Astronomy Facts & Trivia
Earth is the only planet not named after a Roman or Greek god.
Interstellar space is not complete vacuum: there are a few hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter. If a pinhead-size piece of the Sun were placed on Earth, one would have to stand as far as 145 kilometers (90 miles) away to be safe. Sciensational.com |
The full moon always rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.
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The largest known star Canis Majoris is so big that if our Sun were a ball 117 centimeters in diameter, Canis Majoris would be 2.25 kilometers. 
Despite being closest to the sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet. The hottest planet is Venus (at 462 Celsius). 
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. 
The star "Lucy" in constellation Centaurus is actually a huge cosmic diamond of 10 billion trillion trillion carats. 
A neutron star has such density that a teaspoonful of its matter would weigh more than all the people on Earth.
Although it is closest to the Sun, Mercury has ice in its craters. 
Due to its size, Pluto's moon Charon is also considered to be a double dwarf planet (two planets orbiting each other), rather than a moon orbiting its planet. 
Jupiter is so big that twice the mass of the rest of our Solar System's planets combined would still not be enough to equal its mass. 
Made up of billions of pieces of ice, the average thickness of each of Saturn's seven giant rings only ranges from about 200 to 3000 meters. 
The deepest surface point on Mars is Hellas, about 3 km deep. 
Pluto is no longer considered a planet. It is now known as a "Dwarf Planet". 
About 1000 Earths would fit inside Jupiter - and the Sun could hold about 1000 Jupiters. 