ErebusFact library / Trivia
15 space facts, each paired with a strange little scene and a hook for the hard word.
Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, was the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth.
Picture it
A shiny metal ball with four whisker antennas spits out a beep every second as it circles the Earth. A Soviet engineer rhymes: "Nineteen-fifty-SEVEN, we sent a ball to heaven!"
Memory hooks
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has a thick atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane and ethane on its surface.
Picture it
A muscular Titan from Greek myth wades into an orange-skied lake on Saturn's moon. He sniffs and recoils: the lake smells like a gassy cow's burp. It's liquid methane.
Memory hooks
On Venus, one rotation takes about 243 Earth days, longer than its 225-day year, and it spins backwards compared with most planets.
Picture it
The goddess Venus is spinning backwards so slowly on a pottery wheel that she finishes a whole lap of the Sun before she completes one turn. Her birthday comes before her bedtime.
Memory hooks
Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth.
Picture it
You look up at the Sun and wave. It waves back, but you have to wait: its light takes about 8 minutes to arrive. Picture a giant 8 made of two suns, one stacked on top of the other.
Memory hooks
Galileo discovered Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610; the biggest, Ganymede, is the largest moon in the Solar System.
Picture it
In 1610, a man points his homemade telescope at Jupiter and sees four tiny dots dancing around it. "GALL, I LEAVE, OH!" (GALILEO) The biggest dot, a GIANT MEADOW (GANYMEDE), is larger than the planet Mercury.
Memory hooks
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Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano in the Solar System, about two and a half times the height of Everest.
Picture it
On the red planet stands a volcano so tall that Mount Olympus, home of the gods, has moved there: OLYMPUS MONS. It's about two and a half times the height of Everest. The gods have to wear spacesuits.
Memory hooks
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet.
Picture it
In 2006, a crowd of astronomers votes, and little Pluto is handed a smaller name badge: "DWARF PLANET." It sulks at the edge of the Solar System. "Twenty-oh-six: you've been nixed!"
Memory hooks
Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on 12 April 1961, aboard Vostok 1.
Picture it
A smiling young pilot squeezes into a tiny ball-shaped capsule and shouts "Poyekhali!" ("Let's go!"). His name sounds like GAGGING... GA-GA-RIN, as the g-forces squash his face. The capsule is VOSTOK 1: "VOST, OK? 1 of us."
Memory hooks
Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, using the call sign "Chaika", meaning seagull.
Picture it
A former textile worker who loves parachuting blasts off alone and calls down to Earth: "This is SEAGULL!" ("CHAIKA"). She's TERESHKOVA, and she's having a TERRIFIC time.
Memory hooks
Say it: Tereshkova (teh·resh·KOH·va)
On Apollo 11 in 1969, Michael Collins stayed in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the lunar module Eagle.
Picture it
Two astronauts climb down into a spidery lander called the EAGLE and touch down on the Moon. Their crewmate MICHAEL COLLINS circles alone overhead, the loneliest man in the universe, COLLECTING radio silence each time he passes behind the Moon.
Memory hooks
In November 1957, a stray dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit Earth, aboard Sputnik 2.
Picture it
A little stray dog from the streets of Moscow is strapped into a capsule and sent around the Earth. She barks once, "LIKE A... (LAIKA)... rocket!" The capsule has a big number 2 painted on the side.
Memory hooks
Uranus is tilted by about 98 degrees, so it rolls around the Sun on its side.
Picture it
Most planets spin like tops. One pale-blue planet has been knocked over and rolls around the Sun on its side like a bowling ball, tipped over by about 98 degrees: almost a right angle and a bit more.
Memory hooks
Voyager 1, launched in 1977, became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space and carries the Golden Record of sounds and images from Earth.
Picture it
A little spacecraft launched in 1977 sails past the edge of the Sun's bubble, the first human-made thing to reach interstellar space. Bolted to its side is a shiny GOLDEN RECORD, a mixtape of Earth's sounds, music and greetings, just in case anyone finds it.
Memory hooks
Halley's Comet returns about every 76 years; it last passed in 1986 and is next due in 2061.
Picture it
A comet streaks across the sky with a glowing tail, and an old man in the crowd says, "I saw this once as a boy." It comes back about every 76 years, so most people see it just once. It's due again in 2061: a party at the HALL (HALLEY).
Memory hooks
Proxima Centauri is the closest known star to the Sun, about 4.2 light-years away.
Picture it
A small red star sits closest of all to our Sun, like a neighbour peering over the fence: PROXIMA, "nearest". Its light takes about 4.2 years to reach us, so the light you see tonight left it four birthdays ago.
Memory hooks