Wondrous Facts about Space

☼ Without the effect of Earth’s gravity, astronauts can lose up to 2% of their bone material each month!

☼ There are about 300 billion (300,000,000,000) stars in our galaxy.

☼ There are about 100 billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies in the known universe.

☼ There are more trees on Earth (around 3 trillion – 3,000,000,000,000) than stars in our galaxy (around 300 billion – 300,000,000,000).

☼ There are meteorites on your rooftop! They are very small though! These extraterrestrial dust particles (called micrometeorites) are about 400 microns in size. More than 100 billion micrometeorites are believed to fall to Earth each year.

☼ Gravity on the moon is a sixth of what it is on Earth. Someone who weighs 68 kg on this planet weighs only 11 kg on the Moon. If you could stand on Jupiter, you’d weigh more than twice as much.

☼ A day on Venus is longer than its year.

☼ Pluto takes around 248 Earth years to orbit the Sun.

☼ If you were to put Saturn in water, it would float.

☼ The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth! It spans more than 2,000 km and covers 350,000 km2 . It is the only living structure on Earth that is visible from space.