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10. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, or 5.88 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
9. The width of our Milky Way galaxy according to NASA is about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers, or 621371192237333888 miles- or in astronomical terms: 100,000 light years.
8. Because most stars are so far away, when you look up into the night sky you are not seeing them as they currently are, but as they were thousands of years ago- that's how long their light takes to reach us
7. Our sun is 3,00,000 times larger than the earth, but in the universe it's a light weight.
6. The largest star in the known universe is VY Canis Majoris- it is 1,400 times larger than our own sun.
5. Red Giants are really old stars that form when stars 10 times the mass of our sun runs out of hydrogen in its core. As it collapses the hydrogen in the outer shells begin the process of fusion, and the entire star begins fusing hydrogen all at once. They will burn through all their fuel in just a few million years- unlike the billions it takes our sun- and shine 100,000 times brighter than our sun. These stars often explode as a Supernova- the most powerful explosion in the universe.
4. The original universe consisted solely of hydrogen and helium- every other element on the periodic table and every single thing you see around you today was formed in the heart of exploding stars. That's because when a star goes supernova it releases huge amounts of energy and neutrons, which produces heavier elements. The carbon in your body and the gold in the jewelry you wear were all made from exploding stars. Only hydrogen and helium were formed from the Big Bang- next time you suck down helium from a party balloon you are sucking down a gas that probably formed just 3 minutes after the Big Bang.
3. Red Giant Betelgeuse, 1000 times larger than our sun, is a cosmic neighbor and expected to go supernova in the next 1,000 years.
2. Some scientists theorize that life is only possible in the outer edges of a galaxy, where large stars are rare and thus supernovas don't routinely sterilize worlds of life. We ourselves are between two arms of the milky way, and in a relatively rural part of the galaxy.
1. Extending well past the orbit of Pluto is a massive sphere of icy objects known as the Oort Cloud. These are remnants from the formation of the solar system, held in place by the weak gravity of the very distant sun