Things You Were Lied to About Space

Our Sun is the center of our Solar System and provides the energy that sustains life on Earth. It is a star, just like the billions of other stars that exist in the universe. However, many people have misconceptions about what our Sun looks like, how it functions, and what space is really like. In this article, we will debunk some of these common misconceptions and reveal the truth about our Sun and space.

Misconception #1: Our Sun is a bright yellow ball of fire

If you’ve always thought of our Sun as a bright yellow ball of fire, you were wrong. For starters, it’s not yellow – it’s green, sort of. Scientists determine the temperature of a star by the color spectrum it emits. Each color has its own wavelength, and astronomers measure those wavelengths to determine how hot a star is. Cooler stars appear red, while the hottest stars look blue. Our Sun emits most of its energy at a wavelength that’s close to green. However, because it also emits other wavelengths, all these colors mix together, and our eyes see this vibrant mixture as white.

From Earth, the Sun appears yellow because our atmosphere is good at scattering blue light. Without that blue wavelength, all the other colors combine into yellow. If our star was actually yellow, it would be about 800 degrees Celsius cooler, and Earth would become a frozen, lifeless rock.

Misconception #2: Our Sun is on fire

The Sun is hot, but it’s not on fire. Burning is a chemical reaction of oxygen and fuel. Like most stars, our Sun is a ball of gas mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. It doesn’t have much oxygen in it. Instead, it works more like a gigantic nuclear reactor, constantly fusing hydrogen atoms to create helium inside its core. This process releases enormous amounts of energy, and that’s why the Sun is so scorching hot.

Misconception #3: Explosions can happen in space

Explosions in space are not real. A spaceship can’t go down in a violent blast because there’s no air out there. No air means no oxygen, and no oxygen means no fire. Sorry, Star Wars fans.

Misconception #4: There are too many stars to count

It may seem like there are too many stars in the night sky to count, but actually, you can count them. According to the Yale bright star catalog, there are 9,110 stars that you can see from Earth with the naked eye. Try to count them all for yourself!

Misconception #5: Navigating the asteroid belt is a challenge

Movies make it look like you need to be an extremely skilled pilot to navigate the asteroid belt, but that’s not true. The asteroid belt isn’t some thick obstacle course of death. It does have trillions of space rocks that range in size from space dust to a quarter the size of the Moon. About 100,000 of these asteroids are over one kilometer wide, but they’re very spread out. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is 225 million kilometers across, which is one and a half times the distance between Earth and the Sun. This spreads the space rocks millions of kilometers apart, making it almost impossible for a spacecraft to collide with one.

Misconception #6: You would instantly freeze and explode in space

If you were thrown out of the airlock into the vastness of space, you wouldn’t turn into a popsicle right away. That’s because to freeze, there has to be a heat transfer from space to your body. However, heat or cold doesn’t travel very fast in the vacuum of space. Your body would freeze