Get ready to ride the celestial rollercoaster with these latest Space Facts for Kids! These crazy but true facts about space and universe expand your minds and give you a sneak peak into the unknown.
Sure to baffle everyone, these astounding random space facts will not only captivate your kids’ interests but also spark their imagination.
Sneak these lesser-known cool facts into your casual conversation to build their interest in space science and enhance their knowledge of the cosmos! We bet your budding astronauts will love them!
Space Facts For Kids
1. As of April 2024, Gaia-BH3 is the biggest stellar-mass black hole discovered in the Milky Way galaxy with a mass 33 times that of our Sun. Crazy but true!
But, Sagittarius A* is a super-massive black hole right at the centre of Milky Way and is 4.2 million times the mass of the Sun.
The difference between the above two black holes is that the one is stellar-mass black hole that is formed with the collapse of a bigger star when it runs out of fuel and the other is super-massive black hole that is formed with the merger of progressively larger black holes.
2. Amazing Moon Fact – The Moon is tidally locked with Earth that means it rotates on its axis at exactly the same rate at which it revolves or orbits around Earth.
This rotation of Moon is known as synchronous rotation that further implies that we on Earth always see the same side of the Moon. The other side that we never see from Earth is know as Far side of the Moon. Weird but True!
3. The Solar System was formed 4.6 billion years ago! On the other hand, the Universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old.
4. As of August 2024, the farthest object in the solar system is Farfarout.
It is a planetoid that is approximately 132 Astronomical Units (AU) away from the Sun. For perspective, 1 Au is nearly 150 million km!
5. Nearly 68% to 70% of the universe is made of Dark energy! This mysterious energy is responsible for expanding the universe at an accelerating rate.
6. Saturn, with its average density less than that of water, can float in a pool! The only challenge would be a finding a pool big enough to hold it!
7. Did you know Earth’s moon is bigger than Pluto?
Pluto has a radius of 1,185 km whereas our Moon has a radius of 1,737.5 km.
8. Vanguard 1 is the longest running satellite and has been orbiting Earth since 1958!
9. Titan, Saturn’s moon, has oily lakes on its surface…Weird but true!
10. International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, making 16 orbits in 24 hours around our planet!
It travels at a speed of 28,000 kilo-meters per hour and covers a distance, equivalent to making a trip to the moon and coming back, in 24 hours!
11. On Mercury, the Sun appears thrice as big as it appears on Earth! Crazy but true!
12. Space junk orbits the Earth at an astonishing speed of nearly 10 km per second!
Space junk is a space debris that is human-made and is left floating freely in space when it has solved its purpose and is no longer required. It could include debris of satellites, missiles, rockets and astronaut things.
13. Parker Solar Probe is the fastest space probe ever built! It reached an astounding speed of 400,000 miles per hour, making it the fastest man-made object.
14. UY Scuti is the biggest star known to mankind. With a radius of nearly 1700 times that of the Sun, it can engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and possibly Jupiter as well!
15. Did you know you would get stretched like spaghetti into a long, thin shape if you got too close to a black hole?
This phenomenon is called Spaghettification and was coined by Stephen Hawking in his book ‘A Brief History of Time’
16. Mars is home to the deepest canyons and highest mountains in the Solar System.
The highest mountain and volcano in the Solar System is Olympus Mons of Mars with the height of 24 kilometres, which is 2.5 times of the height of the Mt. Everest.
Related: Got an astronaut in making? Help her demystify space with our Space e-journal that packs in hands-on activities, crafts & fun worksheet to make learning hands-on!
17. There were no galaxies, stars or planets for the first 150 million years of the Big Bang!
18. India’s Chandrayaan 3 is the first robotic probe to land on the South Pole of the Moon!
19. New Horizons spacecraft, launched to explore dwarf planet Pluto, carried an ounce of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes – the American astronomer who discovered the planet. Crazy but true!
20. International Space Station hosts six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a bay window with a magnificent 360-degree view!
21. Space mining or asteroid mining could become a reality in the future with the asteroid belt boosting $700 quintillion worth of minerals! For the sake of simplicity, 1 quintillion = 1 billion billions – crazy but true!
Space Facts Printable
22. Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar system, thanks to its thick atmosphere which traps greenhouse gases!
23. It rains diamonds on Saturn & Jupiter! Believe it or not!
24. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere.
25. Water exists on Mars in frozen and liquid form, providing hope for future human colonisation and Mars terraforming.
Related: Check out Science Jokes for Kids to crack your kids (and you!) up!
26. It takes eight minutes and 19 seconds for light to travel from the Sun to Earth.
27. Olympus Mons is the tallest planetary mountain in the Solar system. With a height of about 22 kms, it is nearly 2.5 times taller than Mount Everest.
28. There is no sound in space!
29. Uranus has the cooler planetary atmosphere in the Solar system with temperature falling to -224 degree celsius.
30. Moon Fact – Footprints on the Moon can last for 100 million years! Weird but true…
Related: While you can’t really travel to the moon to make your footprints, you can certainly make prints and marks on Moon Sand.
