That's not true! Cars usually use gasoline, diesel, or electricity. Space rockets need much more powerful fuel, like liquid hydrogen and oxygen, to leave Earth and travel into space. They're built for completely different jobs!
That's true! Saturn is a huge planet, but it's mostly made of light gases like hydrogen and helium. It's actually less dense than water. This means if you had a bathtub big enough, Saturn would float!
False! On Mars, the sky is usually reddish-brown or butterscotch-yellow. This is because Mars has lots of red dust in its thin atmosphere. Light scatters differently there than in Earth's atmosphere, which is what makes our sky blue.
The Sun looks super big to us because it's so close to Earth! But in space, there are tons of stars that are way, way bigger. Our Sun is actually a medium-sized star. Some supergiant stars are so huge that millions of suns could fit inside them!
Footprints on the Moon can last for millions of years.
Since there's no wind, rain, or other weather on the Moon, there's nothing to erase the astronauts' footprints. That's why they can stay on the lunar surface for an incredibly long time!
To reach space and escape Earth's pull, rockets are often built in several parts, or stages. When a stage has used all its fuel, the rocket lets go of that part. This makes the rocket lighter and helps it go faster with the next stage's engines. This way, the rocket saves fuel and can go much higher.
That's true! Without Earth's gravity, your spine isn't pushed down in the same way. Astronauts' vertebrae and discs stretch out a little, which can make them up to 5 centimeters (about 2 inches) taller. But once they come back to Earth, they quickly return to their normal height.
Even though the Sun often looks yellow from Earth because of how our atmosphere scatters light, it's actually white! When seen from space, without Earth's layers of air, it appears blindingly white.
Jupiter is a giant rocky planet, just like Earth, but much bigger.
No, Jupiter isn't a rocky planet. It's a gas giant and is mostly made of gases like hydrogen and helium. If you tried to land on Jupiter, you would just sink deeper and deeper into the gases, because there's no solid ground to stand on!
Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, is the warmest planet in our entire solar system.
This is false! Even though Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, Venus is actually the warmest planet. Venus has a very thick atmosphere, full of gases, that acts like a super-blanket. This blanket traps the sun's heat, making the temperature on Venus much higher, even warmer than on Mercury, which has almost no atmosphere to hold onto heat.
If you yelled really loud in space, no one would be able to hear you at all.
That's right! Sound needs something to travel through, like air or water, for us to hear it. In space, there's almost nothing at all, just a big empty void (a vacuum). That's why sound waves can't move, and no one can hear you, no matter how loud you scream!
Our moon, which shines brightly at night, makes its own light just like the sun.
No, that's false! The moon is like a giant mirror that catches the sun's light and sends it down to Earth. So, the moon doesn't make its own light; it borrows it from the sun and reflects it.
Astronauts float freely in space because there is no gravity at all there.
False! There is definitely gravity in space! Without gravity, neither the Moon nor the space station would orbit the Earth. Astronauts float because they and their spaceship are constantly falling around the Earth. It's like a never-ending freefall, which makes them feel weightless. But that's not the same as gravity being completely gone.
The planet Uranus spins almost completely on its side as it orbits the sun.
That's true! Most planets spin almost straight up and down, but Uranus is unique! Its axis is tilted by a whole 98 degrees, making it look like it's rolling sideways, like a soccer ball someone kicked over. This gives Uranus very strange and long seasons, where one pole can point towards the sun for decades while the other is in darkness.
The footprints astronauts left on the Moon will stay there for millions of years.
That's true! On the Moon, there's no wind or water to erode (wear away) the surface, and no atmosphere. So, the astronauts' footprints and vehicle tracks will stay there for millions of years, almost exactly as they were left.
No, the Earth is not flat! It's round, like a big ball, but a little squashed at the poles. That's why we can fly all the way around the planet without falling off!
That's true! In space, there is no air or other particles for sound waves to travel through. That's why it's completely silent! Astronauts use radio to talk to each other in space.
False! Only some of the large gas planets have clear rings, like Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Earth and the other rocky planets have no rings.