200 Facts For Kids About The Universe

If you have been learning from this website for school or just because like us here @ ouruniverseforkids.com you love astronomy and everything about the universe, here are 200 facts about the universe… Enjoy, and keep learning and looking at the stars!!

Fun Facts For Kids

# 1. Even though the universe is always expanding, our galaxy and our closest galaxy are actually on a collision course, where they will eventually form one larger galaxy. And then, again over millions of years will split apart and move away from each other. 

# 2. Scientists estimate that there as many Stars in the Universe as there are grains of sand on all the beaches on earth.

# 3. Scientists are always trying to re-create the Big Bang on a small scale in great big labs to learn more and more about the Universe.

# 4.  After just three minutes of the Big Bang happening, the Universe had already formed Gravity.

# 5. The Big Bang is a massive 93 Billion Light Years Across.

# 6. When you see the grey speckles of static on your TV when the channels are not working, that static is directly a cause of the Big Bang.

# 7. If you were travelling at almost 20,000 kilometers per hour on a space shuttle it would still take 165 thousand years just to reach the closest Star in our Galaxy.

# 8. When you are looking at the Starts in the Universe you are looking into the past.

# 9. Most scientists are certain that life exists somewhere else in the universe.

# 10. Life can begin and stay alive in freezing conditions and also in extremely hot conditions. 

# 11. Through continued study by scientists of other types of solar systems in the universe, scientists are starting to discover more water on planets and moons which is vital to create any type of life.

# 12. Matter has two types of properties; Physical & Chemical.

# 13. Most of the elements on the periodic table are made of solid Matters.

# 14. Humans are made of all the three main states of Matter.

# 15. The creation of what scientists believe is antimatter is very expensive.

# 16. Antimatter that is created doesn’t last for very long.

#. 17 Scientists are trying to find ways of fueling spacecraft using antimatter.

# 18. There are somewhere in the region of 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the universe. 

# 19. Through study of galaxies, scientists can confirm black holes. 

# 20. The forming of a new star in a galaxy at very fast pace is called a Starburst.

# 21. The Sun travels around the milky way at about 500,000 miles per hour.

# 22. The Sun takes about 220 million years to travel around the Milky Way just one time.

# 23. As we live within the Milky Way, we don’t actually know what our galaxy looks like. We know that it’s a spiral galaxy, so any pictures you see of our galaxy are taken from other spiral galaxies in the universe.

# 24. The Andromeda galaxy is only one of the few galaxies that can be seen from Earth.

# 25. Like the Milky Way, Andromeda has a massive black hole at the center of the universe. However as gravity is believed to be so strong there may actually be even more than one black hole.

# 26. The distance of Andromeda away from the Milky Way is 2.5 million light-years away.

# 27. The Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Super Cluster called ‘Virgo’

# 28. The largest Super Cluster ever discovered is 60 times largest than the Milky Way.

# 29. The main asteroid belt is an ‘Asteroid Belt’ that orbits between planets Mars and Jupiter.

# 30. The Sun makes up to 99.86% of all of the mass in the solar system.

# 31. Before space exploration, humans didn’t know that the solar system existed. Humans then thought that the Earth was at the center of the universe.

# 32. More than 100 Asteroids are known to have orbiting moons.

# 33. An Asteroid may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

# 34. More than 10 unmanned spacecraft have landed on asteroids in the recent past.

# 35. Comet sizes range from as small as 1 mile to as large as 300 miles.

# 36. Comets have two tails. A dust tail and a plasma tail.

# 37. The well-known Halley’s comet will come back into the inner solar system sometime in 2061.

# 38. Stars with the shortest lifespan are the largest.

# 39. The most common stars are Red Dwarfs. Half the size of our sun, with a life cycle of 100 billion years.

# 40. The nearest Star to us is about 4.2 light years away. It would take around 70,000 years at a space craft’s fastest speed to reach.

# 41. We believe that almost every star has the same chemical composition. That basically means that all stars are made up of the same thing.

