This year at my co-op, I’m taking a class called Earth Science. The name is very deceptive, because we only studied Earth during the first quarter. Right now, we’re learning about astronomy. I’ve always thought of the sky, outer space in particular, as a scary place where there are things so big it makes your brain hurt to think about them. However, during this quarter, I’ve learned some really cool things about outer space (although it still remains a scare zone). Some of them are so cool I have to tell everyone I run into about them, such as number seven (below), which I told to my whole choir. Anyway, here are the ten most interesting/astonishing/weirdest things I’ve learned about stars, planets, and everything else out there in the vacuum of space, so enjoy!

1. The sun gets brighter, hotter, and bigger every year. Because of this, it will eventually explode. That’s really creepy. Luckily, it won’t happen for at least a million years.
2. The planet Saturn is the only planet that is less dense than water. If Saturn were placed in a body of water large enough to contain it, it would float.
3. It rains diamonds on Neptune. No kidding!
4. Shooting stars aren’t really stars. They’re particles of dust left by comets that hit Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
5. A day on the planet Venus is longer than a year on the planet Venus.
6. According to my teacher, the phases of the moon affect pregnancies. She says there is a higher number of births around the time when the moon is full than when it is not full.
7. There is a moon of Saturn called Mimas. Mimas hosts Herschel Crater, the most interesting crater in the solar system. This crater makes Mimas look exactly like the Death Star.
8. The sky is yellow on Mars.
9. One of Jupiter’s moons, Io, looks and smells like a rotten egg.
10. The planet Uranus is literally on its side: its North and South poles are facing out instead of up and down. Its rings are also wound around it vertically, completing the effect.