10 Incredible Facts About Space That Will Make You Feel Small

Space is vast, mysterious, and full of wonders that put our everyday lives into perspective. When you consider just how immense and strange the universe is, it’s hard not to feel a little tiny in comparison. Here are ten incredible facts about space that will stretch your imagination and remind you how small we really are.

1. The Observable Universe Is Mind-Bogglingly Huge

The observable universe stretches about 93 billion light-years across. That means the farthest objects we can see are so distant that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. Even with all that, what we can observe is just a fraction of the entire universe, which may be infinite.

2. There Are More Stars Than Grains of Sand on Earth

Estimates suggest there are around 1 septillion stars in the observable universe—that’s a 1 followed by 24 zeros. Compare that to all the grains of sand on every beach and desert on Earth, and space still has more “dots” shining back at us.

3. Space Is Almost Completely Silent

Sound needs a medium like air or water to travel, but space is a vacuum. That means if you were floating out there, even explosions or collisions wouldn’t make a sound. The eerie silence of space is as vast as its size.

4. There’s a Giant Cloud of Alcohol Floating in Space

About 10,000 light-years away, a massive cloud containing ethyl alcohol (the kind found in drinks) floats near a star-forming region. While it’s not drinkable, this cosmic cocktail shows how complex and strange space chemistry can be.

5. The Sun Accounts for 99.86% of Our Solar System’s Mass

Everything in our solar system—planets, moons, asteroids, and comets—combined makes up less than 0.2% of its total mass. The Sun’s gravity dominates, holding all these objects in orbit and fueling life on Earth through its energy.

6. Neutron Stars Can Spin Hundreds of Times Per Second

When massive stars collapse, they can become neutron stars—super-dense remnants only about 20 kilometers wide but with more mass than the Sun. Some spin incredibly fast, rotating up to 700 times per second, creating intense magnetic fields and beams of radiation.

7. One Day on Venus Is Longer Than Its Year

Venus takes about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis but only around 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun. This means a single day on Venus lasts longer than its entire year, making its timekeeping unique.

8. Most of the Universe Is Made of Invisible Stuff

Ordinary matter—the stuff that makes up stars, planets, and people—accounts for only about 5% of the universe. The rest is dark matter and dark energy, mysterious substances we can’t see but know exist because of their effects on galaxies and cosmic expansion.

9. There Could Be More Than 100 Billion Galaxies

Thanks to powerful telescopes, astronomers estimate that the universe contains over 100 billion galaxies, each with millions or billions of stars. The sheer scale is almost impossible to imagine, with each galaxy like a vast island of light in the cosmic ocean.

10. Space Travel Changes Your Body in Strange Ways

Although humans have only traveled to space for a short time in the grand scheme, astronauts experience weightlessness, muscle loss, and even changes in their eyesight. These effects remind us how finely tuned our bodies are to Earth’s environment.