31. Did you know If you could travel at the speed of light, you would never get any older?!
32. You cannot walk on Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn or Uranus!! These planets are mostly made of gases and don’t have a solid surface.
33. Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to venture into interstellar space and is also the farthest man-made object!
34. Contrary to what is popularly believed, Earth is not shaped like a perfect sphere! It bulges out at the equator looking more like a “squished ball”. Weird but true!
35. Did you know Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system? Its winds reach an astonishing speed of 1600 mph!
36. Age of most of the stars is between 1 and 10 billion years old.
37. Nearly 95% of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy!
They are called dark” because presently scientists can’t observe them directly
38. Comets are also known as ‘Dirty Snowballs’.
39. James Webb Telescope is the largest space telescope in the world with a primary mirror diameter of 6.5 meters! In contrast, the Hubble telescope has a primary mirror diameter of 2.4 meters.
40. Georges Lemaître, in 1927, came up with the theory explaining the formation of the Universe, which came to be known as the Big Bang Theory!
41. Valles Marineris on Mars, the red planet, is the largest canyon in the solar system! It is nearly nine times longer and four times deeper than the Grand Canyon – the biggest canyon on Earth.
42. Ceres is the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system that sits in the asteroid belt, which stretches between Mars and Jupiter!
43. Monster black holes can emit particles at a speed comparable to the speed of light!
44. Sunset on Mars appears blue!! That’s another random fact for kids that is sure to baffle them. It is primarily because of the fine dust in its atmosphere that scatters blue light more than any other colour.
45. All pulsars are neutron stars but not all neutron stars are pulsars!
46. The first woman to go in space was Valentina Tereshkova! A Soviet cosmonaut, she travelled to space in 1963 and spent more than 70 hours orbiting the Earth.
Related: Check out more Women Trailblazers in STEM who are inspiring girls across the world!
47. A neutron star can spin 600 times in one second.
48. Did you know one day on Venus is almost as long as 8 months on Earth?
49. The first living creatures intentionally sent into space were fruit flies!
50. Ham the Astrochimp was the first hominid in space!
51. It takes Jupiter only 10 hours to complete a rotation around its axis, making it the fastest spinning planet in the solar system.
Being the largest planet of the Solar System, it has a strong gravity to attract the most mass as it travels through space.
52. The Great Red Spot of Jupiter is a giant storm that has been raging for hundreds of years! It is big enough to fit three Earths inside it.
53. Venus is the only planet that spins clockwise! It spins backwards relative to the direction it travels around the Sun.
54. Solar system is home to five dwarf planets – Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris!
55. It takes the Sun 230 to 250 million Earth years to orbit the Milky Way.
56. Here is another less known interesting fact about the sun – Sun does not have a solid surface…It is a massive ball of plasma!
57. Did you know that the Sun’s magnetic poles switch every 11 years? This means the Sun’s North Pole becomes the South Pole and South Pole becomes North Pole. Crazy but true!
58. There are more stars in space than there are grains of sand on a beach! Strange but true…
59. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first man in outer space.
60. Jupiter is nearly 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets combined in the Solar system!
61. Did you know Pluto got its name from an 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burney of Oxford?
62. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the Earth. This tiny, red dwarf star is located a mere 4.24 light-years (or 39.9 trillion kms) away from us, making it the closest known star to our solar system. Just for the sake of comparison, the Sun is around 150 million kms away from us.
63. The closest star system, Alpha Centauri is nearly 4.2 light years away.
64. The Sun is a yellow dwarf star and nearly 4.5 billion years old!
65. Applesauce was the first food eaten in space by astronauts.
66. Chang’e 4 was the first probe to land on the dark side of the moon, also called the far side, in 2018!
67. Sun rises in the west and sets in the east on planet Venus!
68. NASA’s NEAR(Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Shoemaker was the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
It landed on asteroid Eros on February 12, 2001.
69. Venus was the first planet to be visited by a spacecraft!
NASA’s Mariner 2 flew By the planet in 1962.
70. Moon takes the same amount of time, 27.3 days, to complete one rotation on its axis as well as a revolution around the Earth.
71. The biggest comet orbiting the Solar system is Comet C/2014 UN271 or Bernardinelli-Bernstein with a nucleus measuring nearly 140km wide!
72. Did you know every planet in the solar system has been smashed by asteroids at some point in time!
73. One gigayear is 1,000,000,000 years!
74. The observable universe is believed to be 92 billion light-years across!
75. Mercury is the fastest orbiting planet in the Solar system and takes a mere 88 Earth days to complete its orbit.
76. Apophis, also known as “God of Chaos”, a near-earth asteroid with the diameter of 370 meters (1210 ft) is projected to pass within 30,000 miles (48,300 kilometers) of Earth in April 2029. This will provide a rare opportunity to view the asteroid from Earth with unaided eye!
FAQs
1. Apophis, also known as “God of Chaos”, a near-earth asteroid has diameter of 370 meters (1210 ft).
2. As of August 2024, the farthest object in the solar system is Farfarout.
3. Applesauce was the first food eaten in space by astronauts.
4. It takes the Sun 230 to 250 million Earth years to orbit the Milky Way.
5. Nearly 95% of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy!
