Astronomy Fun Facts

For many people astronomy is an interesting science filled with many astronomy fun facts. This includes information about the size of stars and the distance of our earth from the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. All of this information can be recalled to entertain and enlighten people.

The Sun is a great source of astronomy fun facts. It's somewhere between 91 and 94.5 million miles away from our home planet. It's not that nobody knows for certain. Our orbit is elliptical. The distance varies depending on where the Earth lies in that orbit.

The sun is only average size for a star, yet it's size is another terrific source of astronomy fun facts. It's contains 98% of all the stuff in the solar system, even though it's not large for a star. Everything else, counting the earth and all the planets, is a tiny 2%. About 100 Earths side to side would stretch across the face of the sun. The solar wind produced by the sun extends to about 50 times the distance from the Earth to the sun from 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 amazing.

What about astronomy fun facts that don't have to do with the sun? What about the moon? It's the only other space object, besides the earth, over which man has walked. And one human man actually traveled to the moon but never left it. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker was rejected as an astronaut. In 1999, after his death of course, his ashes were spread onto the moon.

The moon abounds with more astronomy fun facts. It's the site of what may become the oldest footprint. Neil Armstrong's “giant leap for mankind” left a print in the moon dust that will like still be there in 10 million years. Believe it or not, as of 1988, 13% of people still believed the moon is made of green cheese. The astronauts who walked on the moon wore suits that weighed 180 pounds on earth but a mere 30 pounds on the lunar surface. Talk about an instant diet.

Far away objects have astronomy fun facts too. Stars bring the past to life. Some of the stars we see today in the night sky are so far away that light takes a million years to reach us from them. Some stars we see may no longer even be there. The number of stars in the sky is expressed by a one with 22 zeros following it. That is huge.

There are even more astronomy fun facts. But this article can't. Learn more for yourself.