Facts about space 

 As has been famously said, space is the finalfrontier. The greatest of unknowns, space is far vasterthan we can comprehend, and filled with phenomenon we barely understand. While we've been watching the heavens in awefor millenia, space exploration and discovery only began in earnest in the mid 20th century. Yet even what are no doubt our primitive findingsstill point at a universe more incredible than we ever thought. Hello and welcome to another episode of TheInfographics Show- today we're taking a look at 50 incredible facts about space! 

50. Until 1923 scientists thought that the entireuniverse was just our milky way- until astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the astronomicalfeature known as Andromeda, a fuzzy spot in the night sky, was actually an entire othergalaxy! Overnight the size of the universe was effectivelydoubled! [Use photo: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RodAWoBUru5tL4UhhvFb7vUn-00=/0x0:476x409/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:476x409):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7494903/Screen_Shot_2016_11_18_at_11.jpg] 

49. Hubble made his discovery from the Hookertelescope, built atop a mountain in California- it was the first mountain top telescope inthe world and at the time, an incredible feat of engineering. 

48. To measure the distance between galaxies inspace, astronomers use Cepheids, or stars that periodically dim and brighten. Henrietta Leavitt discovered that by monitoringthe time it took these stars to dim and brighten you could calculate how far away they were. 

47. Leavitt's discovery of how to calculate distancebased on the cycling of Cepheid stars allowed Hubble to prove that Andromeda was locatedoutside the Milky Way, and was thus its own galaxy. 

46. Hubble scanned Andromeda for nights on endlooking for Cepheid stars, until finally discovering one in October 1923. After monitoring it for a week, he used Leavitt'sformula and determined it was indeed located outside the Milky Way. 

45. In 2011 the Hubble Space Telescope captureda picture of that star, called “Variable Number One”- or V1. It has been called “the most important starin the history of cosmology.” 

44. Of all the planets in our solar system, onlymercury and venus don't have moons. 

43. The hottest planet in our solar system isnot Mercury as most would assume, but Venus. Due to runaway global warming, Venus' temperatureis an incredible 863 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees celsius).

 42. Not only is Venus' atmosphere blazing hot,but it also has an atmospheric pressure 92 times greater than the Earth's- that wouldcrush you flat as a soda can if you walked on its surface!

 41. In 1966 the Soviet Union's Venera 3 was thefirst man-made craft to land on Venus. Unfortunately its communications system hadfailed long before reaching Venus and it was unable to relay back any data. 

40. Although it crash-landed and didn't send anydata back home, Venera 3 is the first human-made object to impact another planet's surface.

 39. On the 18thof October 1967, Venera 4 becamethe first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet. The soviets initially claimed the craft reachedthe surface intact, but when the American Mariner 5 spacecraft flew by Venus the verynext day, it measured a surface pressure of 75-100 atmospheres, well out of the rangeof Venera's 4 25 atmosphere hull strength. The claim by the Soviet Union was quicklyredacted. 

38. Venus's atmosphere is so dense, that parachutesare only necessary to slow down. The Soviet Union's Venera 9 released its parachutesat an atmospheric height of 31 miles (50km) and landed at a speed of only 15 mph (7 m/s). It was also the first space craft to transmitphotos from another planet! 

37. Our solar system is about 4.6 billion yearsold, and scientists believe it will last another 5 billion years before our sun turns intoa red giant. 

36. The tallest mountain known to man is OlympusMons, an extinct volcano on Mars with a peak 15 miles (25 km) high. It is nearly 3 times larger than Mount Everest. 

35. A light year is the distance light travelsin one year, or 5.88 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). 

34. The width of our Milky Way galaxy accordingto NASA is about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers, or 621371192237333888 miles- orin astronomical terms: 100,000 light years.

 33. Because most stars are so far away, when youlook up into the night sky you are not seeing them as they currently are, but as they werethousands of years ago- that's how long their light takes to reach us! 

32. Our sun is 300,000 times larger than the earth,but in the universe it's a light weight.

 31. The largest star in the known universe isVY Canis Majoris- it is 1,400 times larger than our own sun! If you stuck it in our solar system it wouldextend all the way past Jupiter. 

30. Red Giants are really old stars that formwhen stars 10 times the mass of our sun runs out of hydrogen in its core. As it collapses the hydrogen in the outershells begin the process of fusion, and the entire star begins fusing hydrogen all atonce. They will burn through all their fuel in justa few million years- unlike the billions it takes our sun- and shine 100,000 times brighterthan our sun!

 29. These stars often explode as a Supernova-the most powerful explosion in the universe.

 28. The original universe consisted solely ofhydrogen and helium- every other element on the periodic table and every single thingyou see around you today was formed in the heart of exploding stars. 

