30+ Facts Made Me a Bit Scared of Space

the moon is the earth's closest space neighbor and its only natural satellite it likely formed when a huge mars-sized object crashed into our planet billions of years ago i wasn't around then this catastrophe turned earth into a scorching ball of molten rock it also pushed some material into its orbit creating the moon now this heavily cratered sphere moves around our planet this causes high and low tides around the globe a bit more than one-fourth the size of earth it's the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system the moon has several phases for example new full or crescent moon first and last quarter but whatever the satellite looks like you can always find it in the night sky and sometimes even during the day but imagine waking up at night and noticing that the moon looks somewhat different than usual it seems brighter and bigger it's hardly noticeable especially when you're half asleep you go back to bed unaware that instead of the moon you've just seen mercury close up this planet the nearest to the sun is similar to our natural satellite its surface is littered with craters left by space rocks mercury is about two-fifths the size of our planet but it's still a bit larger than the moon that's why the planet would have a greater influence on earth nights would become brighter high tides would become higher and low tides what do you think lower yep the lunar cycle that's the time the moon or rather mercury now needs to go through all the phases would become 14 hours shorter but all in all such a replacement wouldn't have any drastic consequences for our planet but then how about venus what if instead of the familiar satellite we swap in the third brightest natural object after the sun and the moon it's often called earth's sister planet because their mass and size are nearly the same venus would be as large in our sky as earth once appeared to the apollo astronauts when they looked at it from the moon surface the morning star would be much brighter than the moon for one thing the planet reflects six times more sunlight plus it would occupy an area at least 16 times larger that's why nights on earth would be as bright as early twilight now if you looked at venus you'd spot vague swirling patterns in the planet's yellowish white cloud cover venus wouldn't become earth satellite the two planets would likely orbit around their common center of mass and this orbit would be quite eccentric like me but if venus moved with the same speed as the moon has now the two planets would crash into each other in the nearest future uh-oh okay let's pull another switcheroo if mars was up there in the sky instead of the moon you'd surely notice it the planet's disc would look radish oops sorry make that reddish and it would be almost twice the moon's size even without a telescope you'd be able to marvel at its unusual color and dark spots on its surface and even if you didn't see the red planet you'd still feel something unusual mars is half of earth's size but several times larger than the moon replacing a smaller space body with a much bigger one would upset the delicate balance on our planet if you were unlucky to be at the seaside when mars took the moon's place you'd have to evacuate as soon as possible massive waves would rise in the oceans under martian influence they would crash against the shoreline like the largest tsunamis mars would be reflecting more sunlight than the moon nights would be lighter terrestrial landscapes would have an eerie red tint and you'd be able to admire the tallest mountain in the solar system olympus mons through a telescope mars isn't large enough to change the earth's orbit dramatically but with time the two planets would probably begin to orbit each other creating a binary planet system and since mars would literally be next door voyages to this planet would become a reality okay now think really big if jupiter replaced the moon earth as an independent planet wouldn't exist anymore it would instantly turn into another moon of the largest planet in the solar system the only positive moment in this transformation people would have an awesome sky view jupiter is dozens of times larger than the moon a gigantic beautifully striped sphere would cover nearly all the horizon if you had time to enjoy the show you'd see yellow brown red and white clouds floating in jupiter's atmosphere sadly the gas giant's gravitational pull would instantly cause severe earthquakes volcanic eruptions and tsunamis earth's mantle and crust would be drawn toward jupiter which would break the planet apart it'd be stretched and compressed with such force that its surface would bulge back and forth by more than 300 feet unfortunately earth speed is only 10 of the speed needed for us to stay in jupiter's orbit that's why our sluggish planet would crash into the gas giant in less than a day well that sounds unpleasant so let's not do that now if saturn were to replace the moon it would be a sight to behold the planet is more than 35 times larger than our satellite it means the giant golden globe would cover 18 degrees of the sky and its rings would stretch even further from horizon to horizon hey if you like it then you should have put a ring on it earth would be a bit further away from the gas giant than its own moon dion and since saturn is way more powerful than our planet earth would turn