Random Creepy Facts About Outer Space You Can't Unlearn (25 items)

(#20) The Existence Of Extraterrestrials Is Inscrutable And Unlikely

The Fermi Paradox describes the discrepancy between humanity's expectations of finding or being contacted by alien life and the apparent lack of sufficient evidence to suggest these beings' existence. According to a 2018 paper written by Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler, and Toby Ord of the Future of Humanity Institute, Earthlings are not only likely to be the sole intelligence in the Milky Way, but there is an approximately 50 percent chance that humanity is alone in the observable universe.
While the researchers' conclusion reads as pessimistic, the paper's authors make no definitive claims as to the existence of extraterrestrials.
(#14) Space Carries A Distinctive Scent

Astronauts returning from space are generally accompanied by a peculiar, distinctive scent. Those exposed to the odor describe it as "sulfurous" and liken it to the smells of gunpowder, seared steak, hot metal, and welding fumes.
(#4) Astronauts Must Drink 730 Liters Of Recycled Sweat And Urine To Live In Space For A Year

Water is a limited resource in space - because of this, astronauts must resort to recycling their own waste. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly consumed approximately 730 liters of recycled urine and sweat during his yearlong mission.
(#17) Free-Floating Planets May Outnumber The Stars

In 2011, astronomers discovered numerous Jupiter-sized planets free-floating apart from any star. The team hypothesized that the rogue planets were ejected from distant developing planetary systems, and estimated that there may be twice as many of these free-floating worlds as there are stars.

Potentially even more numerous are free-floating planets smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, as their reduced mass allows them to be more easily ejected from their systems.
(#21) Galaxies Can Eat Each Other

Galactic Cannibalism is a process in which a large galaxy merges with a companion galaxy through tidal gravitational interactions. This process generally results in an irregular galaxy, as evidenced by the examples of the Whirlpool Galaxy, the Mice Galaxies, and the Antennae Galaxies.

Galactic Cannibalism is not to be confused with Galactic Collision, in which galaxies collide but maintain their original shapes.
(#2) A Giant Black Hole Hurls Through Space At Five Million Miles Per Hour

The Hubble Space Telescope located a black hole in 2017 that is being manipulated by gravitational waves. The black hole - capable of devouring anything in its path - will eventually break free of its own galaxy and begin to roam the universe.

Although the anomaly weighs as much as 1 billion suns and has reached speeds of roughly 5 million miles per hour, it is estimated to still be 8 billion light years from Earth.