Negative. The nearest black hole is believed to be in the V616 Monocerotis system, roughly 3,000 light years away.
The farthest that humans have travelled is to the moon. The black hole is 73,833,468,262 times more distant than the moon. At the velocity of the Apollo capsules it would take 80,472,276 years to reach that black hole.
If the dinosaurs had an astro program and sent an astronaut in the direction of that black hole, then he or she might well be just arriving there today.
NO, because without oxygen in space, there would be no decomposition for your body, as it would on earth, and it would not change much because there would only be chemical decomposition, perhaps a change in color, because there wouldn’t be oxygen for bacterial/fungal growth, which needs oxygen. Also, there would just be some chemical decay.
Since you were close to the source of heat, your body would mummify; otherwise, it would freeze. Should you be in a space suit, you would decompose until the oxygen supply was exhausted, at which point the bacteria and fungi responsible for decomposition would die.
In any case, your physical being would last for a prolonged period of time in space, where, without air, no weathering occurs. Your corpse could drift through space in the universe for millions of years.
The biggest myth about outer space is in the name: Space.
Everyone thinks it’s empty.
I mean, why wouldn’t they? It says right there. Outer. Space.
So, why wouldn’t anyone think it’s anything but a vacuum!
Well, it’s not!
It’s teeming with a lot of stuff and activity. Just not as much as on Earth or any heavenly body, but enough to matter (no pun intended).
Image Credits: Stock photo, pixabay.
Well, some of the things are familiar to us – atoms, dust, plasma, radiation, and so on.
Of course, when you leave the Earth and enter outer space, the matter density drops to negligible levels. There’s no question about that.
But, even in that seemingly vacuous space, there’s quite a bit of stuff, although not in any meaningful quantities for us to bother about it.
Think of it like this: On Earth, you have a high density of matter. As you fly into outer space, the density keeps dropping until you exit the atmosphere, when it hits negligible levels. Then, as you approach another planet, the density increases from negligible levels to a meaningful degree.
Stars like the Sun have a kind of bubble or sphere of influence that can extend for light-years.
Within this halo, you’ll find an abundance of solar storms, coronal mass ejections, and other activity adding to that density.
So, matter density within this heliosphere is usually higher than what it is in the space between stars, which is even more sparse.
Things get really interesting between galaxies.
This is where matter density is the least. Lower than what’s in both interstellar and stellar systems’ space.
In short, intergalactic space is the least dense, followed by interstellar space within galaxies, and finally the stellar system space.
In general, there’s about 1 atom per cubic centimeter of interstellar medium. The intergalactic medium has an even lower average density of 1 atom per cubic meter.
So far, we’ve discussed only the regular baryonic matter that makes up the things we know – planets, air, water, life, etc.
But that’s not everything.
There’s the more exotic stuff you won’t easily find on Earth: cosmic rays, dark matter, neutrinos, and dark energy. Dark matter is present within galaxies, and sometimes, outside too.
And every square inch of space is bombarded with hundreds of billions of neutrinos per second, especially in stellar systems.
And the ever-present quantum fluctuations don’t relent just because you are in outer space.
Vacuum energy, or zero-point energy, pervades the space, even in regions with the lowest energy density.
Think of outer space as an extremely low-density region with a lot of activity happening in it.
It’s not some inert, empty vacuum. It’s bubbling with activity, especially within galaxies.
Yes it is but it must be designed for it. The key of course is spinning to create artificial gravity. This was shown in 2001 a Space Odyssey. If you have the need for a large space station to house a lot of people it could be something like this.
There is little or no gravity in the center hub and ships can dock there if they match the spin. The outer portion has gravity due to the spin (centripetal force). This of course would require a lot of launches and a long time to build. They don’t say what the diameter is but it would have to be at least a couple of hundred meters to not have vertigo due to gravity differences at your head and feet I am told.
A simpler possibility for say 2 Starships going to Mars is a simple tether connecting the noses of the ships. It might look about like this.
With a 300 meter cable and a slow spin of 1.5 RPM you get Mars normal gravity. The issues with this is no other craft can dock most likely. However, the two ships could spin themselves up slowly with attitude thrusters. They just have to de-spin to do anything meaningful like a course correction or preparing to enter the atmosphere. You might be able to save mass with a 200 meter cable and a slightly faster spin.
These are some mind blowing facts about space,
Now these are some awesome facts about Black holes,
1. Black holes are only dangerous if you get too close.
Some think that black holes are like cosmic vacuums that suck in the space around them when, in fact, black holes are like any other object in space, albeit with a very strong gravitational field.
