11 MORE Strange Things About Outer SpaceIf our last list of peculiar outer-space facts didn’t leave you feeling amazed, confused and humbly insignificant, just bear with us. There’s a good reason we all wanted to be astronauts growing up, and there’s an equally good reason why some of us crapped our pants at space camp. That’s because the wonder of outer space inspires both child-like curiosity and fearful veneration, both of which you’ll find in our hilarious retro SciFi series, “Space Hospital.” If you’d like to learn a little more about the final frontier than what that motley crew of Earthling misfits has to offer, check out this additional collection of bizarre and interesting space facts.1. Gamma-Ray BurstsThe brightest illuminations in the universe, these mysterious explosions occur at least once a day in space, and can last anywhere from a few milliseconds up to an hour. Produced on Earth only when a nuclear bomb explodes, short gamma-ray bursts can form in space when two neutron stars merge to form a black hole, and long GBRs occur when a very large star collapses and explodes as a supernova.2. Don’t Call Me a ConstellationContrary to popular belief, the Big Dipper is not a constellation at all, but an “asterism,” a small pattern of stars not part of the original 88 constellations (e.g., Orion, Aquarius, Leo, etc). Unlike constellations, which are internationally defined patterns of stars in relatively close proximity, asterisms can contain stars that are much farther apart and that actually belong to different constellations.3. Comet Tails Point Away From the SunA comet is an icy mass in the solar system that, as the sun warms it, displays a luminous cloud of particles around the nucleus and tail. Did you know that a comet’s tail always points away from the sun, no matter its direction, speed or trajectory? That’s because solar winds, which move faster than any comet, push the particles of a comet’s tail in the opposite direction of the sun.4. SilenceOn Earth, sound travels in waves that vibrate air molecules. But in the vacuum of space, where there is no air, sound does not exist. Imagine a Star Wars space battle without the whir of an X-Wing, the ominous roar of a TIE Fighter, and the distinctive blare of a blaster cannon. Sometimes we must excuse scientific inaccuracies in film in the name of awesome space battles. But for a rare example of a sci-fi classic that stays true to the silent-space phenomenon, check out Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.5. Snow On Mars?NASA has collected data that shows snow falling in the upper atmosphere of Mars. Though the snow vaporizes before it reaches the surface, scientists postulate that the snow may eventually reach the ground as winter approaches.6. Rust DamageMars’s red hue can be attributed to iron oxide, or rust. The soil on Mars is rich in iron, and its reaction with the planet’s atmosphere has made the surface appear red, just like rusty iron on Earth. That layer of red soil, though, is at its deepest point just a couple meters thick.7. Weight GainThe earth gains between several dozen and several hundred tons per day—about 10,000 to 100,000 tons per year—due to meteorites, meteoric dust and cometary dust. Though scientists evidently disagree on the exact amount of weight gain, they are certain that the Earth will not be shedding any tons in the foreseeable future. Don’t blame it all on our increasing human mass.8. Full Moon HeatThe sunlight reflected by a full moon actually plays a role in warming the earth’s atmosphere. Studies have shown that a full moon raises the temperature of Earth’s lower troposphere—the space from the Earth’s surface to 3.5 miles above it—by about .03 degrees Fahrenheit. One theory poses that the moon both reflects the sun’s infrared radiation and ejects its own radiation, thereby causing this seemingly minute but statistically significant gradual warming. When scientists study global climate change, they now take into account the phases of the moon as a variable affecting weather patterns.9. Shrinking HeartsAccording to astro-biological research, astronauts’ hearts shrink, grow stiff, and pump less blood in outer space. When an astronaut’s body is first exposed to microgravity, blood travels away from the lower body and toward the heart and head, enlarging the heart temporarily. When the body interprets this change as an increase in blood volume, thus expelling the excess fluid through urination, the heart shrinks in order to pump less blood. Once astronauts return to Earth, where the heart must pump blood against the force of gravity, they often experience dizziness and lightheadedness, and have difficulty concentrating.10. The Stradivarius and SunspotsAntonio Stradivari, the famous Italian violin maker from the 17th and 18th centuries, may have sunspots—or a lack thereof—to thank for his famously superb-sounding