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The Sun
04-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
From how to get rid of wee in space to items left on the moon, take our horribly tricky quiz
Sun Reporter Published: Invalid Date, HERE'S a question: do you know what happens to pee in space? If yes, urine with a chance of nailing this quiz. 6 6 If not, you (and the kids) can swot up with the new CBeebies series Horrible Science, starting May 9. From the award-winning brains behind Horrible Histories, it promises to make science fun. In the meantime, give our quiz a go and find out if your science know-how is out of this world . . . Q1 IF astronauts throw up while they're in space, what happens to their sick? a) It turns blue b) It turns ball-shaped c) It smells of flowers Q2 WHICH method has NEVER been used to get rid of pee in space? a) Throwing pee straight out of the spacecraft b) Turning pee into drinking water c) Using the pee as rocket fuel Q3 NASA plans to return to the Moon next year with the Artemis project. Which of the following items have been left on the moon during previous missions? a) Golf balls b) A hammer and a feather c) 96 bags of poo Weirdest things spotted on Mars revealed Q4 SOME parts of the Moon have hugely horrible names – which TWO are real ones? a) The Sea of Blood b) The Ocean of Pain c) The Marsh of Decay d) The Lake of Death 5. The Horribly Huge Grand Tour This takes you to the edge of the solar system (our Sun and planets). Simply answer a question at each stop on the way. Stop 1: The Sun The Sun is so big that it takes up 99.8 per cent of all the matter in the solar system. And it is super-powerful. Imagine a piece of sun the size of a postage stamp – how much light would it produce? a) Equal to a dim light bulb b) Equal to over 1,000 light bulbs c) Nothing – it would explode Stop 2: Mercury During the day Mercury gets hotter than 430C. Why do scientists think there's ice on Mercury? a) It's special ice that only melts at very high temperatures. b) The ice is at the centre of the planet. c) The ice is in deep craters that stay in shadow. Stop 3: Venus Venus is hotter than a pizza oven. What weird weather might you find there? a) Acid clouds and metal snow b) Natural toffee rain caused by sugars heating in the atmosphere c) Stinky-steamy fog – imagine a hot shower in a blocked toilet Stop 4: Earth Planet Earth ought to be Planet Water because it's mostly covered by the wet stuff. Like all planets, Earth orbits the Sun. But how fast is our planet moving? a) It moved 27km in the time you took to read this question b) It moved 27million km in the time you took to read this question c) It moved 27cm in the time you took to read this question. 6 6 Stop 5: Mars Mars is a grim planet. It's icy cold and there's nothing to breathe. It does have two little moons. Deimos is the smallest – it has weak gravity. How weak? a) If you fart, you'll fly into space b) If you let the air out of a balloon, you'll fly into space c) If you ride a bike, you'll fly into space Stop 6: The Asteroid Belt Between Mars and Jupiter there's a dwarf planet called Ceres and millions of asteroids (space rocks, remember?). Asteroids come in all shapes and sizes but there's one thing they don't have – what is it? a) Gold b) Atmosphere c) Moons Stop 7: Jupiter It is so big all the other planets can fit inside it. Why does Jupiter have a big red spot? a) It's a horribly huge infection caused by alien bacteria b) It's a horribly huge hurricane bigger than the entirety of Earth c) It's a horribly huge area of red rocks Stop 8: Saturn Saturn's famous rings are made from rocks – some as big as houses and some as small as bugs. Why do the rings vanish every 15 years? a) They reflect sunlight but only do this from certain angles b) They break apart and need to re-form from time to time c) The rings are very thin and you can't see them when they're end-on to Earth Stop 9: Uranus Uranus is mainly made up of gas – its atmosphere stinks of farts (that's due to hydrogen sulphide). Why is the winter especially cold and miserable? a) Uranus is a slow-spinning planet b) The planet spins at an odd angle and has a long year c) The stinky atmosphere is like a deep-freeze keeping the planet cold Stop 10: Neptune Neptune is another cold, gassy planet. How windy is Neptune? a) The wind blows at 2,000km per hour b) The wind blows at 50km per hour c) No one knows – a robot space probe was sent to measure the weather, but it got blown back to Uranus Q6 WHICH of the following can happen to astronauts when they're in space? a) They get taller b) They need to pee more regularly c) Their fingernails can fall off 6 Answers A1 b) It turns ball-shaped. With no gravity to pull it downward, vomit comes out in free-floating blobs of chunky fluid. The blobs can drift and break into small blobs, which can be a big problem in a sealed, sensitive environment like the International Space Station. NASA prepares for this by training astronauts to vomit into special 'barf bags' that are designed for space. Unlike regular sick bags, these space ones have a one-way valve to prevent anything from floating back out. But if anyone misses the bag, the crew must treat it as a biohazard. As the vomit is free-floating, it could get into equipment and short-circuit the electronics or clog up air filters, risking the air flow into the spaceship. WHY A