If you replaced the Sun with a black hole of equal mass, Earth would not get sucked in – it would continue orbiting the black hole as it orbits the Sun, today.
Black holes look like they're sucking in matter from all around, but that's a common misconception. Companion stars shed some of their mass in the form of stellar wind, and the material in that wind then falls into the grip of its hungry neighbour, a black hole.
2. Weird time stuff happens around black holes.
This is best illustrated by one person (call them Unlucky) falling into a black hole while another person (call them Lucky) watches. From Lucky’s perspective, Unlucky’s time clock appears to be ticking slower and slower. This is in accordance with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which (simply put) says that time is affected by how fast you go, when you’re at extreme speeds close to light. The black hole warps time and space so much that Unlucky’s time appears to be running slower. From Unlucky’s perspective, however, their clock is running normally and Lucky’s is running fast.
3. You can't directly see a Black hole.
Because a black hole is indeed “black” and no light can escape from it. so, it’s impossible for us to sense the hole directly through our instruments, no matter what kind of electromagnetic radiation you use, light, X-rays, whatever.
4. Objects Appear To “Freeze” Near A Black Hole.
As you reach the event horizon, you are moving at such high speeds due to the strong gravitational force from the black hole, that time will slow down.
To an outside observer with a telescope, an object passing the event horizon will appear to slow down then “freeze” in time without ever seeming to pass through the event horizon.
5. A Person Falling Into A Black Hole Would Be Spagettified.
If a person was able to survive long enough to falling into a black hole, he would at first experience weightless as he goes into free fall, but then feel intense “tidal” gravitational forces as he got closer to the center of the black hole. In other words, if his feet were closer to the centre than his head, then they would feel a stronger pull until he eventually is stretched and then ripped apart. As he falls in he may observe distorted images as the light bends around him and he will also still be able to see beyond the black hole as light continues to reach him from the outside.
Sources:
Top 100 Interesting Facts About Space
10 Mind-Blowing Scientific Facts About Black Holes
10 Amazing Facts About Black Holes - Universe Today
Yes, it is an illusion.
First to emerge if we look at the origin of universe, was space - if you are an observer and you watch empty space time simply do not exist.
When matter is created - its then when time comes into being.
We have seen strong evidences the most basic and fundamental forces in nature before anything actually came into their current form are : magnetism + energy + spin.
These are way more complex than we know, magnetism is always in loops and energy expresses itself in loops aka on magnetism. In our observation we have found energy and magnetism are intertwined.
Both magnetism and energy are bundle of ingredients that are coupled as one. When energy expresses in loops and magnetism locks it at the quantum level then we see pro-particles emerging and collapsing in QF. (some even in Q Mechanics call it strong or weak nuclear force)
When we smash these particles in LHC they simply vanish in thin air within seconds leaving a decay which further gives us the evidence that nothing is vacuum but we ourself are on ZPE F and its all around us where the actual merger or handshake happens to create matter as we know. So the process is simple which is a cascade. One more thing on which we have to wrap our mind energy is always a decay that we see, we can only see it’s after affect and energy never can return to its original form its fades, dis-integrates or disperse till basic fundamental forces do not process it again to create what we call as matter. (this is why when we see merger or dis-integration we see energy release - eg fusion or fission)
Magnetism + Energy + Spin = mass + density = curvature = gravity (quantum gravity)
(in large scale when we see gases, dust and energy spike - when spin happens we have seen galaxies coming into being)
(and then GR comes to explain gravity and curvature - prior it GR don’t even exist)
Mass + density = formation of matter = heat = light.
Matter formation = emergence of time.
So all these 3 - gravity → light → time are emergent in local dimension.
When the fundamental forces take over a local zone i.e Magnetism + Energy + Spin - all these three emergent - gravity → light → time breaks and so does our physic, black hole are a fine example which are the fundamental forces in real action and even what we see or describe is not the black hole itself but its accretion disc, till accretion disc is not formed we have no gravity → light → time - all these 3 emerge when we see the formation of accretion disc aka matter formation.
Space does not work on time because time does not exist in space, for space to understand its events that define space, we are just a blip in space event scale, there are million, billion and trillion who came before us and who will come after us.
So its true space-time as per GR and also other wise is just an illusion because its an observer affect for eg, a jet takes off from the run way, for the observer its leaving, a person moving in the car for him jet will be stuck on air, for a person sitting the jet will zoom out, for the observer at the run track the jet will show as arriving, for someone observing in radar he will see entry and exit point of the jet but for the pilot nothing as such happened. So spacetime is actually the observer affect.
