The universe is stranger than fiction
Black holes, dying stars, and worlds where it rains diamonds.
Why Moon Dust Acts Like Shards of Glass
The Moon is covered in microscopic glass needles that can eat through a space suit.
The Silent Vacuum Where Sound Waves Die
Sound cannot travel in space because there is no matter to vibrate, leaving the universe completely silent.
The Cosmic Lens That Warps Reality
Massive galaxies are so heavy that they actually bend light beams, acting like giant magnifying glasses in space.
The Massive Gas Giant That Naturally Floats
If you could find a bathtub wide enough to hold it, the planet Saturn would bob on the surface like a cork.
The Solar System's Stinkiest Planet
The upper clouds of Uranus smell exactly like rotting eggs.
A Dwarf Planet Smaller Than the Russian Border
Russia consumes more physical space on our map than the entire surface of Pluto.
The planet where your birthday happens every day
Venus spins so slowly that its day lasts longer than its entire year, creating a world where the sun rises in the west.
The Teaspoon That Weighs More Than a Mountain
A single teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh a staggering 1 billion tons.
The Sun is Not Actually Yellow
If you looked at the Sun from the International Space Station, it would be pure white.
Deep Space Smells Like Raspberries and Rum
A giant gas cloud at the center of the galaxy is made of the same chemical that flavors fruit.
Mercury is Closer to the Sun, but Venus is Hotter
Venus reaches temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to a runaway greenhouse effect.
Jupiter's moon explodes with 400 active volcanoes
Io is the most geologically violent place in the solar system, featuring lava lakes and plumes that reach space.
The Moon is slowly filing for divorce from Earth
The Moon is drifting away from us at the same speed your fingernails grow, and it’s actually slowing down our planet’s rotation.
The Planets Where it Rains Solid Diamonds
Deep inside Jupiter and Saturn, the sky literally rains gemstones as large as hail.
The Planet Where It Snows Heavy Metal
The highest peaks on Venus are capped with a metallic frost made of lead and bismuth instead of ice.
The Sky Screams Liquid Diamonds
On Neptune and Uranus, the atmosphere is so heavy it crushes methane gas into solid diamonds that sink like hailstones.
The Wow! Signal
In 1977 a radio telescope picked up a 72-second burst from deep space that has never repeated. We still can't explain it.
A single dust storm can swallow all of Mars for months
They last for months. Sometimes years.
Something might be waiting on the other side of a black hole
What physicists secretly think happens at the center.
There's a nebula shaped exactly like a human eye
And it's 700 light-years away, watching back.