00:01Ah, space, the final frontier.
00:04It's a vast and mysterious expanse that has fascinated us for centuries.
00:09But as much as we've learned about it,
00:11there are still plenty of things that we've been lied to about when it comes to space.
00:16Let's take a look at some of the biggest lies we've been told about this topic.
00:21First off, we have the idea that space is just this pristine, untouched wilderness.
00:27But that's not exactly true.
00:28We've been littering space with our debris for decades.
00:32Everything from old satellites to rocket parts.
00:36In fact, there are over 20,000 pieces of debris orbiting Earth right now.
00:41And they're causing all sorts of problems for future space missions.
00:45So if you're planning on visiting space anytime soon, watch where you go.
00:49You never know what kind of garbage might be floating around.
00:54Did you know that the sun is not actually yellow?
00:57It's green.
00:58Well, kind of.
00:59You see, scientists measure the temperature of a star by the color spectrum it emits.
01:05Cooler stars appear red, while the hottest of stars look blue.
01:09Our sun emits most of its energy at a wavelength that's close to green.
01:14But because it emits other wavelengths, too, all these colors mix together, and your eyes see this vibrant mixture as white.
01:23From Earth, however, the sun looks yellow, because our atmosphere is really good at scattering blue light.
01:29If our star was actually yellow, Earth would become a frozen rock, and we'd all be polar bears.
01:35Plus, the sun isn't on fire for real.
01:37Plus, the sun isn't on fire for real.
01:40It's a big ball of gas, mostly made of hydrogen and helium.
01:44And it works more like a gigantic nuclear reactor, constantly fusing hydrogen atoms to create helium inside its core.
01:51This process releases enormous amounts of energy.
01:55That's why the sun is so hot.
01:56Oh, and speaking of setting things on fire, explosions in space aren't real.
02:03Sorry, Star Wars fans.
02:05A spaceship can't go down in a violent blast, because there is no air out there in space.
02:11No air means no oxygen, and no oxygen means no fire.
02:17Now, you might also think that there are too many stars in the night sky for you to count.
02:22But, in fact, you can do that.
02:24According to the Yale Bright Star Catalog, there are 9,110 stars that you can see from Earth with the unaided eye.
02:33So, technically, you can count them, but I wouldn't be surprised if you lost count.
02:40And if you're worried about flying through an asteroid belt, don't be.
02:44Although it does have trillions of space rocks that range in size from space dust to a quarter of the size of the Moon,
02:51they're very spread out.
02:53The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is 140 million miles across,
02:59which is one and a half times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
03:03This spreads space rocks thousands of miles apart,
03:06making it almost impossible for a spacecraft to collide with one.
03:10You'll instantly freeze in space without a suit.
03:15Nope, you won't turn into a popsicle right away.
03:18It's going to take a bit longer than that because heat and cold don't really move very quickly in the vacuum of space.
03:24But, unfortunately for you, there's a bigger problem at hand.
03:28You won't be able to breathe.
03:30After just 15 seconds, your brain won't be getting enough oxygen from your blood, and you'll pass out.
03:36And then, after just two minutes, it's curtains for the rest of your organs.
03:41So, in short, if you find yourself playing astronaut without a space suit, it's game over pretty quickly.
03:47Did you know that space doesn't have any temperature at all?
03:53That's because the temperature is defined by the speed at which particles move and the amount of energy they have.
04:00In the true vacuum of space, there are no particles to move around, making it temperatureless.
04:06Of course, some parts of space are really hot, like areas around stars.
04:11But the further away you get from stars, the more spread out particles are, making those areas of space pretty chilly.
04:20Number 9 is our planet's shape.
04:23No, it's not flat, but it's not a perfect sphere either.
04:26Yeah, it bulges at the equator because of our planet's wild spin.
04:31It's like Earth is doing its own little dance.
04:34And because of this bulging, launching spaceships from the equator is much easier than from the poles.
04:42Now, when it comes to sound in space, it's a bit of a tricky situation.
04:47You might think that no one can hear you scream, but that's not entirely accurate.
04:51The thing is, sound needs something to travel through, like air or water.
04:57In space, things are super spread out, so all those epic space battles and galactic explosions would be completely silent.
05:05Yet, there are some places in space with enough particles for sound to travel through.
05:11For example, you can hear the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster.
05:16Another myth is about zero gravity.
05:21That's not a thing.
05:23There's still some gravity hanging around the International Space Station, about 90% of what we feel on good old Earth.
05:29But astronauts get to float around because they're basically free-falling around the planet.
05:34And let's be real.
05:37Hollywood's version of space travel is not factual.
05:40Sure, orbits are a thing, but different altitudes mean different speeds.
05:44So moving from one orbit to another isn't exactly a walk in the park.
05:49You can't just push yourself in the right direction and hope for the best.
05:53You gotta take those orbital velocities into account.
05:56This reminded me of the 2013 movie, Gravity, and how Sandra Bullock tried to survive in space.
06:02Hollywood sure added some fuel to these myths.
06:05Yet again, who can blame them?
06:09Back in 1976, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft snapped a photo of a curious rock formation on Mars that looked suspiciously like a face.
06:19Some folks out there claimed that it must have been proof of extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet.
06:24But NASA had a different take.
06:28According to the space agency, the face was nothing more than a bunch of rocks piled up in such a way that the shadows they cast created an illusion of facial features.
06:39It turns out it was just a regular hill that got a little too much credit for being photogenic.
06:45The solar system stays in place.
06:49Lie!
06:49It's zooming through space at a speed of 140 miles per second, which means that it's whizzing through the cosmos faster than a cheetah chasing its prey.
07:00It takes us 230 million years for the solar system to complete a full orbit around the Milky Way.
07:07It's a good thing it isn't getting a speeding ticket, because that would be one astronomical fine.
07:13Eh?
07:15Without the Sun, planets would be pretty chilly.
07:18We're talking about temperatures as low as negative 455 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:24Brrrr!
07:24But with the Sun around, the planets get to enjoy much more livable temperatures.
07:30Of course, not all planets are created equal.
07:33Mercury, for example, is the closest to the Sun.
07:36Venus, on the other hand, is farther away, but somehow manages to be even hotter than Mercury.
07:42The distance from the Sun isn't the only factor that affects a planet's temperature.
07:47Other things, like the planet's size and reflectivity, also come into play.
07:51So Mercury being the hottest planet in our solar system is a false proposition.
07:56No, just because it's the closest one to the Sun doesn't mean it's the hottest.
08:01Even though we've been deceived in some ways, that doesn't make space any less amazing.
08:06It's still a vast, beautiful, and utterly fascinating part of our universe.
08:11And there's still so much we have yet to discover.
08:14Who knows?
08:15Maybe one day we'll really discover little green people out there.
08:17Or maybe we'll find out something even more incredible.
08:21Until then, we'll just have to keep dreaming and exploring.
08:25There, you got 14 things on our list.
08:28Do you have any other space myths to debunk?
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