Siamese fighting fish must be kept isolated because they will fight, immediately, often to the death. In an experiment, 2
fish were dropped in a lake. Would this be enough space? Were these tiny fish interested in exploring?
No, they immediately started fighting.
Of 200 Anglican priests polled only 68, or 34% could name all Ten Commandments. Half, however, said they believed in space aliens.
Most substances take up less space when frozen than when liquid. Ice from water on the other hand occupies more space than the original liquid water did.
Radio waves are the radiation and detection of a range of frequency of electromagnetic waves. Frequency is the number of wavelengths that pass a particular point in one second and for radio waves the frequency is from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. Radio waves like all electromagnetic waves are able to carry information through space. Radio waves can travel unimpeded through objects like buildings or people but light waves can not. This is because radio waves have a very long wavelength allowing them to pass through objects that have shorter wavelengths like you and me without problem.
In August 2023, India's Chandrayaan-3 mission became the first spacecraft to land near the Moon's south pole, making India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon.
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. The launch kicked off the Space Race with the US.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, orbiting Earth once in about 108 minutes.
A rhesus monkey named Albert II became the first primate in space in 1949, when a US V-2 rocket carried him past the edge of space.
A chimpanzee named Ham became the first great ape in space in 1961, helping NASA prove that humans could perform tasks during spaceflight.
In 2017, scientists used cosmic-ray particles called muons to detect a large hidden void inside the Great Pyramid that no one had known about.
Pieces of the original Wright Flyer have traveled to the Moon on Apollo 11 and to Mars on NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.
Pieces of the Berlin Wall are on display around the world, including at presidential libraries, museums, and public spaces in the US.
In 2001, Pizza Hut delivered a pizza to the International Space Station, making it the first pizza delivered to space.
Many astronauts drove Corvettes, and astronaut Alan Shepard helped make the car a symbol of the Space Age.
After the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, scientists discovered that its main mirror was slightly misshapen. Astronauts fixed it with corrective optics in 1993.
In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope stared at a tiny, seemingly empty patch of sky and revealed thousands of galaxies in what's called the Hubble Deep Field image.
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched on December 25, 2021, has a 6.5-meter mirror made of 18 gold-coated beryllium segments.
GPS is run by the US Space Force, and full accuracy has been available to civilians since 2000.
Astronaut Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the Moon in 1971.
"Houston" was the first word spoken from the Moon because Mission Control was at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Florida's Space Coast, home to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, is where most US crewed space missions have launched.
Seattle's Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair.
The Seattle skyline view from Frasier's apartment, including the Space Needle, was a backdrop on a studio set.
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but it's rare on Earth because it's so light that it escapes the atmosphere into space.
The Sea Organ won the European Prize for Urban Public Space in 2006.
Astronauts can lose about 1% of their bone mass per month in space.
Octopuses have no bones, so they can squeeze through any opening larger than their hard beak.
Jellyfish were sent to space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1991.
In 1995, potatoes became the first vegetable grown in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
In 2015, astronauts on the International Space Station ate red romaine lettuce they had grown on board.
Stephen Hawking experienced weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight in 2007.
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied since November 2, 2000.
The International Space Station orbits Earth about every 90 minutes, so astronauts see about 16 sunrises a day.
The International Space Station is about the size of a football field.
The International Space Station cost about $150 billion, making it one of the most expensive objects ever built.
The International Space Station can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
The International Space Station recycles about 98% of its water, including astronauts' urine, into drinking water.
NASA plans to retire the International Space Station and bring it down around 2030.
The International Space Station was built by five space agencies.
The International Space Station travels at about 17,500 miles per hour.
The first piece of the International Space Station, the Zarya module, launched in 1998.
The idea that the Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye is a myth.
The Large Hadron Collider's magnets are cooled to 1.9 degrees above absolute zero, colder than outer space.
The Sun contains about 99.8% of all the mass in our solar system.