violins. In about a 70-year period during that time, known as the Maunder Minimum or Europe’s “The Little Ice Age”, decreased sunspot activity led to consistently lower temperatures on Earth. This cooler period saw slower tree growth, producing a rarely dense timber that made for optimal violin material. Today, a Stradivarius violin made in this “golden period” can be worth several million dollars.11. Bodily Exposure to Space DemystifiedThere are many myths about what happens to your body when it is exposed to the vacuum of space. And yes, the actual outcome is pretty grim. But not quite to the degree of eye-bulging, body-swelling and blood-boiling seen in Total Recall. Well, there is some of that, actually. Based on NASA experiments conducted in the 1960s to simulate the experience, it goes a little something like this: Upon exposure, your body undergoes a series of increasingly severe conditions over the course of about 90 seconds. First, gases expand in the lungs and digestive tract in reaction to the lack of external pressure. If you don’t immediately exhale upon exposure, bubbles of air will form in the circulatory system and could kill you. Then, because water converts to vapor in the absence of atmospheric pressure, the moisture in your mouth and eyes will boil and the moisture in your muscles and soft tissues will evaporate, causing swelling. After about ten seconds, brain asphyxiation will cause some dementia and the lungs will expel oxygen from the blood, quickly accelerating hypoxia and its common corollary, loss of vision. At this point, your mouth and nose will be freezing from the cooling of evaporation, your skin will be blue from cyanosis, and you’ll withstand a pretty nasty sunburn from UV rays, but the brain and heart will continue to function for about 90 seconds. Theoretically, administering pressurized oxygen before this 90-second threshold could make for a complete recovery with only minor injuries.
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If our last list of peculiar outer-space facts didn’t leave you feeling amazed
We all had to memorize that cute mnemonic solar system device in grade school that taught us the order of the planets. Some of us even had Milky Way placemats. But for most of us, the outer space education ended there. (Sorry guys: “Star Trek” and Star Wars don’t count.) Maybe that’s because space feels too distant to ever be relevant to our day-to-day routines. Or maybe it’s simply that the otherworldly element generally overwhelems us and bruises our intellectual egos.But maybe it’s time to start paying attention to space again. Hell, Lance Bass and Paris Hilton went there. How complicated can it be? As those who have kept in touch with the cosmos will tell you, space is one damn interesting place, chock-full of wacky phenomena. And you don’t even need to work for NASA to understand it. In fact, if you ever find yourself stranded in space like the rag-tag crew of Earthlings in our hilarious original retro SciFi series, “Space Hospital”, you might have a lot of fun getting to know the weird ins and outs of the final frontier. Here’s a collection of interesting and altogether weird space facts that you probably didn’t learn in school or even on TV. So sit back, strap in, and get ready to go where few normal men have gone before.1. QuasarsThese mysterious starlike objects shine from the outermost limits of the universe, helping scientists learn about the earliest stages of existence. We’ve since learned that a quasar is actually a black hole at the center of a huge, distant galaxy. Perhaps more interesting, quasars give off 1,000 times more energy than the entire Milky Way galaxy.2. Lightweight PlanetsYou may have learned that some planets in the solar system are gaseous, but did you know that Saturn, that blinged-out planet with all the rings, could float in water? The planet’s density is 0.687 g/cm3 versus water’s density of .998 g/cm3. So Saturn would make an awesome rubber ducky in the universe’s largest bathtub. If only we had a prodigal billionaire to help make that happen. Paging Richard Branson?3. Liquids in SpaceHere on Earth, liquids tend to flow downward. But in the zero-gravity vacuum of space, any liquid will shape itself into a sphere. It is surface tension, the same phenomenon that causes water to form as a horizontal surface on Earth, that causes liquids to form spheres in space. Maybe frat guys should start paying attention to this stuff. No doubt they could convince alumni benefactors to send a crew of bro-stronauts up to research a new generation of drinking games.4. Goodbye, MoonTidal effects cause the moon to move about 3.8 cm away from Earth every year. It’s a process called tidal acceleration, the aggregate of competing gravitational forces between a planet and its satellite. As a result, the Earth’s rotation slows down at about .002 seconds a