into its satellite not the other way around unfortunately earth's rotational speed wouldn't be enough to keep up and we'd most likely crash into the much larger planet within a day or two but before burning up in saturn's atmosphere we'd have to pass through its magnificent rings they're made up of pieces of comets asteroids and shattered moons it wouldn't be an easy feat to get through this space debris plus our planet would have to avoid saturn's moons all 53 of them but what if the fall didn't happen and earth did turn into saturn's 54th moon then the gas giant's gravitational pull would lead to massive tectonic shifts all over our globe they would be tearing the planet's crust apart until there's nothing left not good either both uranus and neptune are ice giants these planets are the same size larger than earth but smaller than saturn and jupiter they both have icy interiors deep atmospheres and similar color very beautiful bluish green if either of these planets replace the moon the consequences would be the same so let's flip a coin okay it would be neptune you'd see in the sky one day neptune is 14 times larger than the moon the planet would look like a bright blue hot air balloon in the sky not only at night but during the day too it would appear to be 15 times larger than the sun if everything else remained the same a solar eclipse would seem to continue for ages once the sun vanished behind neptune's edge our planet would be plunged into complete darkness for no less than an hour and a half neptune is 17 times the mass of earth and its gravitational pull is much stronger that's why our planet would end up as a satellite yep again it would orbit neptune slightly further than its own largest moon triton by the way there would be a great risk of earth colliding with this space body but let's assume we were lucky enough not to cross path with neptune satellites even so there would be more than enough problems on our hands tides on our planet would become a thousand times more powerful than those caused by the moon neptune's gravitational force wouldn't pull earth apart but it would heat our planet up the seismic activity would increase setting off earthquakes and volcanic eruptions use your imagination to draw two parallel horizontal lines now connect these lines at any point you want in two different ways with a vertical line that goes straight from the bottom line to the top one and with a diagonal line which line is shorter of course the vertical one it's the shortest route to connect the top and bottom lines with each other and that's also the most basic answer to our question it's faster and easier to get into orbit by just going straight up from the ground the bottom line is the earth's surface our planet is a complex hodgepodge of all kinds of matter which is combined into an impressive mass almost six sextillion tons this likes six thousand billions of billions lots of zeros there just like my middle school math scores all that math basically works like a colossal magnet that besides other significant feats allows the earth to maintain one thing we all know and love the atmosphere the top line is the limit of the earth's atmosphere anything beyond that is the planetary orbit and outer space but the atmosphere itself is also filled with matter it's a combination of gas that has its own density when a shuttle is launched all the mass of this gas was constantly pushing on it which caused friction effectively slowing it down going through a vacuum is like cutting through the air whereas getting through the atmosphere is like going through jelly grape or strawberry it took a lot of energy and force to get through it while being pulled back by that giant gravitational magnet called earth airplanes don't struggle this much with getting through the atmosphere because they use its density to lift up from the ground and maintain altitude two things help them with that the thrust of their engines and the form of their wings the wings of an airplane force the air in front of them to split into two streams naturally these streams want to reunite behind the wing but the shape of it makes the upper stream go faster the faster the air goes the less dense it becomes and that means that the airstream that goes underneath the wing is denser than the upper one this creates a gradual lift for the airplane basically wings make it so that the airplane can glide on the air but of course that wouldn't be possible without a huge force pushing the airplane along this is what thrust is for just to take off from the ground an airplane needs to attain a huge speed the speed varies enormously between different kinds of airplanes 60 miles an hour for light planes and about 150 miles per hour for airliners and just to take off and climb to 10 000 feet the boeing 747 needs a little less than three tons of fuel that may sound impressive but let's look at that space shuttle the first obvious things are the cute tiny stubby wings that wouldn't be of any use for a horizontal takeoff but if one was built with more excessive wings they wouldn't be of any use in the vacuum of space it would also be hard to make them sturdy enough to make it through the launching process the little wings of a space shuttle served only one purpose to land the shuttle safely so it could be reused in future missions they were just big enough to prevent the shuttle from spinning