This spreads space rocks thousands of miles away, making it almost impossible for a spacecraft to collide with them.
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7. You will freeze instantly in space if you are without a space suit. No, you will not turn into ice immediately. It will take a little longer than that because heat and cold do not move very quickly in the vacuum of space.
- But unfortunately for you, there is a bigger problem. You will not be able to breathe after only 15 seconds.
- Your brain will not receive a sufficient amount of oxygen from your blood, and you will lose consciousness, and then after only two minutes, the end will be for the rest of your body’s organs.
- So in short, if you find yourself playing the role of an astronaut without a space suit, you will finish the game very fast.
8. Did you know that there is no temperature in space at all because the temperature is determined by the speed at which the molecules move and the amount of energy in them? In the true vacuum of space, there are no particles to move, which makes it a lower temperature.
Of course, some parts of space are really hot, such as the areas surrounding the stars, but the farther away you are from the stars, the more the particles are separated, which makes those areas of space very cold.
9. The number nine is the shape of our planet. No, it is not flat, but it is not completely spherical either. Yes, it bulges at the equator due to the impulsive rotation of our planet. It is as if the Earth is doing its little dance. Because of this bulge, launching spaceships from the equator is much easier than launching them from Bipolar.
10. Now when it comes to sound in space, it is a bit difficult. You may think that no one can hear your screams, but this is not entirely accurate. The truth is that sound needs something to travel through, such as air or water. In space, these things are widely separated.
- So all those epic space battles and galactic explosions will be completely silent.
- However, some places in space contain enough particles for sound to travel through. For example, you can hear the sound of the black hole located at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster.
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11. There is another myth about the lack of gravity. This does not make sense. There is still some gravity around the International Space Station, about 90% of the gravity we feel on Earth, but astronauts can float because they are basically free-falling around the planet.
- Let's be real. The Hollywood version of space travel is not real. Orbits certainly exist, but different altitudes mean different speeds.
- So moving from one orbit to another is not just a walk in the park. You cannot simply push yourself in the right direction and hope for a good result. Rather, you have to consider those orbital speeds.
12. In 1976, NASA's Viking spacecraft took a picture of a strange rock formation on Mars that looked like a suspiciously human face. Some people claimed it must be evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life on the red planet.
- But NASA had a different opinion. According to the space agency, the face was nothing more than a group of rocks accumulated in such a way that the shadows they cast created an illusion of the facial features.
- It turned out that it was just an ordinary hill that attracted a lot of lights for its strange formation.
13. The solar system is fixed in place. This is a big lie, as it moves through space at a speed of 225 kilometers per second, which means that it moves through the universe faster than a cheetah chasing its prey. It takes the solar system 230 million years to complete its full orbit around the Milky Way. It's a good thing you don't get a speeding ticket because that would be an astronomical fine.
14. Without the sun, the planets would be very cold. We are talking about temperatures as low as 270 degrees Celsius below zero, but with the presence of the sun, the planets enjoy temperatures more suitable for living. Naturally, the composition of the planets is not equal.
- Mercury, for example, is closest to the sun, while Venus is farther away, but it somehow manages to be hotter than Mercury.
- Distance from the sun is not the only factor that affects the temperature of the planet. Other things, such as the size of the planet and its reflectivity, also play a role.
- Therefore, the fact that Mercury is the hottest planet in our solar system is an incorrect assumption. Just because it is the closest to the sun does not mean that it is the hottest.
Although we have been deceived in some ways, this does not diminish the wonder of space. It is still a vast, beautiful, and wonderful part of the universe, and there is still a lot that we have yet to discover. Who knows, maybe one day we will discover little green-skinned fellows out there, or... We will find something even more amazing and until then we just have to keep dreaming and exploring.