In realty space does not interact with local emergent ie. gravity, light and time. So space never bends its the content in space that bends as we know there is no vacuum anywhere but we are seeing the affect but cannot scale the vacuum so it feels as if space is bending (defined as curvature).
Here are some unsolved mysteries:
(1) The great attractor
There is something really attractive 220 million light years away which is pulling us and all the galaxies near us closer to it. Our galaxy is movig toward it at 1.4 million miles per hour. We can’t see it because our own galaxy is blocking the view of that attractor. Scientists don’t know what it is.
(2) Black knight satellite
Black knight satellite is a mysterious spacecraft alleged to be of alien provenance and covered up by nasa for more than 60 years. It was caught changing direction by ISS . Scientists are not sure that whether it was alien spaceship or just space debris.
(3) Mysterious knocking heard in a chinese spacecraft.
During 21 hour mission of chinese spacecraft, astronaut Yang Liwei said that he heard a strange knocking noise like someone was hitting the body of the spaceship. He tried to figure out what it could be but found nothing. No one could explain what had actually happened.
(4) wow! Signal
It is a strong radio signal received in August 1977 by astronomer Jerry Ehman. It was received from constellation sagittarius where the centre of our galaxy located. It lasted for 72 second. But it has not been detected again after several subsequent attempts by Ehman and others. Many hypothesis have been made about the origin of signal but none of them satisfy. So it remains mystery.
Indeed there are and they are not tiny bubbles. They are light-year size.
This is ngc7635 called the Bubble Nebula.
Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. - From Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Here is another, very active bubble:
This is a bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud
A Wolf-Rayet bubble
Punctum might be a brand new mysterious astronomical object that has never been observed before
.We discovered it with the ALMA radiotelescope, which was observing the active galactic nucleus of the nearby galaxy NGC 4945, 11 million light-years away, shown above. This enigmatic pointy source of millimeter-range highly polarized electromagnetic radiation was discovered by accident because it showed in the field of view.
We don’t know what it is, but it must be very small to emit radiation that is polarized, which is usually produced by objects with a very strong magnetic field, like magnetars. Except that this one emits radiation four to five orders of magnitude more powerfully than any known magnetar (10,000 to 100,000 times) and even 10 to 100 times stronger than supernovas.
It’s not a transient source of radiation like these powerful explosions because it has been continuously observed since 2023. Furthermore, it’s not visible in visible light or other ranges of electromagnetic radiation.
We can only guess what it is. Maybe it’s a very powerful magnetar that is located in an unusual environment that made it so powerful. This signal cannot come from a remnant of a supernova because they are too large to emit such a powerful polarized radiation.
Perhaps if we find more of these mysterious Punctums elsewhere, we might finally figure out what it is.
Well. There’s the biggest star we have seen to date:
Size comparison of a hypothetical quasi-star/black hole star (diameter of ~10 billion kilometres or ~7,187 solar diameters, mass of 1000+ solar masses) and several known giant stars: Stephenson 2-18 (~2150 solar diameters), VY Canis Majoris (~1420 solar diameters, ~17 solar masses), Betelgeuse (~887 solar diameters, ~11.6 solar masses), the Pistol Star (~306 solar diameters, ~27.5 solar masses), Rigel (~78.9 solar diameters, ~23 solar masses), and R136a1 (~35.4 solar diamaters, ~265 solar masses). Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Sauropodomorph (CC0 1.0)
And then there’s the biggest black hole to date:
The largest black hole ever discovered. Estimates of its mass and size make this black hole a true behemoth, and it is unlike anything in our galaxy or in any of the galaxies in our galactic neighborhood. The mass of the central black hole is estimated to be 100 billion times larger than the sun. The supermassive black hole is even more massive than some galaxies, and is about 10% the mass of the entire Milky Way. The event horizon of the black hole has a diameter of 590 billion kilometres, or about 100 times the distance between the sun and Pluto. That little dot in the middle is the orbit of Neptune.
And then there’s the largest galaxy discovered to date:
Its full span is 5.5 million light-years across: nearly double the Local Group’s full extent.
Then there’s superclusters of galaxies:
Finally, there’s Quipu:
The colored dots represent different superstructures out to 800 million light-years from Earth. The red dots denote Quipu, the largest known structure in the nearby universe. Yellow is Sculptor-Pegasus superstructure, green is Serpens-Corona Borealis, purple is Hercules and blue is Shapley. Image via Böhringer et al. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2025.
