You are probably one of those people who, because of popular culture myths, believes many of these false stories and ideas about space. Myths about outer space are among the most widespread.
Today we’ll bust several of those outer space myths to give you a better idea of how the universe works.
Myth 1: Space is very far away
Well no, imagine that your car can go up vertically through the air. How long do you think it will take to reach space at a speed of approximately 100 kilometers per hour?
The answer is, surprisingly, one hour. The Kármán line is at that altitude, defining the border between atmospheric and terrestrial space. However, NASA suggests that outer space begins at an altitude of 122 kilometers. So this unreachable thing is a myth about outer space.
Myth 2: The first object launched into space was a satellite in 1957
In 1944, a German scientist launched a rocket called V2, which rose to an altitude of 188 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Crossing the space frontier, the V2 takes the merits of the development of outer space that we have today.
Myth 3: Black holes absorb everything in their path
This is one of the myths about outer space that almost everyone knows and believes. Of course black holes have a gravitational pull that won’t let any victim escape, but celestial bodies are so far apart by the vastness of the universe that no black hole has a chance to suck anything in.
Also, black holes are not eternal. According to the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, they gradually lose their mass until they disappear, like everything else in the universe.
Myth 4: The night sky makes millions of stars visible
Although according to current data, 1 quadrillion stars inhabit the universe and counting, only about 6 thousand can be seen from Earth, and this number is reduced to 3 thousand for each hemisphere.
However, that amount will only be possible to see for the inhabitants of the desert or the mountains. In any city, a resident will have to settle for 200 stars at most.
Myth 5: Mercury, the most hellish place in the solar system
If we consider that Mercury is closer to the sun, it would be reasonable to think so. However, the title of the most hellish place in the solar system goes to Venus, whose temperature is around 460 °C, while Mercury is more “cold” with about 350 °C, and at night it drops down to −170 °C The fact that it does not have an atmosphere means that the heat does not stop and the environment is more uncontrolled, which is why some scientists affirm that ice can paradoxically be found at the poles of the planet.
Myth 6: Mars has a human face
In 1976, Viking 1 photographed what appeared to be a human face, which quickly caused quite a stir and a slew of conspiracy theories about the etching’s origin.
Some claimed that they were aliens who wanted to communicate with us. However, in 1998, more detailed photographs revealed that it was just a shadow play, and the story remained as one of the outer space myths that continue to be passed on by word of mouth.
Myth 7: Astronauts “swim” in spacecraft
Usually, we imagine astronauts swimming inside the spaceship, this because of television more than anything. But in reality, they are in a state of weightlessness, since at the altitude of the space station flight, which is 350 kilometers above Earth, the gravitational force is 10 percent less than that of the surface of the terrestrial planet.
It is something similar to what a skydiver feels in the first seconds of flight.
Myth 8: Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are made entirely of gas
According to current theories, the gas giants, that is, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, are composed differently from the rest of the planets, such as Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury, which are solid. The first ones are purely gaseous, however, as we move further inland it passes into a liquid state, and beyond, a place that is made of something similar to molten metal.
Supposedly, inside the gas giants is the core made of earth or metal, but for sure, nobody knows.
Myth 9: The size of the observable universe is no more than 13.8 billion light-years
If you think about it, it makes sense, if the Big Bang had occurred about 13.8 billion years ago, surely we could observe objects from the event at a distance of 130 sextillion kilometers. But the objects that science has been able to observe are located at a distance of 46 billion light years, that is, 435 sextillion kilometers from us. Weird, no?
Well no, it’s all about the unstoppable expansion of the universe, which has been going on since the moment of the Big Bang. For example, a light wave that approached the Earth about 13 billion years ago, during this time traversed an impressive distance and may now be about 40 billion light-years from here, farther than when it started.
Did you believe any of these myths? Do you know of any myths about outer space that most people believe? Tell us what you think.