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Black holes are areas of space where gravity is so strong that even the fastest moving particles cannot escape. Even light cannot escape, hence the name "black hole."Karl Schwarzschild, a German physicist and astronomer, proposed the modern version of a black hole in 1915 after finding an exact solution to Einstein's general relativity approximations.Schwarzschild realised that mass could be compressed into an infinitely small point. This would bend spacetime around it, preventing anything – not even massless photons of light – from escaping its curvature. The event horizon is the point at which a black hole begins its descent into oblivion, and the distance between this point and the infinitely dense core – or singularity – is named after Schwarzschild.In theory, every mass has a Schwarzschild radius that can be calculated. If the Sun's mass were to be compressed into an infinitely small point, it would form a black hole with a radius of just under 3 kilometres (abou...

The Earth is our home, and it is the only place in the universe where we can be certain that life exists. Earth formed from a swirling cloud of gas and dust 4.5 billion years ago, giving rise to our entire solar system, including our star, the sun. According to the best scientific theories, this gas and dust collapsed into a disc, with different parts of the disc coalescing into each of our solar system's planets.According to Universe Today, our planet is located in a small corner of the Milky Way galaxy, 25,000 light-years from the galactic centre and 25,000 light-years from the rim. Our solar system is located on the Orion-Cygnus arm, which is a minor branch of the Sagittarius arm, one of the galaxy's two major spiral arms. The Earth is the largest rocky planet in the solar system, with a circumference of 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometres). Our planet orbits the sun at a distance of 93 million miles (150,000 km), providing the ideal temperature for persistent liquid water on th...

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and the fifth in terms of distance from the Sun. It is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, rivalled only by the Moon, Venus, and, on rare occasions, Mars. Jupiter is represented by the symbol ♃. When ancient astronomers named Jupiter after the Roman ruler of the gods and heavens (also known as Jove), they had no idea of the planet's true size, but the name is appropriate because Jupiter is larger than all the other planets combined. It takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun and rotates once every 10 hours, which is more than twice as fast as Earth; its colourful cloud bands can be seen with a small telescope.It has a narrow ring system and 79 known moons, one larger than Mercury and three larger than Earth's Moon. Some astronomers believe Jupiter's moon Europa may be hiding an ocean of warm water—and possibly even life—below its icy crust. Find Out Interesting Facts About Jupiter

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet with a thin atmosphere, with surface features resembling both the Moon's impact craters and Earth's valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps. It is the planet with the highest number of searches for life.Many different cultures from around the world have been observing Mars for hundreds of years. Because Mars is easily visible with the naked eye, it is impossible to attribute its discovery to anyone. Observations date back to ancient Egyptian astronomers in the second millennium BCE, while Chinese records about Mars' motions appeared before the Zhou Dynasty was established in 1045 BCE.Even the Babylonians made detailed observations and developed arithmetic techniques to predict the planet's future position, while the ancient Greeks developed a geocentric model to explain the planet's motions. Find Out More Fascinating facts About Mars

Mercury is slightly larger than our Moon, with a circumference of 15,329 kilometres around its equator. It has a radius of 2,440 kilometres, which is the distance from the core's centre to the surface. Mercury is roughly 2.6 times the size of Earth.Temperatures of around 430°C, hot enough to melt lead, scorch Mercury's sun-facing side. Without a substantial atmosphere to distribute heat away from areas facing the Sun, the planet's slow rotation results in significant temperature differences between its dark and light sides. The side facing away cools to about -180°C. Despite the intense heat that the planet experiences as it rotates, areas that are permanently shaded, such as some polar craters, may contain ice deposits. Temperature swings from day to night make it impossible for life as we know it to thrive on Mercury. Mercury, despite being the closest planet to the Sun, is not the hottest planet in the solar system. Venus's dense atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect...

