Mind-Bending Facts about the Universe You've Never Heard Before

Author: Emma Thorpe

Our Universe holds many secrets, and we have many facts to learn about it. Astronomers and scientists are still figuring out some of its secrets, but there are a few facts about the Universe we already know. One such fact is that only 95% of it is invisible; also, atoms started forming 380,000 million years after the Big Bang. More facts about the Universe explained below will simply blow your mind. Find that hard to believe? Keep reading then – starting with our Universe age.

How old is the Universe?

We didn’t know many facts about our Universe age until recent research published in 2015. Before this, scientists estimated that our Universe was 7-20 billion years. However, while technology advanced and we developed new space study techniques, we discovered for a fact that our Universe is 13.7 billion years old, give or take 200 million years.  Astronomers have estimated our Universe’s age in two different ways. One of these ways is investigating the oldest stars, and the other one is measuring the Universe’s expansion. So far, estimates say that our Universe will die in about 100 trillion years, but this remains a hypothetical suggestion we, as humans, will unlikely witness.

We have learned many facts about life in the Universe, too. For example, we know for a fact that black holes exist and that most planetary systems are not like ours. But these are not the facts we have uncovered so far!

Amazing Facts & Discoveries: What did NASA find in the Universe?

Thanks to NASA and Hubble’s observations, we have learned a few facts on how galaxies formed and evolved. Astronomers have also mapped the presence of mysterious dark matter that forms our Universe’s mass and its structure.

It also seems there are water molecules that give life in an exoplanet’s atmosphere situated about 97 light-years from our planet, but this is not a confirmed fact yet. Most recently, NASA discovered TOI-715 b, a super-Earth that has a red dwarf as its parent star. This red dwarf is cooler and smaller than our Sun but can host small and rocky worlds. In the 1990’s, Hubble surprised us with another fact: active galaxies are only 1% of all galaxies; while other ‘room’ may well be occupied by supermassive black holes.

What is the NASA Universe theory?

One of the Universe facts NASA and multiple astrophysicists support is the theory that it all started with the Big Bang at a single point. Then, it expanded and stretched to reach the size it has today, and is still continuing to stretch. According to Orbital Today, the Universe was initially compressed into a point state that had infinite temperature and density, only to begin cooling and expanding from that point further.

The physics laws that govern our Universe are Newton's Gravitation and laws and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Superclusters are the largest units of structure in the Universe. To continue, 5% of the Universe is observable matter, 27% is dark matter, whereas 68% is dark energy. Dark matter doesn’t emit any light and doesn’t interact with any electromagnetic radiation either. Without dark energy, the Universe would not expand.

More facts about the Universe that nobody knows

Well, some people clearly know these facts, but most have never heard of them before, so here is your Universe checklist to remember:

• 95% of the Universe is invisible – about 26.8% of the cosmic mass-energy is in fact invisible dark matter that never reveals itself.
• Atoms formed 380,000 million years after the Big Bang. It’s believed that lighter subatomic particles such as electrons, neutrons, and quarks started forming after the Big Bang. Atoms came into the picture later.
• Every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its centre – black holes are the only conceivable energy source and have up to 50 billion times the Sun’s mass.
• A gigantic body of water is floating in space – this water is 140 trillion times all ocean water on Earth.

How many stars are in the Universe?

It’s difficult to understand our Universe’s size. According to a famous astronomer, Carl Sagan, our Universe has more stars than the Earth has grains of sand in the deserts and on beaches. Of course, it’s difficult to prove this theory, but many people appreciate the comparison because it describes cosmic immensity so well.

Another fun fact is that scientists at the Australian National University wanted to test Sagan’s claims, and after conducting precise calculations, they discovered that what he said was true. According to their calculations, which were as precise as technically possible, the observable Universe has 20 times as many stars.

These are only some unusual facts about our Universe, but scientists keep discovering more and more. Besides, as our tech advances, we keep learning more astonishing facts that surprise even the most cynical of critics!