Going off the well-beaten path (you know which one I mean), I came across a rather intriguing article and thought some of you might find it interesting. (And then again, maybe not. 🥱)
In any event, the link below will take you to an article entitled “20 Space Myths Busted!” Just to whet your interest, a couple of the “myths” are:
- Black holes suck
- The sun is yellow
- Light isn’t affected by gravity
- Saturn is the only ringed planet in the solar system
-SPACE MYTHS BUSTED-
Now I realize not everyone visiting this blog will feel this is a cannot-pass-this-up! article, but for those who do find it fascinating, I hope you’ll share your thoughts.
(And you have to admit, it is most definitely a diversion to the overly discussed topic of the day!)
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Nan's Notebook 
It is almost sad how little my fellow countrymen know about science.
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I must be a real space nerd – 19½ of those weren’t myths to me – the ½ was #13 – I knew that there was more than friction involved, but couldn’t put a name to the pressure effect. I’m old enough to have watched Alan Shepard’s first Mercury launch on TV, and the first book I took out of the local library was about space. After I went through all the nonfiction on space (it was a very small library) I discovered – and was corrupted by – science fiction, all before I got to first grade.
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😊
Although you recognized the myths, many others won’t … primarily because, IMO, so little of today’s education revolves around science as a pure subject.
As for science fiction, I agree it can be corrupting — but it’s so much fun to feed our imagination! 👩🚀🚀🤖
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Along with everyone else so far, the only myth here is that people think these are myths. Maybe not everyone can explain the reality of space, but most older adults, at least, have come across all these occurences at some time in their reading lives. I cannot remember what cartoon it was, I think B.C., but its writer explained why the sky only “looks” blue back in the 50s or 60s — one of the most informative strips ever.
I have no idea what educators are teaching children in schools today, especially in certain southern States, but if anyone really believe these myths then the world is in worse shape than I thought.
But playing along with the writer, I would like to bust another myth: rockets and other celestial travelling objects cannot turn on a dime as suggested in Star Wars or certain other space movies. To apply enough force to an object to change its direction as if it were a speedboat on water is impossible. It takes friction to make a turn as well as force. If one tried to turn a rocket like they would a boat, all they would accomplish is altering the attitude of the craft. It will still continue in the same direction for long distances after the force was applied. There is next to no friction in space, so there is no resistance to stop it from going in a straight line. The ship itself could be turning end over end or spinning rapidly, looking like it is out of control, but it would not turn direction but a millimeter in a thousand kilometers (just guessing at that of course) until its forward motion was slowed considerably. (This is just a layman explanation. The scientists among your readers could probably explain this much better than I.)
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Just remember … Star Wars was science fiction and in that realm ANYTHING is possible. 😁
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That was my point. A lot like the Republican Party. Just because they say something is true does not make it so! 😉
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Psssst … I was trying to avoid any political references in this post … you know, the well beaten path I mentioned in the intro? 😉
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That was hours ago. My mind doesn’t retain things like that. 🤐
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You’re right, of course. Space wars as depicted in just about every science fiction show I’ve ever seen are utterly ridiculous. You can’t really “stop” in space anyway. You are always moving. You can appear to stop but only in reference to another object because you’ve altered your trajectory and speed to match that of other object.
And space battles… Oh, brother. Blowing stuff up in space would probably cause the destruction of the ship that fired the shot as it impacted the debris cloud from the explosion.
Still like Star Trek though (grin)
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They had good stories, most of the time. Tribbles were fun.
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Rawgod’s comment was humor. Not politics. But anyway, While I didn’t keep score, I was aware of most of these. Still, a worthy article.
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Well, that was indeed a good read and for me a bit enlightening, Nan. 🤩
As E.A. Blair indicated, I was not completely factual in my understanding of #13 — Air friction upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Makes total sense to me and my Earth Sciences now! Woot woot! 🥳
And with #14 I hadn’t really thought that through far enough, but I’ve always known about how Earth’s atmosphere and our own brain’s size-distance mechanism does indeed distort our perception of celestial bodies, e.g. a huge massive orange Moon (illusion) just on the horizon. Hence, our atmosphere’s particle interference as well as our fallible human perception tricks us frequently, or not depending on your scientific knowledge, education, and logic with the two.
All remaining “myths” I was well aware of. After all, I did have to teach middle schoolers proper Science (and Social Studies/History) in the classroom… DESPITE what the Texas Board of Education too often pushes. 🙄 🤦♂️
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As the Poet said, “The sun’s not yellow…it’s chicken.”
I used to think it was yellow. I think that’s how we were told to color it in school. It wasn’t until I took a long, hard look at it that I realized–don’t do that!
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And now you are blind? 😉
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Well, since the earth is really flat, space isn’t real. It’s a woke plot invented by Obama to make trump look bad. If you don’t understand why this is so, you need to stop being so god damned liberal and just believe what I’m telling you. Ok. 😃
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Nothing about our hollow moon?
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Very interesting article. I love space and cosmology stuff. Thanks
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I was hoping to discover something I didn’t know, but didn’t. I’ve always been an avid collector of science trivia.
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Science has been kept far away from the people. This is because Science is being used for class politics and national interests. Scientific ideas are not highlighted by the media to the extent that economic, social and political news are propagated.
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Good points! Thanks for stopping by and sharing them. 🙂
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Very interesting, I did not know that.
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