Sunlight takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth, so we always see the Sun as it was a few minutes ago.
About 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
The Sun's core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).
The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, and scientists are still working out exactly why.
The Sun is called a yellow dwarf, but it actually gives off white light. It looks yellow from Earth because of our atmosphere.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe became the fastest human-made object and flew closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it, passing about 3.8 million miles from the surface in December 2024.
The Sun is about 4.6 billion years old, roughly halfway through its life.
Energy made in the Sun's core can take tens of thousands of years or more to work its way to the surface.
The Sun goes through a cycle of about 11 years in which its activity rises and falls.
The Moon is drifting away from Earth by about 3.8 centimeters a year.
The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, which means it always shows us the same side.
Scientists think the Moon formed from debris after a Mars-sized object crashed into the young Earth.
The Moon has "moonquakes."
Apollo astronauts said Moon dust smelled like spent gunpowder.
Apollo astronauts left mirrors on the Moon that scientists still bounce lasers off to measure its distance.
Gravity on the Moon is about one-sixth as strong as on Earth.
"Moon trees" were grown from seeds that orbited the Moon on Apollo 14.
There's water ice in shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
China's Chang'e 4 made the first landing on the far side of the Moon in 2019.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, but Venus is hotter.
From sunrise to sunrise, one day on Mercury lasts about 176 Earth days, twice as long as its 88-day year.
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft found water ice in shadowed craters at Mercury's poles.
Mercury is slowly shrinking as its core cools.
Mercury has no moons.
Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system.
Mercury's temperatures swing from about 800°F during the day to about −290°F at night.
A transit of Mercury happens when Mercury passes in front of the Sun as seen from Earth.
BepiColombo, a joint European and Japanese mission, is scheduled to enter orbit around Mercury in late 2026.
Mercury's orbit helped confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, about 900°F at the surface.
Venus spins backward compared with most planets, so on Venus the Sun rises in the west.
A day on Venus, about 243 Earth days, is longer than its year of about 225 Earth days.
The air pressure on the surface of Venus is about 90 times stronger than on Earth.
The Soviet Venera 13 lander survived for 127 minutes on the surface of Venus in 1982.
Venus is called the "morning star" and "evening star" because it's so bright near sunrise and sunset.
Venus is the only planet named after a female figure, the Roman goddess of love.
In 2020, scientists reported phosphine in Venus's clouds as a possible sign of life, but the finding has been heavily debated.
Venus's clouds are made of sulfuric acid.
Most features on Venus are named after women.
Mars's Olympus Mons is about three times taller than Mount Everest.
Valles Marineris, a canyon system on Mars, is about as long as the US is wide.
Mars's moon Phobos is slowly spiraling inward and is expected to break apart or crash into Mars in tens of millions of years.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered flight on another planet, on Mars in 2021.
Sunsets on Mars appear blue.
A year on Mars is about 687 Earth days.
Dust storms on Mars can cover the entire planet.
NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 because one team used imperial units and another used metric units.
Mars's polar ice caps contain both water ice and frozen carbon dioxide.
Meteorites from Mars have been found on Earth.
Jupiter is the largest planet, and more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a storm bigger than Earth that has lasted for centuries, though it has been shrinking.
Jupiter has the shortest day of any planet, about 10 hours.
Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, and it's even bigger than Mercury.
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active place in the solar system.
Jupiter's moon Europa likely has an ocean beneath its icy surface, and NASA launched the Europa Clipper mission in 2024 to study it.
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter in 1994.
Jupiter has faint rings.
NASA's Juno spacecraft carried three LEGO figures to Jupiter.
Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field of any planet.
Saturn is less dense than water, so it would float in a large enough bathtub.
Saturn's rings are mostly ice and are surprisingly thin, often only about 30 feet thick.
A six-sided storm called the hexagon swirls at Saturn's north pole.
Saturn has the most known moons of any planet.