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy that is approximately 13.6 billion years old and has large pivoting arms that stretch across the cosmos. According to Las Cumbres Observatory, its disc is approximately 100,000 light-years across and only 1000 light-years thick. The solar system orbits the centre of the Milky Way in the same way that Earth orbits the sun. According to Interesting Engineering, despite travelling through space at speeds of around 515,000mph (828,000kmph), it takes our solar system approximately 250 million years to complete a single revolution. When our planet was in this position the last time, dinosaurs were just emerging and mammals had yet to evolve. If the Milky Way were a city, we'd be living in suburbia, about 25,000 to 30,000 light-years away. Life on the outskirts is good; we're in one of the smaller neighbourhoods, the Orion-Cygnus Arm, which is sandwiched between the larger Perseus and Carina-Sagittarius arms. The Scutum-Centaurus and Norma arms ...

The moon is Earth's constant companion and the most visible celestial object in the night sky. For millennia, the rhythm of the moon's phases has guided humanity; for example, calendar months are roughly equal to the time it takes to go from one full moon to the next. However, the moon's orbit and phases can be perplexing. For example, the moon always shows us the same face, but its size changes depending on the moon's position in relation to Earth and the sun.While it is an Earth satellite, the moon is larger than Pluto, with a diameter of about 2,159 miles (3,475 kilometres). (And there are four other moons in our solar system that is bigger than ours.) Find Out More Interesting Facts About Moon

Neptune, along with its cousin Uranus, is our solar system's least-explored planet, having only been visited by a spacecraft once. Despite this, we've discovered more Neptune-sized planets orbiting other stars than any other type of planet. To understand other solar systems and determine whether ours is unique, we must first learn more about the windy blue world in our own backyard.It's unclear where Neptune came from or how it got its water. The disc of dust and gas that formed our solar system most likely did not contain enough material to form Neptune at its current distance from the Sun, which is 30 times farther than Earth. It was probably born closer to the Sun than the other outer planets before moving outward, though the Sun would have evaporated its water if Neptune had been too close. Scientists can learn about the conditions in the early solar system, around the time life arose on Earth, by determining where Neptune was born and how the planet evolved. FInd Out M...

Dwarf planets were introduced to the world in 2006, when Pluto was demoted from planet status and reclassified as a dwarf planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognises Eris and Ceres as dwarf planets. What makes a dwarf planet different from a planet? They are nearly identical in most ways, but there is one significant difference: A dwarf planet has not "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit, which means it does not have gravitational dominance and shares its orbital space with other bodies of similar size. (This definition is being debated by astronomers and other experts.) Find Out More Fascinating Facts About Pluto

Saturn is one of the solar system's most fascinating planets. It is the sixth planet in the solar system and is best known for its spectacular ring system. Because it is one of the brightest lights in the sky, it is very easy to spot in the sky. It also has a very faint greenish hue that distinguishes it from the other objects in the sky ("Astronomy for Kids"). Saturn is the solar system's second largest planet, with Jupiter being the only one that is larger. It also has the most moons of any planet in the solar system, at least eighteen.Saturn is the solar system's second largest planet. Jupiter is the only larger planet. The gas giant has a diameter of 72 thousand miles, making it nearly ten times the size of Earth. Saturn, despite its enormous size, weighs very little. It is a gas planet with a very light atmosphere. Saturn is the solar system's least dense planet, so light that it would float in water. This planet, like Jupiter, is mostly made up of hydrog...

No one can hear you scream in space. This is due to the fact that there is no air in space – it is a vacuum. In a vacuum, sound waves cannot travel. 'Outer space' begins about 100 kilometres above the Earth, where the shell of air that surrounds our planet vanishes. Space appears as a black blanket dotted with stars because there is no air to scatter sunlight and produce a blue sky. Space is commonly thought to be completely empty. But this is not the case. Huge amounts of thinly spread gas and dust fill the vast gaps between stars and planets. Even the most empty parts of space have a few hundred atoms or molecules per cubic metre.Space is also teeming with various types of radiation that are hazardous to astronauts. The Sun is responsible for a large portion of this infrared and ultraviolet radiation. High energy X-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays – particles travelling at near-light speed – arrive from distant star systems. Find Out More Mind Blowing Facts About Space