I’ve been fascinated for decades about anything related to space travel. I can thank my mother for that when shortly after Sputnik made its appearance she showed up in my bedroom with paint brushes and paints. She then proceeded to turn my bedroom into a huge space mural filled with planets, stars, meteorites, and spaceships.. She knew I loved anything related to space travel because I was already a sci-fi junkie at the ripe old age of five. Today’s post contains information that I’ve picked up along the way concerning the space race and weird little factoids that you may never have heard before. I hope you enjoy them.

• Our galaxy is so wide that, at the speed of light, it would take you 100,000 years to cross it.

• A meteorite the size of the school bus would destroy the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.

• The volume of the Earth’s moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.

• A solar flare is basically a gigantic magnetic arch-like horseshoe magnet-that attracts itself inward, back to the surface of the sun.

• The famous Halley’s Comet returns to earth every 76 years. It last appeared in 1986 and will reappear here again in 2062.

• A solar flare, ejected from the sun’s surface, can reach speeds of 190 miles per second or 306 kilometers per second.

• It takes 3 minutes for the sunlight that is reflected from the moon to reach our eyes.

• Astronauts are not permitted to eat beans before they go into space because the methane gas released while passing wind can damage spacesuit materials.

• A light-year is the distance light travels in one year or 870,000,000,000 miles or 9.4 5 trillion kilometers.

• A Martian day lasts 24 hours, 37 min., and 23 seconds. And Earth Day last 23 hours, 56 min., and 4 seconds.

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Here’s a salute to one of the greatest minds of all time.

Here’s fair warning to some of you out there with outrageous or ridiculous theories. Galileo got into trouble with the Inquisition for his many theories, and spent some serious time in prison. The fact that he was correct made no difference.

TIME TO BLAST OFF