For most people astronomy is an interesting science stuffed with loads of astronomy fun facts. Everything from the size and temperature of our own star, the Sun, to the makeup of distant planets has been established. All of this information can be retold to entertain and enlighten people.
The Sun is a fantastic source of astronomy fun facts. Our own star, which supplies us with all our heat and light is between 91 and 94.5 million miles from Earth. It’s not that nobody knows the exact distance. It’s because the Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical, uneven, orbit, so the distance varies depending on where the Earth is situated in that orbit.
The Sun is only of average size for a star, yet it’s size is another terrific source of astronomy fun facts. As average as it is, it accounts for about 98% of all the matter in our solar system. Even with the huge planet of Jupiter on our side, we’re still a tiny 2% of non Sun material.
It would take the diameter of about 100 Earths to measure across this average Sun. The solar winds produced by the Sun extends to about 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In other words, those solar winds go out about 50 AU’s, with an AU being the distance from the Earth to the sun. That’s quite fantastic, isn’t it?.
How about astronomy fun facts that don’t have anything at all to do with the Sun then? What about the Moon? It’s the only object that man has walked upon except the Earth until now. And one man actually travelled to the Moon but has never left it. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker really liked the Moon but was not found acceptable as an astronaut. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled over the Moon by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1999.
There are lots more astronomical fun facts about the Moon. It’s the site of what might become the oldest footprint known to man. Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind left a footprint or shoe print in the Moon’s dust that will probably still be visible in 15 million years time.
Many people, in fact about 13% of those polled in 1988, still thought the Moon to be made of cheese. And finally, the suits worn by the Moon-walking astronauts weighed 180 pounds on Earth but only 30 pounds on the Moon, because of the Moon’s reduced gravity. Talk about losing weight quickly, eh?
Astronomy fun facts aren’t limited to our close astronomical neighbours. Looking at stars is like looking into the past. Some of the stars we see nowadays in the night sky are so far away that their light takes a million years to reach us. Some of the stars you see may literally be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there now. There are more than 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe. That’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros. And all their planets. The number is really quite mind-blowing.
There are millions of astronomy fun facts and we could go on about them forever. But unfortunately, this article can not. So, please, walk out there and learn more about astronomy for yourself.