Our understanding of the workings of the universe is better than it has ever been, but there are still a number of misconceptions that manage to fool many of us. Some of the following might sound plausible, but barely any of it is true: the Sun is a burning orb of yellow fire and the temperature is higher during the summer months because we orbit closer than we do in winter. Mercury is the closest planet to our star and must therefore be the hottest.
The lunar phases are caused by the shadow of Earth and at night we can only see one side of the Moon, so the other must be in perpetual darkness. The stars form patterns with their close neighbours and are grouped into local constellations. The twinkling light that they produce travels to Earth in a straight line, unaffected by the pull of gravity. Comets race past with their tails pointing back towards the direction that they came from, and as meteorites tumble through the atmosphere, they heat up so much that it’s not safe to pick them up from the ground.
In space, astronauts experience zero gravity and the only human-made object they can see is the Great Wall of China. Friction on re-entry heats their spacecraft to thousands of degrees, and if the astronauts were unfortunate enough to have a collision in space, it would make an audible bang. Any astronaut exposed to the vacuum of space without a spacesuit would explode due to a pressure imbalance. Saturn is the only planet with rings, but in order to reach it you have to travel through the asteroid belt, which is so packed with rocks that it is like a minefield. And watch out for black holes, because they’ll suck you straight in.
1 BLACK HOLES SUCK
This story is from the Issue 134 edition of All About Space UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Issue 134 edition of All About Space UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
LONG AGO, A LAKE ON MARS MAY HAVE BEEN SPRAWLING WITH MICROBES
Curiosity discovered manganese oxide in bedrock in a Martian region that may have been a shoreline billions of years ago
MOON TOUR HELL
Finding this fascinating crater isnt as hard as its name suggests...
THIS MONTH'S PLANETS
Most of the planets are tricky targets this month, but our guide will help you locate them
UNIVERSE BEFORE TIME
Could the existence of a mirror-image cosmos before the Big Bang solve some of the biggest mysteries in astronomy?
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Alongside Earth, our planetary neighbourhood is changing, but it’s not for the better…
Stars give tiny planets a gravitational 'squeeze' to strip away their atmospheres
A scientist has learned more about the violent processes that rip atmospheres away from planets, finding that squashing and squeezing by a parent star can contribute to this process.
The Milky Way's halo is filled with ‘magnetic doughnuts' as wide as 100,000 light years
The outer halo of the Milky Way is filled with magnetic fields that take the shape of vast doughnuts with diameters ranging from 12,000 to 100,000 light years, with the heart of our galaxy at their centre.
The Pentagon wants the commercial space reserve to support military satellites in orbit
The US Department of Defense is developing a plan to use the ever-growing American commercial space industry for national security purposes.
DOES A COSMIC 'GLITCH' IN GRAVITY CHALLENGE ALBERT EINSTEIN'S GREATEST THEORY?
Gravity changes once you reach a cosmic scale
DEEP SKY CHALLENGE : STELLAR TREASURES OF THE ARCHER AND SCORPION
Summer skies are stuffed full of amazing objects for your telescope - if you're prepared to stay up late
