Things movies get wrong about space

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

There is no gravity in space

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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."

Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

Black holes suck up everything

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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?

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

"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.

Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

Sound in space

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

We're sorry to break it to you, but this includes the sound of light sabers!

The Sun is yellow

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

Nothing is faster than the speed of light

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

A person would explode without a space suit

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

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.

Communication in space is instant

There is no gravity in space, Explosions in space are just like the ones on Earth, Black holes suck up everything, Flying through the asteroid belt would be nearly impossible, Sound in space, The Sun is yellow, Nothing is faster than the speed of light, A person would explode without a space suit, The dark side of the Moon, Meteorites are hot when they fall on our planet, Communication in space is instant

How many times have we seen astronauts in movies communicating with Earth like they were talking on a cell phone?

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