BALL? On Earth, when you vomit, gravity pulls the liquid downward – into a toilet, a bag, the floor (hopefully not the last one). But in space, gravity isn't pulling things down. On the ISS, astronauts are in microgravity, which means they're constantly free-falling around Earth – essentially experiencing weightlessness. When you throw up in microgravity, the vomit comes out of your mouth, but instead of falling, it just floats. Liquids in space naturally clump into blobs due to surface tension – the force that makes water form droplets. So vomit in space forms a gross, sticky sphere that just hovers there until it hits something – like a face. In space, surface tension dominates, so ALL fluids – water, sweat, pee and vomit – will float around in blobs unless contained. Vomiting in space is totally a thing, especially during the first few days when astronauts are getting used to floating around in microgravity. 'Space Sickness' affects about two thirds of astronauts in the first 48 hours; the brain gets confused because the inner ear is used to gravity-based cues for balance and in space everything is floaty and weird! A2 c) It has never been used as rocket fuel. The space shuttles of the 1980s dumped pee into space. One astronaut described how it froze into shiny crystals that twinkled as the Sun set behind Earth. That's beautiful. On the International Space Station, the astronauts drink their own purified pee – fancy a glug? A3 a), b) and c): There's no way of refuelling on the moon, so Nasa had to send the heavy fuel that would be needed to blast back off again from the moon and return to Earth, along with the astronauts when they originally blasted off into space. To save any further weight, the missions that went to the moon also left as much behind as possible to save on the amount of fuel then needed to get back home – hence there are quite a lot of items still up there! Alan Shephard left golf balls on the moon after taking two shots during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. George Scott left a hammer and a feather on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission, also in 1971, after proving Galileo's theory that in the absence of air resistance, objects fall at the same rate regardless of their mass. During a moonwalk, he held a geologist's hammer (heavy and solid) and a falcon's feather (light and delicate). He dropped them at the same time on the lunar surface and . . . they hit the ground at exactly the same time. It was a beautiful, simple demonstration of physics, proving Galileo's famous theory from around 380 years earlier. The Moon gave a perfect laboratory to test the theory as it has no atmosphere, so no air resistance, to cause the feather to flutter as it fell. NASA also deliberately placed long-term science experi-ments on the surface, including seismo-meters to detect Moonquakes. The Apollo missions also left messages for future generations, and symbols of peace including a gold olive branch and a plaque that says 'We came in peace for all mankind'. A4 c) and d): One day they might have to change these names – they're sure to put off space tourists! A5 1. b) The Sun is seriously bright. But you know that already – the Sun is 148million km away from us and it is still dazzling! c) The craters are at the poles which get less sunlight than the rest of the planet. a) Venus is a really stupid place to go on holiday. a) Earth moves at 107,000km per hour – and don't forget it spins too. How come we aren't totally dizzy? b) Deimos looks amazingly like a potato but it's actually covered in about 100 metres of space dust. Dusty old potatoes – yuck! b) Asteroids don't have enough gravity to stop an atmosphere floating into space. Some have gold and some have their own tiny moons! b) The hurricane has been raging for centuries and no one knows why it's red! It may be due to coloured chemicals in the hurricane. c) The rings are tens of thousands of kilometres wide but less than one kilometre thick! b) Uranus actually spins sideways in space so its poles face the Sun in turn. The other pole is very cold and dark. And since one year lasts 84 Earth years, winter takes 21 years! No wonder it's so cold and miserable. a) Neptune is actually the windiest place in the solar system. A6 1. a), b) and c): In space, astronauts get a little taller because there's no gravity to squish their spines. Without gravity, their bones can stretch out, making them about two inches taller. But when they return to Earth, gravity pulls everything back to normal and they shrink back to their regular height. In space, astronauts also pee more. Normally, gravity pulls fluids down to their legs but in space there's no gravity to hold things down. So, all the fluids in their body float up to their chest and head. Their body notices the shift and starts making extra pee to get rid of the extra fluid. After a few days, their body gets used to space and everything goes back to normal. It's like their body has to adjust to the weirdness of space before things settle down. Astronauts' fingernails can fall off in space because their gloves are super tight, which puts pressure on their hands and nails. Plus, in space, their blood flow changes, so their nails don't get the nutrients they need to stay strong. The result? Sometimes their nails just fall off. It's one of the weird things astronauts have to deal with.