# 42. If a star is created really large after its birth, the star will live for less time as a smaller star.

# 43. The light from a supernova explosion is brighter than anything in the galaxy.

# 44. Supernovas occur in our galaxy about twice in every 100 years.

# 45. Supernovas occur about once every two seconds in the universe.

# 46. Most white dwarfs will become black dwarf. (Dead Stars)

# 47. Brown dwarfs are failed stars.

# 48. Red dwarfs are the most common stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

# 49. The sun is a yellow dwarf.

# 50. Blue giant stars are rare in the galaxy compared to other stars.

# 51. The star Pollux is an orange giant.

# 52. The sun will eventually become a red giant.

# 53. Blue supergiants have short life spans and are rare compared to other stars.

# 54. Blue hypergiants are extremely luminous.

# 55. The largest know red supergiant is around 1800 times larger than the sun.

# 56. Red hypergiants produce 66,000 times more energy than the sun.

# 57. Neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoon of its matter weighs millions of tons.

# 58. The energy from the core of a star is created through a process called Nuclear Fusion.

# 59. The energy omitted from the core of a star takes around 100 years to hit the surface.

# 60. The temperature of the sun’s core is over 27 million degrees.  

# 61. The temperature of the sin’s corona is over 2 million degrees.  

# 62. The sun is a classified G2 Yellow Dwarf star.

# 63. Earth could fit into the sun over 1 million times.

# 64. The Sun’s official name is called ‘Sol’

# 65. A teaspoon of a Pulsar can weigh as much as the largest mountain on Earth.

# 66. Pulsars spin between 5,000 to 40,000 times per minute.

# 67. Pulsars slow down as they age.

# 68. Magnetars are the most powerful magnets in the universe.  

# 69. Electrons & Protons fused together created Neutrons. Neutrons make up Neutron stars and Magnetars.

# 70. Magnetars are 1000 times more magnetic than normal Neutron stars.

# 71. Neutron stars are 2 trillion times more magnetic than the Earth.  

# 72. A planet is a celestial body that orbits around a star.

# 73. The first Planets outside of the Solar System were discovered in 1992.

# 74. The Kepler mission is the main mission to discover exoplanets. 

# 75. Scientists estimate that 1 in 5 Earth like stars could have at least 1 Earth like planet in its orbit.

# 76. Currently there are no Exoplanets discovered outside of our Galaxy.

# 77. There are many more dwarf planets in the solar system awaiting confirmation.

# 78. Dwarf planets are different to satellites. (moons)

# 79. Ceres was discovered by astronomer Giuseppe Piazza in 1801.

# 80. Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930.

# 81. Haumea was discovered by a team of scientists in 2004.

# 82. Makemake was discovered by a team of scientists in 2005.

# 83. Eris was discovered by a team of scientists in 2005. 

# 84. 18 Mercury’s would fit into the Earth.

# 85. 59 Earth days equals 1 day on Mercury.

^{# 86. Mercury has no Moons.}

# 87. Mercury does not have any rings.

# 88. Mercury was named after the Roman messenger to the gods.

# 89. 1 Venus would fit into the Earth.

# 90. 243 Earth days equals 1 day on Venus.

# 91. Venus has no moons.

# 92. Venus doesn’t have any rings.

# 93. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of Love.

# 94. Earth tilts on an axis of 23.5 degrees.

# 95. Earth has a powerful magnetic field that protects the planet from harmful elements from space.

# 96. Earth has 1 moon.

# 97. Earth doesn’t have any rings.

# 98. The Earth is the densest planet in the solar system.

# 99. 1 Mars would fit into the Earth.

# 100. The Sun looks half the size on Mars as it looks on Earth.

# 101. Mars has 2 moons.

# 102. Mars doesn’t have any rings.

#103. Mars has the largest Volcano in the Solar System called Olympus Mons.

