Space Facts

Verified facts about the universe beyond our planet — distant stars, exoplanets, galaxies, black holes, and the structure of space itself.

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Kepler 11145123 Is the Roundest Natural Object Ever Measured

The distant star Kepler 11145123, about 5,000 light-years from Earth, is the roundest natural object ever measured with high precision. Using asteroseismology — the study of a star’s natural oscillations — astronomers found in 2016 that its equatorial and polar diameters differ by only about 6 km (3.7 mi), even though the star is roughly 3 million km (1.9 million mi) across — even more spherical than the Sun.

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Gravity Probe B’s Rotors Are the Roundest Man-Made Objects Ever

NASA’s Gravity Probe B carries four fused-quartz gyroscope rotors — the roundest objects humans have ever made. Each is just 3.81 cm (1.5 in) across, yet scaled to Earth’s size, no surface feature would rise or sink more than 1.5 m (4.92 ft).

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