25 CREEPY Space Facts You Can't Unlearn

 

the training process for me is  incredible because no  day is the same we've been learning to  fly t38s  we've been learning to fly the robotic  arm we've been learning  space station systems you're constantly  changing your focus but you always have  that one  part of training that just doesn't your  brain isn't wired for and for me that's  learning russian for anyone aspiring to  become an astronaut  stop and think for a moment space  is scary it's pretty much the last place  you want to be  it's cold empty dark and full of  unexplained mysteries that are the stuff  of nightmares so what are some of these  creepy facts that you can't unlearn  after hearing them number 25 cosmic  beautician  people pay good money to get rid of dead  skin on the bottom of their feet  but space has you covered while in orbit  dead skin  peels off in huge chunks as you no  longer need it to protect your feet  while walking  24. monkey feet after the skin peels off  astronauts form rough bulbous calluses  on the top of their feet from using them  to hook around bars and grip  while floating much the same way that a  monkey uses its tail  23. don't forget to recycle water's  scarce on the international space  station  it's not just like you can turn on the  tap for someone to live up in space for  a full year  they have to drink 730 liters of their  own recycled body fluids  that's right sweat and pee number 22  unforeseen forces there's something we  can't see  detect or measure that's pulling  galaxies apart and driving them towards  a single point at tremendous speed  it's not a black hole but the mysterious  dark force  a rather unimaginative name for  something we know nothing about  21. eternal darkness eventually our  milky way galaxy will merge with  other surrounding galaxies forming one  super big galaxy  if it sounds like a bright shining place  it won't be the quickening expansion of  the universe will pull galaxies apart  faster than light can travel creating a  dark void despite the bright light of  all those stars  number 20 deep impact small meteorites  pepper the earth all the time  with some bigger than others the 1908  tunguska event was one such meteor that  thankfully broke apart in the atmosphere  three miles above earth despite that it  flattened 80  million trees in an area of 830 square  miles  and broke windows hundreds of miles away  with a shock wave a thousand times  stronger than the hiroshima nuclear bomb  19. another deep impact russia seems to  be  unlucky as another meteorite broke up in  the earth's atmosphere in 2013.  400 people living in the region of  chelevinsk were injured by the falling  fragment  it's scary to think a meteor could fall  to earth at literally  any time number 18. the mayans knew  the world didn't end in 2012 but the  earth missed out on being bombarded by a  solar storm of unprecedented proportions  by just  two days if it hit the earth every piece  of technology  would have been rendered useless putting  us back into the stone age  17. who cut the cheese though you can't  smell space directly  astronauts have reported a funky odor on  the outside of their suits and within  airlocks  it's been described as sweaty feet and  stale body odor  mixed with nail polish remover and  gasoline not great  number 16 strap yourself in sleeping in  space  isn't as easy as you think astronauts  have to keep their bodies in sleeping  bags attached  to the wall and put velcro straps around  their heads to keep them on the pillow  number 15 close encounters there are  billions of earth-like planets in the  universe so it's reasonable to assume  that at least one is home to intelligent  life  humans are limited in our listening  capacity we may have  already missed the message but then  again maybe not  14. don't leave us every year the moon  moves four centimeters further away from  the earth  well this seems like only a fraction  given enough time  the moon will be distant enough to  affect the rotation of our planet  number 13 body transformation after just  six months in space  severe muscular atrophy sets in as  muscles waste away from disuse  faces become red swollen and puffy known  as the charlie brown effect or puffy  head bird lake syndrome  it's a real thing look it up number 12  no gravity  no sanity zero g also has an effect on  mental health with depression reported  by most astronauts  the blood and cerebrospinal fluid can  pool in the brain causing headaches  nausea vertigo and even visual  impairments as cranial pressure builds  pushing on the brain number 11. the  vomit comet when training for space  simulating weightlessness in a specially  designed airplane is the next step up  from scuba diving  over the course of a single flight the  plane soars up in the air before  performing a nose dive no less than 30  times to create brief periods of zero  gravity  number 10. going rogue every so often a  planet or star is ejected from a galaxy  for reasons that are unknown to science  these rogue cosmic bodies travel through  space at tremendous speeds until they  slam  into something causing an absolute mess  of destruction  number nine shine bright like a diamond  a supernova caused by the death of the  star is the single largest  cosmic event second only to the big bang  it briefly shines brighter than all of  the light in the whole universe combined  and can put out over 50 million degrees  celsius  number eight a goddess she ain't venus  is by far the most dangerous planet in  our solar system  if the surface temperature of 500  degrees celsius doesn't burn you to a  crisp  you'll be made into a flat pancake by  the immense atmospheric pressure  that's 90 times that of here on earth oh  and it rains acid  awesome number seven blind as a bat  we can only see five percent of all  matter in the universe  the rest is made up of dark energy and  dark matter which we can either observe  measure or ultimately understand number  6.  movie cliche it's true in space no one  can hear you scream  all sound consists of is a pressure wave  causing atoms and matter to clunk  against one another  in space there's no air therefore no  matter to transfer the energy of the  sound wave  5. bad odds despite our best efforts  training and protocols out of the 430  people who've been to outer space  18 have never made it back home that's a  little over four percent  or one in 25 chance that should you ever  ride a rocket to the stars  you could be meeting your maker 4.  martian mask  despite proving it's just an oddly  formed bunch of rocks nasa still had the  world talking back in 1976 when the  viking one orbiter sent pictures back to  the earth of what appeared to be a  sculpture of an  alien face meant to be visible from  above  doesn't make it look any less disturbing  number three  spooky star formations there are many  structures up in the night sky that bear  an eerie resemblance to decorations  you'd put up on halloween  the hand of god nebula is so named  because it appears like a giant  outstretched hand it's actually a pulsar  wind nebula produced by the eventual  death of a white dwarf after its  supernova  out in the perseus cluster lies a huge  fiery skull with a wide open mouth  letting out an eternal silent scream  next to the constellation cepheus  there's a cloud of interstellar dust and  gas called  sh2-136 that looks like a bunch of  ghosts dancing and having a party  the skull or pac-man nebula is actually  a real name for something seen in  relatively near space  for all extents and purposes it looks  like the skull of the iconic arcade game  pac-man taking a giant bite out of the  space around him  number two mmm brains  after a supernova the remnants of the  dead star condensed to form a white  dwarf  over the next 10 billion years or so it  fizzles out until it forms a black dwarf  emitting no energy in effect a corpse or  a husk of a star  this isn't the case for tycho which did  its best zombie impression and gobbled  up  so much mass from nearby stars that it  grew and exploded again  in a subsequent supernova called a type  1a  for those playing at home this isn't  meant to happen and finally number one  the end just as a universe was given  life in the big bang  so too could it all abruptly end in what  is being called the big  rip the expansion velocity and dark  force pulling on the fabric of space and  time could cause it to suddenly fail  how dramatic