From 'Wicked' to 'The Substance,' these are some of the best rated movies of the year
It is estimated that communication between a person on Mars and one on Earth would take anything from four to 24 minutes, depending on the distance between the planets at the time. So, yes, it does take time for Ground Control to reach Major Tom.
And that thing is called Cherenkov radiation, which is essentially an electromagnetic radiation. It has been described as "light produced by charged particles when they pass through an optically transparent medium at speeds greater than the speed of light in that medium." Yes, it's quite a complex concept to grasp.
Movies such as 'Deep Impact' (1998) got us believing that comets and meteorites were essentially giant fire balls. But this is not quite the truth.
As dark and cold as it sounds, the "dark side of the Moon" actually receives about the same amount of sunlight as the visible part. So, end of mystery right there.
How many times have we seen astronauts in movies communicating with Earth like they were talking on a cell phone?
These objects maintain their core cold, as it's the temperature they are in space. The outer layers are warmed by the descent, but, being poor heat conductors, these rocks remain cold inside.
Go out there without the proper gear, and your head is unlikely to explode like the one in 'Total Recall' (1990). It is true that sudden decompression and lack of air would make one's lungs expand rapidly and cause death, but one would not literally explode.
The dark side of the Moon has quite a reputation in pop culture. Indeed, there is a side of the Moon we never see from Earth, due to a phenomenon called tidal locking.
Indeed, 299,792,458 meters per second (670,616,629 mph) is pretty fast, that's for sure. While physics say that light travels faster than pretty much anything with mass, there is one thing that gives this concept a twist.
There is no air in the vacuum of space, which means that sound would dissipate as molecules don't have a way to vibrate. This makes it difficult for sound to travel, making it very difficult to detect without amplification.
We really don't need movies such as 'Sunshine' (2007) to tell us that the Sun is yellow. We can just look up, or refer to any depiction of the Sun: it's usually yellow and/or on fire.
"Even though outer space represents a lack of air pressure, which usually counters the internal pressure in our bodies, our tissue is strong enough to handle the imbalance," explains Baird. Death would come from inside, that's for sure.
The Sun might look yellow to the naked eye on Earth because blue light gets scattered when it crosses our planet's atmosphere. Its real color is actually white.
What's more, you'd be less likely to hear the explosion itself. Space is a vacuum, so the sound would expand as the density decreases, making it inaudible even at a short(er) distance.
Christopher S. Baird, assistant professor of physics at West Texas A&M University, explains: "First, space is very large and relatively empty by Earth standards ... The second reason that gravity is not so obvious in space is because objects tend to orbit planets instead of hitting them. Orbiting just means that an object falls towards a planet due to gravity and continually misses it."
Well, they're not quite super space vacuum cleaners. Black holes do have a strong gravitational force though, so if an object gets too close and falls into it, then it will not be able to escape.
Well, it's not really fire. Its glow is caused by a process called nuclear fusion. It's essentially energy, gamma radiation to be more precise.
We've all seen space explosions in movies. You know, when a spacecraft is hit by a laser beam and explodes, with debris going everywhere. But this isn't actually how things would go down.
Black holes have a bit of a bad rep (there's an example on 'Star Trek'). They're known for sucking everything in, so you sure want to avoid them, right?
Space's microgravity is responsible for planets and other celestial bodies maintaining their orbit. Without it, these objects would just float around aimlessly and the consequences would be disastrous.
We've all seen astronauts and objects floating around in space in movies. Indeed, this idea of "zero gravity" is engrained in pop culture. But the truth is that there is actually gravity in space—just a lot less than on Earth.
"At a distance, black holes really don't have more gravity than normal objects, so at a distance they really won't suck things in any more than a normal object of the same mass," explains NASA scientist Jerry Fishman.
The reason why we don't see a huge ball of fire and smoke when something (e.g. a celestial body) explodes is because there is no oxygen or other oxidizing substance that would cause it.
"An average 1-kilometer asteroid suffers one collision every few billion years, or maybe one or two collisions over the lifetime of the solar system," explains David Morrison of the NASA Ames Research Center.
The good news is that you don't have to be an amazing pilot like Han Solo. In fact, it's not that hard of a task. This is because while they're grouped, asteroids are spread quite widely between them, making a collision highly unlikely.
Remember the TIE starfighters from 'Star Wars'? Well, in real space, they probably wouldn't move so fast. In fact, space warfare would likely be fairly slow, as detection would come easier due to the large distances.
Sources: (Grunge)
See also: The biggest science mistakes in movies
These are common in space. For instance, the asteroid belt between Mars' and Jupiter's orbits, known as the Main Asteroid Belt, has millions of asteroids. So how would you navigate through them?
We've got to love the sound of laser beams. From 'Star Trek' to 'Star Wars,' we all became familiar with a number of cool space sounds. But quoting the famous 1979's 'Alien' tagline: "In space no can hear you scream." And this a fairly accurate statement.
We're sorry to break it to you, but this includes the sound of light sabers!
Sound, light, gravity—there are quite a few things we get wrong about space, thanks to movies. Sure, we can tell the difference between a sci-fi film and reality—or can we? There are indeed many concepts that keep appearing in movies, and pop culture in general, that many of us take for granted. In this gallery, we debunk some of them.
Click through and discover the things movies get wrong about space.
Things movies get wrong about space
Celebrating World Space Week
MOVIES Science
Sound, light, gravity—there are quite a few things we get wrong about space, thanks to movies. Sure, we can tell the difference between a sci-fi film and reality—or can we? There are indeed many concepts that keep appearing in movies, and pop culture in general, that many of us take for granted. In this gallery, we debunk some of them.
Click through and discover the things movies get wrong about space.