Interesting trivia and facts on space and the universe

Space Debris
Over 99.9 per cent of the land on Earth is not occupied by a person at a given time.

Therefore, while 50 to 200 "large" pieces of man-made space debris return to Earth every year, there has been only one report of a person being hit.

Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was struck on the shoulder in 1997 by a small piece of debris from a discarded piece of a Delta rocket. She was unhurt. (Fact for 9 Jan 2009)

Largest Diamond in the Universe

Whilst researching meteorites in Arizona and the South Pole, scientists discovered tiny diamond crystals embedded in the rock. This led Astrophysicists to search the skies and in 2004 the Harvard-Smithsonian Center discovered a mass of crystallised carbon (aka diamond), formerly known as star BPM 37093 but now known as the biggest diamond in the galaxy.

The "jewel" is 50 light years away from Earth and is estimated to weigh 10 billion trillion trillion carats and is 2,500 miles wide! (Fact for 12 Sept 2008)

Pluto
Pluto is generally regarded as the ninth planet in our solar system however there are time when it is the eighth planet - it has a somewhat erratic orbit (which is also opposite in rotation to all other planets) and occasionally it is nearer the Sun than Neptune.

Pluto is the only planet not visited by a spacecraft, however one is on it’s way - launched in January 2006 it will arrive in 2015.

Pluto is so far out it takes 90,613 earth days to orbit the Sun, that’s over 248 years! (Fact for 19 Aug 2008)

Moon Landing
When man first went to the moon little did we know that we would produce a by-product which would out last us, our children and in fact the Human Race.

The by-product? The footprints on the moon - as there is no wind, scientist believe, they could last up to 10 million years. That may be confusing for future intergalactic explorers!

Here is a photo of the footprint left for eternity by Buzz Aldrin on 20 July 1969 provided by NASA. (Fact for 3 July 2008)

Space Mission Funding
In January 2004, George Bush announced a commitment for NASA to revisit the moon within 10 years, and then follow this up with a manned trip to Mars.

The cost of the program is estimated by NASA to range between $4 billion in 2006 to an estimated $15 billion in 2016!

In contrast the clinical research budget for the National Cancer Institute remained static in 2006 at $5 billion

Ozone
Oxford scientist C Dobson was the first person to accurately measure the amount of ozone in the atmosphere

The Sun
At its centre the temperature is 15 million degrees Celsius, but on it's surface it is a mere 5,500 degrees! The Sun is 588,000 km across at its equator.

Sunspots are the result of areas on the surface being cooler by 1500 degrees! These appear every 11 years and the next one should be 2012

Venus
Venus is the hottest planet with temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius. It also rotates east to west (the earth rotates west to east) but that's where the similarities end as the atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid!

Saturn
Titan is the largest of Saturn's 18 known moons. It is believed that Titan is the only place in the universe, apart from earth, which has liquid on its surface. Saturn is the second biggest planet and is 120,500 km wide at its equator. The planet is mainly of gaseous form

Mars Canyon
Mars has the largest canyon in the solar system - called Mariner Valley. It is 4,400 km long - almost 13 times longer than the Grand Canyon, and is up to 7km deep!

Mir Space Station
The Russian's launched the Mir space station in February 1986. The station was the first space station that could be revisited by crews. The station came down to earth in March 2001 after 15 years of constant use.