Space
288
The Sun is half-way through its life. It has been burning for
4.6 billion years, and will run out of fuel in 5 billion years’ time.
On a clear, moonless night, you can see
about 2,500 stars with the naked eye.Uranus was
discovered in 1781
and Neptune in 1846.
The gravity on the Moon’s surface
is just 17 per cent of that of Earth.
If you can jump 1 m (3 ft) high
on Earth, you would be able
to jump 6 m (19 ft)
on the Moon.The Moon
moves 3 cm
(1.25 in) away
from Earth
each year.
The Moon appears to be the same size as the Sun
from Earth because, although the Sun is 400 times wider
than the Moon, it is also 400 times further away.The Sun contains more than 99 per cent
of all the material in the Solar System.
Space rockets need to reach a speed of
40,000 km/h (25,000 mph) to escape the
gravitational pull of Earth. This is called
the escape velocity.Earth is the densest planet in the Solar
System, with a density of 5.5 g/cm^3 (3.2 oz/in^3 ).The clouds on Venus are made of
sulfuric acid. Its atmosphere is
96.5 per cent carbon dioxide.The Sun viewed from
Mars is two-thirds the
size of the Sun viewed
from Earth.In winter on Uranus, it is dark
for 21 Earth years.The largest volcano in the Solar System
is Olympus Mons on Mars. It is 648 km
(403 miles) wide and 24 km (15 miles) high.
Saturn would float in a giant bath,
as it is less dense than water.Pluto was classified as a planet from
its discovery in 1930 until 2006.More than 22,500 meteorites
that landed on Earth have been
collected and catalogued.
The same side of the Moon always faces Earth.
This is because the Moon rotates in the same
time as it takes to orbit – 27.3 days.The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest asteroid,
at 960 km (596 miles) across.Neptune is the windiest planet. Gusts there can
reach 2,160 km/h (1,340 mph).At a speed of 95 km/h (60 mph), it would take
you 177 years to drive to the Sun.The Great Red Spot visible
on the surface of Jupiter
is a storm, wider than two
Earths, that has been observed
raging for the past 340 years.
Astronauts are up to 5 cm (2 in) taller
in space because their spines expand
in the weightlessness.It takes 84 Earth years for Uranus to orbit the Sun.Jupiter is rotating so quickly that it bulges in the middle.The black hole at the
centre of the Milky
Way is as massive as
4.1 million Suns.
There is no wind or rain on
the Moon, so footprints
made by astronauts are
likely to remain there for
millions of years.
Jupiter
is 1,321
times the volume of
Earth. Mercury is just
0.05 times the
volume of Earth.
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