There are 185 galaxy clusters within these five superstructures. Quipu alone has 68 galaxy clusters.
🕳️ Black Holes: Regions of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Born from collapsed stars, they’re the ultimate cosmic sinkholes.
🌌 Wormholes: Hypothetical tunnels connecting distant points in spacetime — the ultimate shortcuts across the universe (still theoretical, but mind-blowing!).
🕳️ White Holes: Theoretical opposites of black holes, spewing out matter and energy instead of sucking it in. No confirmed sightings yet!
🌟 Cosmic Voids: Vast, empty regions between galaxy clusters, where matter is incredibly sparse—like giant “holes” in the fabric of the cosmos.
The universe’s “holes” come in many forms, each with its own mysteries waiting to be unraveled.
The definition of 'planet' was made more strict. It is as following:
1. Massive enough to be round. Very massive bodies have so much gravity that they crush down any irregular edges towards their centre, and so become ball-like.
2. The primary object orbiting the Sun. For instance, the Moon orbit's the Sun, but it does so by orbiting the Earth. The Earth is the primary object orbiting the Sun.
3. Has cleared it's own orbit. Planets clear their orbits of debris/asteroids (by attracting them with their gravity).
Pluto passes 1 and 2, but has not passed 3. It has not cleared it's orbit of debris.
Objects like Pluto are called Dwarf Planets.
Here are 50 fascinating facts about space, organized into categories for easy exploration:
Space is a near-perfect vacuum, with extremely low density and pressure.
The observable universe is about 93 billion light-years in diameter.
The universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old.
Space is completely silent because sound waves need a medium to travel through.
The largest structure in the universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, a galaxy supercluster over 10 billion light-years across.
Earth is the only known planet with liquid water on its surface.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, with a diameter of about 143,000 km.
Saturn’s rings are primarily made of ice particles, ranging from tiny grains to boulders.
Mars has the tallest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, which is about 22 km high.
Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most planets, a phenomenon called retrograde rotation.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains over 100 billion stars.
The nearest star to Earth (after the Sun) is Proxima Centauri, located 4.24 light-years away.
A neutron star is so dense that a sugar-cube-sized amount would weigh about a billion tons on Earth.
Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, is expected to go supernova within the next million years.
The most massive star known is R136a1, about 315 times the mass of the Sun.
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, bigger than Mercury.
Saturn’s moon Titan has lakes of liquid methane and ethane.
Earth’s Moon is slowly drifting away at a rate of about 3.8 cm per year.
Europa, a moon of Jupiter, likely has an ocean beneath its icy surface.
Neptune’s moon Triton orbits in the opposite direction of the planet’s rotation.
The Sun is composed mostly of hydrogen (about 74% by mass) and helium (24%).
Solar winds cause auroras when they interact with Earth’s magnetic field.
The Sun will eventually become a red giant and engulf the inner planets.
Solar flares can disrupt satellite communications and power grids on Earth.
It takes light from the Sun about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth.
The first human-made object in space was Sputnik 1, launched by the USSR in 1957.
Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space (1961).
The Apollo 11 mission was the first to land humans on the Moon in 1969.
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, is the farthest human-made object from Earth.
The International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth at about 400 km altitude.
The Kuiper Belt is a region beyond Neptune containing many small icy bodies.
The Oort Cloud is a theoretical cloud of icy objects surrounding the Solar System.
Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth every 75-76 years.
The Chicxulub impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
The largest asteroid in the Solar System is Ceres, which is also classified as a dwarf planet.
A black hole is a region where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.
Supermassive black holes are found at the centers of most galaxies, including the Milky Way.
Spaghettification occurs when an object gets stretched by a black hole’s gravitational pull.
Black holes can merge to form a larger black hole, emitting gravitational waves.
Hawking radiation theorizes that black holes can slowly evaporate over time.
The first exoplanet discovered around a Sun-like star was 51 Pegasi b in 1995.
Some exoplanets orbit their stars so closely that a year lasts only a few days.
Rogue planets drift through space without orbiting a star.
Kepler-452b is known as Earth’s “cousin” due to its similar size and potential habitability.
Some exoplanets are covered entirely by oceans, known as water worlds.
Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe but remains undetected directly.
Dark energy is thought to be responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.
The multiverse theory suggests our universe might be one of many.
Time dilation means time passes more slowly near massive objects, as predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The Big Rip theory proposes that the universe could tear apart in the distant future due to dark energy.