We have about the same ideas about space as about history - it is difficult to say what we have learned from the results of scientific research and what we have learned from films. However, whatever the truth, it is better not to meddle with scientists with their reasoning about the Universe, they will laugh at them. What Hollywood is showing us is as far from the truth as the Moon is from Earth. Here are the most popular movie tales that we take at face value.
The asteroid belt is deadly
We learned from Star Wars that trying to slip through the asteroid belt is a daring and difficult idea. Imagine walking along a subway platform during rush hour, but instead of people, you are surrounded by boulders rushing at great speed.
However, in reality - despite the fact that there are about half a million "links" in the asteroid belt - the chances of colliding with them are minimal. This was officially announced at one time by NASA scientists, calculating the trajectory of the probe, which was supposed to cross the asteroid belt. The distance between space cobblestones is from several kilometers to several tens of kilometers, so that the belt is no more dangerous than a busy highway.
Skeptics can argue that the asteroid belt has an ultra-high density in the Star Wars galaxy, but this is almost impossible: even if the asteroids rush close to each other, over time they will still disperse. In a collision, both asteroids would fly out of their orbit, so that sooner or later noticeable gaps would appear in the belt.
Black holes are space vacuum cleaners
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Proponents of views of the Universe as the main enemy of mankind cite as proof of the correctness of their views the fact that black holes suck in everything that is within their "field of view". The reality is that if one fine morning our sun were replaced by a black hole, nothing terrible would have happened - of course, except that we would freeze to death. But the hole would not suck in our planet.
Like any other object in the Universe, the gravitational force of black holes has a power comparable to their mass - no more, no less. Physics is a science whose laws are obeyed even by such "bad guys" as black holes. And no secret mechanism that endows black holes with supernatural powers - despite their huge mass - simply does not exist.
The sun is yellow
Ask a child or an adult to draw the sun - the first thing the artist will do is reach for a yellow pencil. The fact that our luminary is exactly yellow, we know almost from birth. After all, even scientifically, the Sun passes as a yellow dwarf. The reason the Sun appears to us to be yellow lies in the peculiarities of the earth's atmosphere, which refracts the sun's rays in a certain way. In fact, given that the temperature of the luminary is approximately 5760C, it can only have white color, like any other incandescent object. Yes, boring, but true.
Mars, by the way, is not red. NASA is not to blame: it is difficult to take adequate pictures outside the Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope does not produce "true" or "false" colors - it simply reflects the collection of physical processes underlying the subjects of images. Mars seems to us red because of its atmosphere, dusty with particles of iron oxide, in other words, rust. So what is the unambiguous answer to the question "What color is such and such a planet?" not yet.
Hot meteorites
Imagine that a meteorite has fallen in your yard. You run to the place of his reception and see what? That's right, a smoking funnel. After all, the meteorite leaves a trail of fire in the sky, so the funnel from it will definitely be hot. But in fact only the air heats up, which the meteorite "pushes" in front of it. Due to its enormous speed, the meteorite is in the earth's atmosphere for too little time to heat up - only its upper layers are heated.
In a vacuum, a person will certainly explode
In the red corner of the ring is a man, a small creature of flesh and blood. In blue, there is a cosmic vacuum, a hostile environment, where there is nothing but cold. If you go into space without a spacesuit, small bloody fragments will fly around the Universe - this is what category B films teach us. Most people quite rightly believe that if the external pressure is less than the internal pressure, the object will explode. However, Stanley Kubrick in his film "A Space Odyssey" released astronaut Bowen into outer space without a helmet - and nothing happened to him. This is just that rare case when cinematic events are close to real ones.
Fortunately for humanity, our skin and blood supply systems provide excellent protection that can negate the effects of decompression to almost nothing.
Of course, no mortal will be able to take an hour-long walk through interstellar space without appropriate equipment, but it is quite possible to be in space for a few seconds in the same outfit in which you go at home. Despite the extreme cold, the blood flow will remain normal for some time, and the skin will not let the body of its owner "spray". The main danger is the lack, or rather, the complete absence of oxygen, but divers also face this when diving to great depths.
based on materials from Сracked.com
Natalia Sinitsa