Saturn's moon Titan has a thick atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane, and the Huygens probe landed there in 2005.
Saturn's moon Enceladus shoots geysers of water into space.
Saturn's rings are slowly falling into the planet and could disappear in a few hundred million years.
Saturn's rings appeared to nearly vanish from Earth's view in 2025 because they were tilted edge-on to us.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft ended its mission in 2017 by diving into Saturn.
NASA's Dragonfly mission will send a drone to Saturn's moon Titan.
Uranus is tilted about 98 degrees, so it basically rolls around the Sun on its side.
Uranus was the first planet discovered with a telescope, by William Herschel in 1781.
William Herschel wanted to name Uranus "George's Star," after King George III.
Uranus has the coldest atmosphere of any planet, reaching about −371°F.
Only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has visited Uranus, in 1986.
Uranus's clouds contain hydrogen sulfide, which would make them smell like rotten eggs.
Uranus's rings were discovered in 1977.
Each season on Uranus lasts about 21 Earth years.
Scientists think it may rain diamonds deep inside Uranus.
Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane in its atmosphere.
Neptune was discovered in 1846 after mathematicians predicted its location from its gravitational pull on Uranus.
Neptune has the strongest winds in the solar system, up to about 1,200 miles per hour.
Neptune's largest moon, Triton, orbits backward and will eventually be torn apart by Neptune's gravity.
A year on Neptune is about 165 Earth years, and in 2011 it completed its first orbit since being discovered.
Only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has visited Neptune, in 1989.
Neptune's Great Dark Spot, a huge storm seen by Voyager 2, later disappeared.
Galileo saw Neptune in 1612 but thought it was a star.
Neptune's moon Triton has geysers of nitrogen.
Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun.
A 2024 study found that Neptune and Uranus are closer in color than older images suggested.
The International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Pluto was named by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old girl in England.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft revealed a heart-shaped region on Pluto in 2015.
Some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, are on the New Horizons spacecraft.
Pluto takes about 248 Earth years to orbit the Sun, so it hasn't completed a full orbit since it was discovered.
Pluto's moon Charon is about half the size of Pluto.
Pluto is smaller than Earth's Moon.
Illinois passed a resolution declaring Pluto a planet in 2009.
Pluto has blue skies.
Pluto was closer to the Sun than Neptune from 1979 to 1999.
The Milky Way contains an estimated 100 billion to 400 billion stars.
The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across.
Our solar system takes about 230 million years to orbit the center of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is expected to merge with the Andromeda Galaxy in about 4.5 billion years.
The name "Milky Way" comes from a Greek myth about the goddess Hera's milk.
Scientists found ethyl formate, the chemical that helps give raspberries their flavor, in a dust cloud near the center of the Milky Way.
About 80% of Americans can't see the Milky Way because of light pollution.
The European Space Agency's Gaia mission mapped about two billion stars in the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy.
The Milky Way is part of a group of galaxies called the Local Group.
A supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*, about 4 million times the mass of the Sun, sits at the center of the Milky Way, and its first image was released in 2022.
The first image of a black hole, in the galaxy M87, was released in 2019.
"Spaghettification" describes how a black hole's gravity would stretch an object into a long, thin strand.
Physicist John Wheeler popularized the term "black hole" in 1967.
Gravitational waves from two merging black holes were first detected by LIGO in 2015.
Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for black hole research.
If the Sun were replaced by a black hole of the same mass, Earth's orbit wouldn't change.
Cygnus X-1 was the first object widely accepted as a black hole.
Time slows down near a black hole.
The black hole visuals created for the movie "Interstellar" led to a published scientific paper.
A piece of the original Wright Flyer went to the Moon on Apollo 11 in 1969, and another flew to Mars on NASA's Ingenuity helicopter in 2021.
The GPS that smartphones use for maps is a constellation of US satellites operated by the US Space Force, and it's free for anyone in the world to use.