Star Facts for Kids

In this section you’ll learn about the stars. You’ll learn what a star is, how a star is created, the different types of stars and other facts about stars.

Star Facts for Kids

NASA Facts for Kids

In this section you’ll learn about the NASA. Learn how this U.S. space agency leaped mankind forward into space and exposed the world the the universe.

NASA Facts for Kids

Galaxy Facts for Kids

In this section you’ll learn about galaxies. You’ll learn what a galaxy is, the different types of galaxies, about the galaxy Earth is in and other facts about galaxies.

Galaxy Facts for Kids

Comet Facts for Kids

In this section you’ll learn about comets. You’ll learn what a comet is, how a comet gets it tail, history of famous comets and other interesting facts about comets.

Comet Facts for Kids

 

Space, also known as outer space, is the area beyond our planet Earth and between all the other objects in our universe. The space in our universe in vast and very hard to comprehend. Even with all the space in outer space there is a lot of stuff in it. For example, there is over 100 billion known galaxies in our universe. Small galaxies can have as few as 10 million stars, while larger galaxies can have trillions of stars. Each star in one of these galaxies, that has millions or even trillions of stars, can have planets and millions of other astronomical objects around it. The number of things in our universe hasn’t even been made up yet, because we just don’t know. While there is a lot of space in outer space, there is also a lot of stuff.

Space can be very violent, a supernova explosion releases energy equal to ten octillion megatons of TNT. The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was only 15 kilotons. That means a supernova is around 670 septillion (24 zeros) times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Asteroids and comets are common in our Solar System, and probably common in other systems across the universe. These astronomical objects can impact a planet and cause massive devastation. Just think about the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago due to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. An asteroid smashed into Earth and created a 112 mile wide crater (Chicxulub crater) and ended the reign of the dinosaurs.

Space is also an amazing place! Our entire universe is believed to have started from a single point according to the Big Bang theory, and then in a flash our universe was born. There are black holes that are so dense that they can have a mass seven billion times the mass of our Sun but are only a fraction its size. Wormholes are a theoretical tunnel believed to connect different parts of the universe, and even time, together. Galaxies collide with one another, merging into one large galaxy, or a large galaxy may consume a smaller dwarf galaxy. Astronomers believe our universe is made up of dark energy, and that it makes up 68% of the composition of our universe. Dark energy also believed to be powering the accelerated expansion of our universe.