× HISTORY FACTS IMPORTANT MINORITIES IN HISTORY

Facts About Space and Space Travel

image of the Sun and how many Earths could fit in it

One million Earths could fit inside the Sun and the Sun is considered an average-size star.

gif of venus rotating

A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. It rotates so slowly that it completes a full orbit around the Sun before it finishes a single rotation on its axis.

image of an astronauts footprint

The footprints left by Apollo astronauts on the Moon will likely remain there for at least 10 million years. With no wind or weather, there's nothing to erode them.

image of an astronauts footprint

Space is completely silent. Sound requires molecules to travel through, and the vacuum of space has almost none, meaning explosions, rockets, and collisions out there are entirely soundless.

Myth or Fact

Hover over the images to see if they are myths or facts!

Click on the images to see if they are myths or facts!

MYTH!

It's one of the most repeated "facts" in history, but it's false. The wall is long but far too narrow to be seen from orbit with the naked eye — even astronauts who believed it before going to space confirmed they couldn't spot it.

image of the Great Wall of China from space

The Great Wall of China is visible from space.

FACT!

Scientists believe 55 Cancri e, a super-Earth about 40 light-years away, may have a surface and interior rich in diamond due to its extreme carbon composition and pressure conditions.

image of a diamond planet

A planet made largely of diamond likely exists.

FACT!

Because space is a vacuum, heat can only escape through radiation, which is slow. An unprotected human in sunlit space would actually overheat before the cold became an issue. The freezing scenario only applies in the shade, and even then it takes a long time.

image of a overheating car sign

You wouldn't instantly freeze in space,

you'd overheat first.

MYTH!

Black holes only pull in objects that cross their event horizon. If the Sun were magically replaced by a black hole of equal mass, Earth would continue orbiting it normally — the gravity would be the same.

gif of a blackhole sucking in a planet

Black holes suck everything in like a cosmic vacuum.