Top 7 Common Myths and Facts About Space

I bet many of you at one point drifted out getting to outer space witness made us an asteroid passing by and find out what happens to a human inside a black hole. But in essence, most of our knowledge about the universe is made up of random bits from Hollywood movies and science fiction books which are often quite far from reality. We would try to dispel a few of these myths for you.

These are 7  most common myths about space. Let’s get it up

Myth 7: Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and thus the hottest one in the solar system.

Mercury is closest planet

This is obviously a myth the distance from the sun doesn’t affect the average temperature of the planet Mercury is indeed the closest planet to the sun but it doesn’t mean it is the hottest one. During the day the temperature of the surface of Mercury can reach 420degrees centigrade or 800Fahrenheit. Due to rotational difference says a day on Mercury lasts wait for about 58 earth days.

Since its atmosphere is rarefied it doesn’t hold heat to well and that temperature on the unlit side of the planet plummets to -173centigrade or -279degrees Fahrenheit.

The hottest planet in the solar system is actually Venus which consists of carbon dioxide nitrogen keeps a lot of heat the average temperature on Venus doesn’t go much below 462centigrade or 863degrees Fahrenheit.

Myth 6: The Moon has a dark side.

Moon has dark side

Let’s continue when we talk about the dark side of the moon we normally mean the side unlit by the sun but it would be way more precise to talk about that by humans. The moon and the earth move simultaneously which means that we can only see one side of a satellite from the surface of our planet. The other so called Dark Side of the Moon seeing without leaving it so be it but since the moon as well as the spins around its axis the rays of the sun reach all its parts. So there isn’t actually any Dark side of the moon.

Myth5:  Zero – Gravity

This one is so seemingly obvious that many people will have a hard time believing it’s not true. Satellites, spacecraft, astronauts, and so on do not experience zero-gravity. True zero-gravity, or micro-gravity, barely exists anywhere in space, and certainly, no human has ever experienced it. Most people are under the impression that astronauts and everything else in spacecraft are floating around because they’ve gone so far away from Earth that they are no longer affected by its gravitational pull when actually it’s the presence of gravity that causes floating.

When orbiting Earth, or any other celestial body large enough to have significant gravity, an object is actually falling. But since the Earth is constantly moving, things like spacecraft don’t crash into it. The Earth’s gravity is attempting to pull the craft down onto its surface, but Earth keeps moving, so the craft keeps falling. This perpetual fall is what results in the illusion of zero-gravity. The astronauts are also falling inside the craft, but since they’re moving at the same speed, it looks like they’re floating. The same phenomenon could be experienced in a falling elevator or plane. In fact, the weightless scenes for the movie Apollo 13 were filmed in a falling plane used to train astronauts. The plane climbs up to 30,000 feet before going into a near-freefall, which allows for 23 seconds of “zero-gravity.” Although it lasts for less than a minute, it’s exactly what real astronauts experience in space.

Myth 4: The Earth is round.

Earth is round

This would seem unarguable fact we all know from School that the earth isn’t flat or square. Copernicus first said this and Magellan proved it with this first round the world trip but is it that round in reality. Speaking about the earth we use the word globe or a poetic expression to rest very old ball even though it would be much more precise to call it a less common word Geoid or something similar to earth. It’s all because our planet is slightly wide and at the equator and flattened at the poles and its surface is constantly changing the continuous motion of tectonic plates and erosion. So I have to disappoint you. The shape of the earth is pretty different from the shape of a football or a billiard ball as you might have imagined. It’s more like an irregular potato or a very strange straight path depending on your fantasy thought.

Myth3: People Freeze

People Freeze

This is one misconception mostly perpetuated by movies. Many films set in space will have a scene where one character finds themselves outside the ship without a suit. They quickly begin to freeze and, unless they manage to get back inside, turn into an icicle and float away. The reality is the complete opposite. You wouldn’t freeze if you were exposed to space, you’d overheat.

We probably all remember those diagrams of convection currents in science class. Water over a heat source will heat up, rise to the top, cool down, sink to the bottom, and repeat. This happens because the water at the top transfers its heat to the air around it, which causes the water to contract, thus becoming denser, and sinking. In space, as the name suggests, there is nothing to transfer your heat to, making cooling down enough to freeze impossible. So your body will continue to work away, generating heat as it does. Of course, before you became uncomfortably hot, you’d be dead.

Myth 2: A human anatomy space without a spacesuit will explode.

From a number of Hollywood movies, we know that if you take off your spacesuit helmet your head will immediately swell and blow up. Well, being in outer space without a spacesuit is really stupid since it’s slightly older brother very deadly but death is not going to be as immediate and as horrible as we often shout. In fact often Maybe it’s a NASA space might not kill a healthy person but the exceedingly low outside pressure is extremely dangerous for the lungs the heart and the brain small blood vessels would expand and so breaking leading to massive internal hemorrhaging but it’s all the bones skin and internal organs would stay in place.  Overall dying in outer space is not the most pleasant way to done in the world you will feel horrible pain until the faint of lack of oxygen and soon die of suffocation.

Myth 1: The Sun is yellow.

Sun is yellow

Even though we see this as a yellow-orange or red circle depending on the time of the day and its position in the sky, the sun is actually white. The color of any light depends on the temperature starts with the surface temperature of 4500 degree Celsius or 8100degrees Fahrenheit like our sun emits white light. So why does every child on the earth drawing yellow not so white pencil to draw the sun without thinking twice?

Sun rays

The thing is the longer light waves from the yellow or red parts of the spectrum post the atmosphere of the earth almost without loss and the sheltered greens of violent waves diffract a lot. So if you have to get the chance to look at the sun from outer space. You’ll see with your I would always that the sun is white and the question of why are the sky blue during the day and black at night will automatically disappear.


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