uncontrollably during the descent through the atmosphere and to glide it to the ground it didn't utilize any engine operations during landing at all the engines of the space shuttle were nothing like the engines of a plane the airplane's engines needed air from the atmosphere to work the shuttle's engines obviously didn't since atmospheric air would have been hard to find in space instead the shuttle used rocket engines to show what rocket means here and how these engines work just blow up a balloon and release it from your hand it'll fly around until there's no air left inside all the while being pushed in the opposite direction as the air coming out to fly up a rocket engine has to throw off enough thrust and burn the right amount of fuel to do the job in fact space shuttles needed so much fuel during their ascent to make enough thrust that they couldn't do it on its three engines alone they needed two additional solid rocket boosters and a huge separate fuel tank that was jettisoned at the final stage of the launch and a shuttle would only go into orbit if it had enough power the power of a shuttle with three engines and two boosters is around 7.8 million pounds of thrust to power up this much push an external tank held around 1.6 million pounds of rocket fuel and to keep the flight under control those three engines had to be mind-numbingly complicated in structure but would it be even possible to fly a shuttle into orbit if it was modified to use the atmosphere like planes well unfortunately the answer is no it would take even more fuel to maintain the needed speed for the distance of a diagonal launching trajectory the thing is even if a plane climbs to the upper part of the atmosphere the earth still won't let it get away to escape the atmosphere any object that starts from the earth would have to be fast enough to cross the point of so-called escape velocity this velocity is needed to overpower the gravitational pull of the planet and let an object go into orbit for our planet this orbital speed is 17 500 miles per hour it's obviously way faster than the speed of sound and many many times faster than the cruising speed of an airliner now try to imagine an aircraft that goes this fast and how much fuel it would require on top of that it'd have to be sturdy enough to keep itself in one piece while doing so the cost and complicated technology would just be unrealistic the possibility that shuttles have become a thing of the past has caused scientists and engineers alike to try to find even better solutions for getting into orbit and beyond one such idea proposes that in the future people would be able to go to space on a huge space elevator a space elevator is the concept of a huge tower that connects to a satellite at the top which moves in line with the rotational movement of the earth itself the tower is supposed to be about 22 000 miles high and made of extremely durable material carbon nanotubes the platform inside the tower is planned to be set in motion via electromagnetic powered vehicles the trip from earth to the satellite would take just five hours this megastructure would allow for a cheaper and safer way of getting into space but carbon nanotubes were proved not sturdy enough for building a tower this huge so the search for an ideal material continues another project that uses a similar approach is called a space tram the structure needed to launch this project isn't as big but still quite impressive it's a vertical vacuum tunnel that pushes a magnetically levitated shuttle it won't be slowed down by the air and it'll be pushed and accelerated with an electromagnetic force through the tunnel it'll then shoot into the skies at a speed close to escape velocity the shuttle powered by this tunnel will weigh less because it won't need to carry a lot of fuel no word yet on how human beings would survive such acceleration riders might look like pancakes upon arrival if these ideas sound strange to you and they do then get ready for the last one it's possible that people will use planes as a way of getting into orbit no i didn't lie to you previously the plane won't go into space by itself instead it'll be used as a launch platform even better huh for this purpose a special aircraft will be made with an almost 400 foot wingspan and capable of climbing to an altitude of 35 000 feet small shuttles launched from this aircraft won't have to go through so much of the thick atmosphere making it easier for them to get out from the gravitational pull of the earth richard branson is working on this technique right now with this virgin galactic program to take tourists to the edge of space why is there so much light on earth but almost none once you leave our planet you might think it's light during the day and dark at night because the earth spins on its axis and the sun illuminates either hemisphere well that's part of the reason but it's more complicated than that i mean our star shines on the moon too but the sky above it is always black it comes down to the unique atmosphere surrounding our earth it's full of dust dirt gases and water droplets which all act like tiny mirrors and reflect the sunlight when sunlight bumps into these small particles it diffuses and creates different colors that's why we see a blue sky and all those spectacular shades during sunrise and sunset it's a whole different story elsewhere if you find yourself on the moon