27. That's because when a star goes supernovait releases huge amounts of energy and neutrons, which produces heavier elements. The carbon in your body and the gold in thejewelry you wear were all made from exploding stars! 

26. Only hydrogen and helium were formed fromthe Big Bang- next time you suck down helium from a party balloon you are sucking downa gas that probably formed just 3 minutes after the Big Bang! 

25. Red Giant Betelgeuse, 1000 times larger thanour sun, is a cosmic neighbor and expected to go supernova in the next 1,000 years! 

24. Some scientists theorize that life is onlypossible in the outer edges of a galaxy, where large stars are rare and thus supernovas don'troutinely sterilize worlds of life.

 23. We ourselves are between two arms of the milkyway, and in a relatively rural part of the galaxy.

 22. Extending well past the orbit of Pluto isa massive sphere of icy objects known as the Oort Cloud. These are remnants from the formation of thesolar system, held in place by the weak gravity of the very distant sun. 

21. Every few million years as we orbit the centerof the Milky Way we enter a region of space full of cosmic debris. Some scientists theorize that this debrismay disturb the fragile orbits of objects in the Oort Cloud and send them hurtling intothe solar system. The timing of our entry into this region ofthe Milky Way coincides with several mass extinction events here on Earth. 

20. Panspermia is the theory that life is transmittedlike a virus from planet to planet by asteroid and comet impacts.

 19. A meteorite discovered in Antarctica was foundto originate from Mars, and after careful examination some scientists believe it showsfossilized evidence of microscopic organisms- giving serious credibility to the Panspermiatheory. We might all actually be martians! 

18. It's thought that this meteorite was launchedinto space from Mars when a massive asteroid struck the planet, sending debris hurtlingout of the atmosphere. In time its orbit intersected with the Earthand may have brought its martian hitchhikers with it!

 17. In 2008 an ESA mission sent tardigrades- tinymicroscopic organisms- into space. After ten days of exposure to the vacuum ofspace, ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and cosmic rays, they were returned to Earthstill alive!

 16. Before the tardigrades, only some lichen andbacteria were known to survive exposure to space- meaning Panspermia may be a valid theoryfor the origin of life on earth.

 15. Because there is no atmosphere on the moon,the footprints and tire prints left on the Moon by American astronauts will never disappear-unless an asteroid impact wipes them out. 

14. Not only does Jupiter have the most moonsin our solar system- with 79- but as of right now it has the most moons of any known planetin our galaxy.

 13. Many scientists think that without Jupiterlife on earth would be impossible. That's because the giant of our solar systemexerts such a strong gravity that it pulls in many comets and asteroids that might haveimpacted on Earth. Jupiter is like our personal bodyguard! 

12. Once thought rare outside of the Earth, waterhas been found practically everywhere in the solar system- even on Mercury where scientistsnever dreamed it would be possible! In 2011 NASA's Messenger probe discoveredwater ice in craters on Mercury's north pole. That's despite a surface temperature of 800degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees celsius) on the day side.

 11. Not only does the earth rotate as it orbitsthe sun, but the sun itself also rotates at a rate of once every 25-35 days.

 10. Earth is the only Solar System planet notnamed after a god.

 9. Pluto is smaller in diameter than the UnitedStates. 

8. The first theory positing the existence ofblack holes was from an English clergyman named John Michell in November 1784. He even correctly noted that these featureswould not be visible to the naked eye, but that they could be detected by their gravitationaleffects on other bodies. 

7. Despite proving through General Relativitythat black holes could form, Einstein himself did not believe they could form in the naturalworld. It wouldn't be until 1972 that Cygnus X-1became the first observed black hole, taking them from the realm of theory to the realmof reality.

 6. In 2002 astronomers presented evidence thata supermassive black hole lurks at the center of our Milky Way.

 5. In 2012 Suvi Gezari and his team publishedthe first visual evidence of a black hole. Using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii,they photographed a supermassive black hole 2.7 million light years away swallowing ared giant.

 4. In 2015 gravity waves from the merging ofa pair of black holes into one were detected. The violence of their merging created a ripplethrough space-time that was detectable here on Earth millions of light years away! 

3. Not only did general relativity predict thatblack holes were possible, but it also predicted that white holes could also be possible! The polar opposite of a black hole, a whitehole is a region of space-time where matter cannot enter.

 2. A growing theory suggests that white holesare the opposite ends of black holes, and that our own Big Bang was a supermassive whitehole that existed for fractions of a second.

 1. Afraid that returning astronauts might becarrying unknown and deadly lunar germs, the Apollo astronauts were quarantined immediatelyafter their arrival on earth.