Astronomy Facts & Trivia
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Earth is the only planet not named after a Roman or Greek god. Sciensational.comSubmitted by: Jacob - Ohio, Unites States.
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The Sun is growing: In 5 billion years it will be 250 times bigger and close enough to swallow up the Earth. 
Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to us after the Sun. 
The star Epsilon Aurigae dims every 27 years due to a mysterious dark object eclipsing it periodically. 
The 'Great Red Spot' - a storm on Jupiter that has been going on for 300 years - is so big that dozens of Earths would fit into it. 
A supermassive blackhole is believed to be present in the centre of nearly every galaxy, including our own Milky Way. 
On Mercury during the day, the Sun rises, stops, about-turns and eventually sets where it rose. 
Everything moves: Planets move within the Solar System, which moves within Milky Way Galaxy, which moves within The Local Group of Galaxies, which moves towards Virgo Cluster. 
Venus and Uranus are the only planets that rotate clockwise (retrograde rotation.) 
All 27 of Uranus moons are named after William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope characters. 
With 63 moons, Jupiter has the largest number of moons. 
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are made up of just gas with no solid surface to land on. 
The temperature on Mercury varies so extremely that it will rise up to 430C during the day and drop as low as -140C at night. 
The largest known star Canis Majoris is so big that if our Sun were a ball 117cm (46in) wide, Canis Majoris would be 2.25 kilometers (1.3 miles) wide. 
The Pistol Star is the most luminous star known - 10 million times the power of the Sun and as big as the size of Earth's entire orbit around the Sun. 
Mars is red because its soil is very rusty (iron oxide.) 
Crux is the smallest of modern constellations, with only 4 bright stars. 
The largest of modern constellations is Hydra. 
Saturn's moon Titan has hundreds of times more oil and natural gas than all the known reserves on Earth.