where there's no atmosphere the sky will be black you'll be able to see stars even when the sun is blazing on the surface during the lunar day the same is true of space it's filled with lots of different gases but it has no atmosphere with molecules to reflect sunlight in other words space is empty that's why even when the sun is shining space looks like a black void if one day the earth's atmosphere disappeared it'd be just as dark as it is in space or on the moon that one's clear but the sun isn't the only star or source of light in the universe so why don't other stars shine with blazing light at night well you're not the first one to wonder about that an astronomer named thomas diggs researched this question back in the 16th century diggs was sure that the universe had no end and the stars in it could not be counted he tried to answer why all these innumerable stars don't blind us with glaring light but failed his questions were just way far ahead of his time and he didn't have the tools to find the answer in the early 19th century german astronomer wilhelm obers suggested that the reason the sky is dark at night was a dusty veil that hid most of the stars from us this idea also proved to be wrong later the stars shed not only light but huge energy that could heat dust particles so that they would start shining themselves in that case the night sky would still be light because of shining dust and yet the sky gets dark every evening after sunset what's bad about this theory then diggs olbers and other astronomers of the past believe the universe was infinite but modern astronomy knows better the number of stars as countless as they may seem is simply not enough to illuminate the sky at night the sky gets dark because the stars just as the universe itself don't last forever they are finite you see the universe has its own borders and isn't as ancient as scientists used to think sure just shy of 14 billion years is no whippersnapper to us humans but is still surprisingly young in cosmic terms and it's not much for all of the light from the most distant stars to be able to reach the earth in other words thanks to our fancy powerful telescopes we now know that it takes light billions of years to get to us from the farthest stars this means when we look at the sky we glance into a very distant past modern telescopes can show us that the light started its journey to the earth about 10 billion years ago the more powerful telescopes get the further back in time we can see one day we'll be able to see something that existed before stars appeared probably by studying the dark gaps between them but more on that here in a sack okay stars don't illuminate our night sky all that much because they're really old even as we look up at them and they're unimaginably far away if that's the case then why don't less distant stars shine as bright as the sun there should be thousands of stars much closer than those on the outskirts of the universe yeah sure there are plenty let's take a look at our closest space neighbor proxima centauri as an example it's practically in our backyard just over four light years away from us but we can't even see it in the sky without a telescope the thing is it's seven times smaller than our sun and it gives off only a fraction of one percent of the sun's brightness and our close neighbor just four light years down the road is still pretty far away about 25 trillion miles for comparison our own big bright sun is a mere 93 million miles from earth so our star is much bigger and closer other stars might be brighter than the sun but they're much farther from us too but don't all those distant stars give at least some noticeable light on this planet well i'll put it this way it'd be like switching on a ton of tiny halogen light bulbs they're not as bright as one big led bulb but they do give off part of its light so yeah they give us a little bit of something but it's barely noticeable remember space might be empty compared to the earth's atmosphere but there are a lot of gases out there they move around form clouds and serve as a sort of veil hiding most of the light in the milky way that's why we can't see everything that's going on in our galaxy we need special equipment for that but it turns out ulbers was sort of right only the curtain that covers the light is made of gas and not dust where the big bang comes into play the theory states that the universe was born in a big bang 13.8 billion years ago since that time everything has been moving away from the point where it all began that is the universe is expanding and objects within it are getting farther from each other with time sources of light also move away and spread out which means space is getting darker and the number of black areas is growing they move at their own speed for billions of years and our telescopes and satellites fancy as they may be can't notice or track this movement

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

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Keywords: interesting facts, facts about the planet, facts about the earth, facts about nature, amazing facts, facts of life, bright side, bright side videos, bright side facts, facts about animals, cool facts about space, cool facts bright side, what if mars was instead of moon, moon, mars, space suit, galaxy

Id: xR42g1JkKic

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021