Wacky Facts

Without gravity, tears do not fall; they form a ball of liquid on the eye.

Laser measurements using reflectors left by Apollo astronauts show the Moon moves away about 3.8 cm a year.

Launched in September 2023, it observes the Sun from the L1 point about 1.5 million km from Earth.

It was last seen in 1986 and will return in 2061.

It spins once in just under 10 hours despite being the largest planet.

Energy from the core bounces around the dense interior for an estimated tens of thousands of years before reaching the surface. Then it reaches Earth in about 8 minutes.

The Sun’s diameter is about 109 times Earth’s, so its volume could hold roughly 1.3 million Earths.

This giant storm has been observed for well over 150 years and is wider than Earth, although it has been shrinking in recent decades.

Without gravity compressing the spine, astronauts can grow up to about 3% taller. They return to normal height after coming back to Earth.

ISRO’s Vikram lander touched down near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023. India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon.

Venus takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once but only about 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun, and it spins backwards compared with most planets.

Though farther from the Sun, Venus’s thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere traps heat, keeping its surface around 465 °C.

Fine dust in the Martian atmosphere scatters blue light forward, so sunsets on Mars appear bluish, the opposite of Earth.

Its axis is tilted about 98 degrees, possibly due to an ancient collision, so each pole gets about 42 years of continuous sunlight.

It travels at roughly 28,000 km/h, completing an orbit about every 90 minutes, so its crew sees around 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

Pluto’s diameter is about 2,377 km; the Moon’s is about 3,475 km. It was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Point Nemo in the South Pacific is about 2,700 km from the nearest land; the International Space Station, about 400 km up, can pass much closer.

Seismometers left by Apollo astronauts recorded quakes, some lasting over 10 minutes.

In 1984 he flew aboard Soyuz T-11. Asked how India looked from space, he replied “Saare Jahan Se Achha”.

Earth has an estimated 3 trillion trees; the Milky Way is estimated to contain about 100–400 billion stars.

Launched in 1977, each carries a record of sounds and images from Earth, including music from India.

The molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 near the Milky Way’s centre contains vast amounts of ethyl alcohol.

Named after the 5th-century mathematician, it was launched on 19 April 1975 with Soviet help.

ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, making India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit and the first to do so on its maiden try.

Some pulsars — spinning neutron stars — rotate more than 700 times per second, sweeping beams of radiation like cosmic lighthouses.

Astronauts returning from spacewalks have described a metallic, burnt or seared-meat smell on their suits, thought to come from reactive oxygen atoms and other compounds.