# 104. Jupiter was the first Planet created in the Solar System.

# 105. Jupiter has 4 main moons, known as Galilean Moons, as they were discovered by the famous Astronomer Galileo.

# 106. Jupiter has 67 Moons in total.

# 107. Jupiter has 4 rings.

# 108. The Earth would fit into Jupiter more than 1,000 times.

# 109. Saturn’s moon Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury.

# 110. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system.

# 111. Saturn has 62 moons in total.

# 112. Saturn has 7 layers of rings.

# 113. The Earth would fit into Saturn more than 760 times.

# 114. The seasons on Uranus last 20 years each.

# 115. Uranus has a very large and rocky core at its center.

# 116. Uranus has 27 moons in total.

# 117. Uranus 13 rings.

# 118. Uranus is very Blue in color due to large amounts of methane gas its contains.

# 119. Only one probe from Earth has ever been sent to Neptune.

# 120. Neptune has the strongest winds of any Planet in the Solar System.

# 121. Neptune 13 Moons in total.

# 122. Neptune has 6 Rings.

# 123. Nearly 60 Earth cold fit into Neptune.

# 124. As of 2009 there are 336 known moons in the solar system.

# 125. One of Jupiter’s moon’s called IO has over 400 volcanoes on the surface that are active.

# 126. Ganymede is the largest Moon in the Solar System.

# 127. The Earth’s moon is the 5th largest moon in the solar system.

# 128. The distance from the Earth to the Moon is over 230 thousand miles.

# 129. There are total of 336 known moons in the solar system.

# 130. Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons, is the largest moon in the solar system.

# 131. Jupiter has the most moons of the planets with 67.

# 132. In order to understand if humans could travel and survive in space, scientists first sent animals.

# 133. The average journey time for a space shuttle to reach space from Earth is around 8 minutes. 

# 134. Space starts at 62 miles above the Earth.

# 135. There is no sound in space because there is little to no air in space.

# 136. Space telescopes have helped confirm more accurately the age of the universe.

# 137. Hubble cost $1.5 billion dollars to build.

# 138. Hubble receives its energy from the sun through two large solar panels specially built to the telescope.

# 139. The Kepler telescope has the largest camera ever launched into space.

# 140. The James Webb telescope is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble telescope.

# 141. The word astronaut is Greek for ‘Star Sailor’

# 142. An astronauts suit costs $12million dollars each.

# 143. Most astronauts grow up to two inches taller as a result of being in space.

# 144. The first mission to a comet by an unmanned spacecraft happened in 2014. The mission is called ‘The Rosetta Mission’

# 145. Unmanned spacecraft Voyager 1 has been in space for nearly 40 years (39 years to be exact) and is expected to last in space for at least another 10 years. The voyage was only meant to last for 5 years.

# 146. The rover spacecraft has only been on two surfaces in the solar system. The moon and mars.

# 147. Astronauts need to train for 2 years straight after being selected for the program.

# 148. To become an astronaut with NASA, you need to become a US citizen. 

# 149. NASA selects candidates to become astronauts every 2 years.

# 150. For Astronauts living in space, they see the Sunrise every 90 minutes.

# 151. The longest time any one person has spent in space is 438 days.

# 152. Almost every astronaut experiences sickness while in space.

# 153. The crew on the ISS can see the sun rise and sun set 16 times per day.

# 154. The ISS was founded and created by 14 different nations.

# 155. The ISS orbits earth every 90 minutes.

# 156. The ISS can be tracked for its position on the NASA website.

# 157. The budget for NASA is almost 20 billion dollars a year.

# 158. There have been two space flight disasters in NASA’s history. Space craft Challenger in 1986 & Space craft Columbia in 2003.

# 159. The total world budget for space exploration is over a staggering 40 trillion dollars a year.

# 160. The observable universe has 28 billion parsecs wide.

# 161. The observable universe is over 13.8 billion years old.

# 162. There are over 3 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

# 163. Black holes can be extremely big or extremely small.

# 164. Scientists are sure that there is a super massive Black hole ate the center of the Milky Way galaxy.   

# 165. Scientists believe that Black holes eventually die out.

# 166. Gravity as a force compared to other forces in the universe is quite weak.

# 167. The tides in the oceans are governed by the gravitational forces of the earth and its moon.    

# 168. You would weigh differently on each planet than you would on earth due to the different gravitational pull of each planet.

# 169. Gamma radiation can be re created on earth through nuclear fusion.

# 170. Gamma rays can produce energy that is over 1 million times more that the energy of the sun.  

# 171. Gamma ray bursts could occur anywhere in the universe at any time.

# 171. Total solar eclipses can last up to 8 minutes.

# 173. Once the moon is visible a lunar eclipse can be seen from any location on earth.

# 174. Lunar eclipses can last for hours. 

# 175. Quasars are brighter than the light from multiple galaxies combined.  

# 176. The nearest known quasar to earth is over 780 million light years away.

# 177. Over 190 thousand quasars have been discovered since the 1950’s.

# 178. All quasars have a life cycle and will die out.

# 179. The World Wide Web was founded at CERN.

# 180. The large hadron collider cost over $6 million to complete.

# 181. The hadron collider is the largest machine in the world.

# 182. CERN generates heat that is hotter than the sun.

# 183. Redshifts are in fact Red in colour.

# 184. Blueshifts are in fact Blue in colour.

# 185. Scientist Edwin Hubble has been credited with further confirming the Redshift phenomenon through extensive study now known as Hubble’s Law.   

# 186. Light and wave lengths from the Andromeda galaxy are Blueshifts.

# 187. The Sun formed in a nebula.

# 188. At some stage in the far future the Sun will become a nebula.

# 189. Nebulae form in different shapes and sizes over billions of years making up so wonderful sights.

# 190. Space Junk has a negative effect to other satellites and stations in space.

# 191. Space Junk has existed since the late 1950’s.   

# 192. If Space Junk is not cleared up, we could be trapped on the Earth in the future, making it near extremely difficult for space travel. 

# 193. Various space agencies are working on different ways to clear up Space Junk. 

# 194. The atmosphere on Mars creates wind that creates dust storms.

# 195. The atmosphere on Mercury is very thin producing no weather.  

# 196. The atmosphere in Earth is thick producing mixed weather.

# 197. Voyager 1 moves at a speed of 11 miles per second.

# 198. Voyager 2 moves at a speed of 9.5 miles per second.

# 199. The launch site of the Voyager probes is NASA Cape Canaveral in Florida.

# 200. The Voyager probes were manufactured by Jet Propulsion Laboratories.