Three Mind-Blowing Cosmic Facts That Defy Common Sense

Space is weird. The rules that make perfect sense on Earth completely break down out there. Here are three facts about the universe that sound like pure science fiction but are 100% real.

Reality-Bending Truths

Our brains aren't wired to understand the sheer scale and physics of the cosmos. Here is what is actually going on out there:

• Time slows down near heavy objects: Gravity warps time. If you hung out near a massive black hole for just a few hours, decades or even centuries would pass back on Earth.
• Space is mostly nothing: If our Sun was the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way galaxy would be the size of the continental United States. When two galaxies collide, their stars almost never hit each other because the gaps between them are so massive.
• It rains glass sideways: On the exoplanet HD 189733b, the weather is a nightmare. Winds blow at 5,400 mph, and it rains molten glass sideways. Earth's worst hurricanes are basically a light breeze compared to this.

Cosmic Scale Stats

Just to put things into perspective, here are a few numbers that show how big things really are.