century, and the moon casually inches toward our sister, Venus.5. Old LightBelieve it or not, the sunlight we see today is actually 30,000 years old. That’s when the energy of sunlight was created in the sun’s core, and it has since then been fighting to penetrate the dense matter of the sun. Once it reaches the surface, the light takes only about eight minutes to reach us. Scientists have confirmed that, due to its age, sunlight does in fact smell like old people. More specifically, like Magda from There’s Something About Mary.6. Extra Moons?In 1986, a scientist named Duncan Waldron discovered an asteroid in elliptical orbit around the sun that seemed to mimic Earth’s revolution. Because the asteroid appeared to be following our planet, it was sometimes referred to as Earth’s second moon. Since then, at least three similar asteroids have been discovered. Most recently, the Earth and the moon went on “Maury” to discover that, as suspected, Earth is the father of those asteroids.7. Cold WeldingIn space, pressing two uncoated pieces of metal will eventually fuse them together. The Earth’s atmosphere coats metallic surfaces with a layer of oxidized material, but in the vacuum of space, that layer barely exists. NASA used to be hyper-sensitive to cold welding, so the metal used in many spaceships is coated to prevent the reaction. But it takes more than a brief bump for two metals to fuse in space, and in the 1960s the phenomenon of instant, accidental cold welding was dispelled as a myth.8. Extra InchesAll human beings are about two inches taller in space. On Earth, gravity compresses the spine, but in the vacuum of space, the spring-like spine is free to elongate. Short astronauts are thus more confident pick-up artists when floating around in space. The bad news? Back on Earth, they shrink back down to normal height. Also, girls get taller in space, too.9. Diamond StarIn 2004, astronomers discovered a star composed entirely of diamond, measuring 4,000 km across and 10 billion trillion trillion carats. 50 light years from Earth, the diamond star is classified as a crystallized white dwarf, the hot core that remains after a star burns out. Only recently have scientists been able to study the contents of the white dwarf, and they’ve confirmed that the crystallized carbon interior of the star is, in fact, the galaxy’s largest diamond. In other news, Elizabeth Taylor is studying to become an astronaut.10. Shrinking SunSolar winds are streams of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun that cause it to lose up to a billion kilograms of mass a second. For such an extreme dieting regimen, the sun still looks pretty damn enormous.11. Lasting FootprintsDue to the absence of air and wind on the moon, all astronaut footprints last for millions of years, longer than the most permanent structures on Earth. As long as a meteor or any other space particle does not hit the moon, any impressions made into its surface will virtually last forever. Just imagine all the penis doodles the moon would wake up with if the aforementioned frat-boy excursion were to go down.12. Electrostatic LevitationDuring the first Apollo missions, astronauts reported a hazy glow on the moon’s horizon that looked a little like an atmosphere. This was weird since, well, the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. The glow was actually the sun’s reflection of floating dust particles. Because the sunlight gives an electrostatic charge to dust particles on the moon, some particles float in the air, a process known as electrostatic levitation. It’s just a matter of time until Criss Angel claims the phenomenon as proof of his supernatural powers.13. Long DayAmazingly, a single day on Venus is longer than its entire year. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to completely rotate on its axis, but just 225 days to orbit the sun. Stranger still, Venus is one of two planets that rotates in reverse, a phenomenon called retrograde motion. Most theories attribute the reverse rotation to an ancient planetary collision. That’s what happens when you make fun of Pluto’s mom.14. Milky Way SatellitesPlanets in the solar system aren’t the only celestial bodies with satellites in orbit. The Milky Way galaxy itself has at least 15 satellite galaxies in orbit around it. Just as the moon is gravitationally bound to the Earth, these satellite galaxies are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way, which lovingly refers to them as “ma’ bitches.” 15. Cold SteelOn the former planet Pluto (now designated a dwarf planet), the temperature is a brisk -390 degrees Fahrenheit. Expectedly, temperatures become progressively colder as you move away from the sun, and Pluto is about as far as you can get within our solar system. In fact, it is so cold that Pluto’s ice is harder than steel. Needless to say, your nipples can cut glass on Pluto.
