Space is the final frontier as they say a horizon of opportunity and discovery that is fascinating and mind-boggling in equal

l measures. There are many facts about space that outline this and demonstrate just what a strange universe we live in. Here we will look at the top ten space facts that that are truly amazing and that teach us not only about space, but about reality here on Earth.

10. The moon is moving away from the Earth Every year the moon moves 3.8cm away from the Earth which when you think about it is actually a fairly large amount.

Top 10 Space Facts - The Moon is Moving Away From The Earth 9. The Earth slowing down The next one of our top 10 space facts is directly related to the fact that the moon is drifting away. As a result, the Earth spins at 0.002 seconds per day slower every century. That then means that our days are actually getting gradually longer

Top 10 Space Facts - The Earth is Slowing Down 8. We have multiple moons (sort of) The moon is a satellite a chunk of rock that orbits the Earth and follows an elliptical orbit around the sun along with us. Interestingly there are several asteroids (at least three) that follow this pattern. The first to be discovered was the 5km Cruithne.

Top 10 Space Facts - Multiple Moons 7. The Universe is expanding

Scientists recently discovered that the universe is expanding and that all the elements in space are moving further away from each other as a result (imagine dots drawn on a balloon being blown up). This is often seen as evidence for the big bang theory of creation. This makes way for two more of our top 10 space facts.

Top 10 Space Facts - The Universe is Expansion 6. The Universe gives off radio waves Another of our top 10 space facts gives interesting support to the concept of the big bag that being the fact that the universe is giving off radio waves or interference which is thought to have been caused by the big bang. This is known as the afterglow of creation.

Top 10 Space Facts - Off Radio Waves 5. The speed of the expansion is getting faster

It was assumed until recently that the speed at which the universe is expanding would be slowing down as gravity began to take hold again. However interestingly the exact opposite in fact appears to be true the universe is still getting bigger. The other question of course is, what is it expanding into?

Top 10 Space Facts - Universe Expansion Speed

1. Saturn's moon Titan has plenty of evidence of organic (life) chemicals in its atmosphere. 2. Life is known to exist only on Earth, but in 1986 NASA found what they thought might be fossils of microscopic living things in a rock from Mars. 3. Most scientists say life's basic chemicals formed on the Earth. The astronomer Fred Hoyle said they came from space. 4. Oxygen is circulated around the helmet in space suits in order to prevent the visor from misting. 5. The middle layers of space suits are blown up like a balloon to press against the astronaut's body. Without this pressure, the astronaut's body would boil! 6. The gloves included in the space suit have silicon rubber fingertips which allow the astronaut some sense of touch.

7. The full cost of a spacesuit is about $11 million although 70% of this is for the backpack and the control module. 8. Ever wondered how the pull of gravity is calculated between heavenly bodies? It's simple. Just multiply their masses together, and then divide the total by the square of the distance between them. 9. Glowing nebulae are named so because they give off a dim, red light, as the hydrogen gas in them is heated by radiation from the nearby stars. 10. The Drake Equation was proposed by astronomer Frank Drake to work out how many civilizations there could be in our galaxy - and the figure is in millions. 11. SETI is the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence - the program that analyzes radio signals from space for signs of intelligent life. 12. The Milky Way galaxy we live in: is one among the BILLIONS in space. 13. The Milky Way galaxy is whirling rapidly, spinning our sun and all its other stars at around 100 million km per hour. 14. The Sun travels around the galaxy once every 200 million years a journey of 100,000 light years. 15. There may be a huge black hole in the very middle of the most of the galaxies. 16. The Universe is probably about 15 billion years old, but the estimations vary. 17. One problem with working out the age of the Universe is that there are stars in our galaxy which are thought to be 14 to 18 billion years old older than the estimated age of the Universe. So, either the stars must be younger, or the Universe older. 18. The very furthest galaxies are spreading away from us at more than 90% of the speed of light. 19. The Universe was once thought to be everything that could ever exist, but recent theories about inflation (e.g. Big Bang) suggest our universe may be just one of countless bubbles of space time. 20. The Universe may have neither a centre nor an edge, because according to Einsteins theory of relativity, gravity bends all of space time around into an endless curve. 21. If you fell into a black hole, you would stretch like spaghetti. 22. Matter spiraling into a black hole is torn apart and glows so brightly that it creates the brightest objects in the Universe quasars. 23. The swirling gases around a black hole turn it into an electrical generator, making it spout jets of electricity billions of kilometers out into space. 24. The opposite of black holes are estimated to be white holes which spray out matter and light like fountains. 25. A day in Mercury lasts approximately as long as 59 days on earth. 26. Twice during Mercurys orbit, it gets so close to the Sun and speeds so much that the Sun seems to go backwards in the sky. 27. Nicolaus Copernicus was the astronomer who first suggested that the Sun was the centre, and that the Earth went round the sun. 28. The ideas of Copernicus came not from looking at the night sky, but from studying ancient astronomy.

29. As the earth turns, the stars come back to the same place in the night sky every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds. This is a sidereal day (star day). 30. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon for the first time, he said these famous words: Thats one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind. 31. From the moon, astronauts brought back 380 kg of Moon rock. 32. During the moon landing, a mirror was left on the Moons surface to reflect a laser beam which measured the Moons distance from the Earth with amazing accuracy. 33. The stars in each constellation are named after a Greek alphabet. 34. The brightest star in each constellation is called the Alpha Star, the next brightest Beta, and so on. 35. The distance to the planets is measured by bouncing radar signals off them and timing how long the signals take to get there and back. 36. Spacecrafts have double hulls (outer coverings) which protect them against other space objects that crash into them. 37. Manned Spacecrafts have life support systems that provide oxygen to breathe, usually mixed with nitrogen (as in ordinary air). Charcoal filters out smells/ 38. Spacecrafts toilets have to get rid of waste in low gravity conditions, Astronauts have to sit on a device which sucks away the waste. Solid waste is dried and dumped in space, but the water is saved. 39. A comets tail is made as it nears the Sun and begins to melt. A vast plume of gas millions of kilometers across is blown out behind by the solar wind. The tail is what you see, shining as the sunlight catches it. 40. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet smashed into Jupiter in July 1994, with the biggest crash ever witnessed. 41. Giant stars have burned all their hydrogen, and so burn helium, fusing helium atoms to make carbon. 42. The constellation of Cygnus, the Swan, contains the very biggest star in the known universe a hyper giant which is almost a million times as big as the sun. 43. Planet Uranus was discovered by William Herschel, who wanted to name the planet George, after King George III, but Uranus was eventually chosen. 44. The first rockets were made 1,000 years ago in China. 45. Robert Goddard launched the very first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926. 46. Over 100 artificial satellites are now launched into space every year, a few of which are space telescopes. 47. The lower a satellites orbit, the faster it must fly to avoid falling back to the Earth. Most satellites fly in low orbits, 300 km from the earth. 48. Hipparchus was the first astronomer to try to work out how far away the Sun is. 49. The red color of Mars is due to oxidized (rusted) iron in its soil. 50. Marss volcano Olympus Mons is the biggest in the solar system. It covers the same area as Ireland and is three times higher than our Mount Everest.