Space Myths Busted

Don’t just believe in anything and everything you see and hear. There needs to be some proof of what you want to believe. That’s where Science fits in.

There should be experiment and observation to produce reliable explanations of phenomena, with reference to the material and physical world. Else your story will remain a myth. A blind faith. Don’t keep passing this blind faith on to others.

What is a myth ?

A commonly-held but false belief or a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality, or, a traditional story accepted as history.

Myths about space and the cosmos are something which you hear everyday. Many people believe that an astrologer can tell the future by looking at the position of the stars. These myths mostly came in because of the magnificence of the universe we live in. But do you realize what you believe is actually a myth ?

Here are some myths that have been busted

There is no gravity in space

You should blame the term “zero gravity” for this misconception. This is totally a myth !

Gravity is everywhere. Actually, every particle is affected by gravity. This is still a theory and not yet proven, but it does answer many questions.

Anything that occupies space and has matter will get affected by gravity and make the force of gravity around stronger.

Astronauts only seem to be weightless. The actual fact is that the gravity in space is negligible. There are very few particles in space because of which there is a slight effect of gravity. We do not notice these particles because they are so far away. The space between particles in space is much more than the intermolecular space between gases.

Also, astronauts may look like they are experiencing no gravity while are orbiting the Earth. What they are really feeling is free fall, since they are in reality “falling” around the Earth. In effect, they are falling toward the Earth, but moving sideways enough to continuously miss it. The net result is they follow the curvature of the Earth, always falling but never hitting.

Space is a vacuum

Another wrong assumption. Space is not a vacuum. There are all kinds of particles in outer space. Else what do you think will enter a black hole ?

The only difference is space seems to be like a vacuum because the particles are really far apart. This is much more than the intermolecular space between gases.

Space being so thin is practically considered a vacuum but in reality it is not a vacuum.

If you go into a black hole you will never come out again

This myth was widely believed. One person who helped in busting this myth was Stephen Hawking.

Black Holes are actually dead stars which collapsed into itself. When a star is burning it is hot and expands. When it runs out of fuel it has to contract because of the sudden loss of heat. This contraction may make it collapse into itself. When it collapses it forms a black hole, a spot so small with such powerful gravity that practically nothing can get out of it, not even light ! The speed of light is about 299 792 458 m/s. If light at this speed cannot escape the gravity of the black hole, then what can ?

Later Stephen Hawking with many other researches proved that after a particle goes into a black hole, it may temporarily acquire a speed greater than that of the speed of light. These particles when moving with a speed faster than the speed of light could actually get out of the black hole and get their freedom.

The only difference between the particle would be that when it enters it was in a compound form but when it escapes it’ll be in the simplest form i.e. it escapes as atoms.

Which means if you fall into a black hole, you’ll come out as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc

If you go into a black hole you’ll come out of a white hole

Another myth. White holes were myth’s from the very beginning. They were considered as a wormhole to transport particles into some other place and some different time. It turns out they never existed.

Later on it was proved that what goes into a black hole may even eventually come out of the black hole itself.

If you travel faster than the speed of light then you can go back in time

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a myth I had been believing this myself.

This was calculated by Einstein in his theory of relativity. Later, German scientists conducted experiments where they proved that photons traveling faster than the speed of light did not go back in time.

This article was published in the Telegraph.

Though this may or may not be a myth, it was a revolution to all scientists. Einstein’s equations in relativity have helped. You can read more about the time machine on the post I wrote on Chaaps.

There is a dark side of the moon

There is no dark side of the moon. Though you may have to admit some parts of the moon get light from the sun rarely and also there’s a big crater on the non-visible side of the moon which may look like a dark side. But the dark side as mentioned by the myth would be considered hilarious.

This myth was rumored as a result of another rumor relating to Werewolves. The myth was that though the moon may look beautiful, the dark side of the moon causes evil.

Neil Armstrong was the first person to ever land on the moon

Don’t be surprised if I say Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon. This was proven after his death. Here are some reasons why we can concluded he did not land on the moon.

1. No stars in the background

There should have been stars visible from the moon, but in Armstrong’s pic there were none.

2. US flag being blown by wind

This is ridiculous. The moon has no atmosphere. That means the flag should be stationary. How did it start flying ?

3. Light source reflected on visor

The light source, which here doesn’t seem to be the sun, is clearly reflected on the visor.

4. An unprotected camera

There can’t be any pictures taken on the Moon because the film would melt in the 250° temperatures. Any film exposed to 250° would indeed melt at that temperature.

5. Multiple Light Sources

Clearly the moon has only one light source, the sun. These evidences clearly state that this was taken in a Studio, or rather, the Apollo studios Apollo knew this was faked. They faked it themselves.

Venus is one of the most beautiful planet in the solar system

Venus was associated with beautiful Gods and Goddesses but later it was realized that Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system where lightning and thunder occurs frequently. It was more like hell there.

Venus being close to the sun and having an atmosphere mostly of carbon dioxide gets heated extensively and there are many volcanic eruptions and thunder storms often.

It may be called Earth’s twin, but surely an evil twin.

The universe is fixed, stationary and remains the same

Surely a misconception with religion. The universe is always in motion, all objects in the universe in motion, and more importantly, the universe is constantly expanding. The universe does not remain the same. The universe keeps getting bigger and bigger. New matter is added to it at a constant rate.

This means it is impossible for us to explore the whole universe, because it’ll be different tomorrow from what it is today.

Conclusion

Don’t tell lies by telling others these myths as truths These can be deceptive. Its always good to see both sides of the coin to judge it.

Tagged as: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Myths, Physics, Space