The Sun
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Everything you need to know about the VE Day celebrations around the country from street parties to stunning fly-past
Sun Reporter Published: Invalid Date, YOUR essential guide to six days of national commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 in Europe. Find out what's happening over the holiday weekend and through to VE Day itself on Thursday. 13 13 SATURDAY, MAY 3 11am-4:30pm: Top-secret Bletchley Park, Bucks, where the Nazi Enigma code was broken in World War Two, hosts a weekend with code-breaking challenges, wartime re-enactors, swing dancing and a street party. 7:30pm: Party like it's 1945 with Glenn Miller-style big band music to raise the roof of the great hall at Scotland's Stirling Castle. SUNDAY, MAY 4 13 Noon-3pm: Dumfries Street, Treorchy, in the Rhondda Valley claims to be the 'most patriotic street in Wales'. Locals are throwing a party for residents who joked with King Charles when he visited the village pub in their mining village in 2022. 12:30pm to 4pm: Budleigh Salterton, Devon, is hosting one of Britain's biggest street parties for 600 revellers in the High Street. MONDAY, MAY 5 13 MILLIONS of people around the UK will celebrate on Bank Holiday Monday with thousands of street parties and picnics. 11am-5pm: Cardiff Castle is hosting Britain's biggest VE Day 80 party, with up to 5,000 expected to attend. The free, unticketed bash is Wales's official VE Day 80 event. It features a bandstand with wartime music and walkabout entertainers, including circus and puppet performers. 12pm: As Big Ben strikes noon, more than 1,000 servicemen and women will parade in Parliament Square, where an actor will read some of Winston Churchill's famous wartime speeches. Place of honour goes to 100-year-old Royal British Legion veteran Alan Kennett, of Lichfield, Staffs. The former RAF battlefield engineer will carry the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Torch for Peace flame during the parade. VE Day was a 'jolly' moment but work went on, 100-year-old former Wren says Major General James Bowder, head of the Household Division, leads soldiers on horseback from The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery and Household Cavalry. They will be followed by hundreds of servicemen and women from the Army, Navy and Royal Marines. Nine military bands from the Irish Guards, RAF and garrisons at Tidworth, Catterick and Colchester will march into Whitehall where they will pass the Cenotaph, decked out for the first time ever in only Union Flags. The parade will also include 10 officers from the Ukrainian army. Military nurses, cadets and civilians will bring up the rear of the procession that will march up Whitehall to the Mall. At the Queen Victoria Monument, the procession salutes King Charles, Queen Camilla as well as William and Kate, who will be sitting with PM Keir Starmer and 50 people from the greatest generation on a specially built platform. These men and women include Royal British Legion veterans and those who lived through the war, such as evacuees, land girls and Bevin boys who worked down the mines. 13 1:45pm: The royals will appear on Buckingham Palace balcony for a fly-past of 23 military aircraft, old and new. Led by a World War Two Lancaster bomber, it will fly over the Mall. The Lancaster will be followed by modern RAF planes – a Voyager transport aircraft, P8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft, Typhoons, F-35 Lightning fighter jets and the Red Arrows. Battle of Britain Memorial Spitfires will not be in London on Monday but they are doing fly-pasts over Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. 2pm: The Marble Corridor in Buckingham Palace is decked with bunting and flags as the King and Queen host a VE Day party for the 50 veterans. 4pm: HMS Belfast, which fired some of the opening shots in the D-Day sea battle off Normandy, now moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge, is holding a VE tea party onboard, hosted by the Imperial War Museum. TUESDAY, MAY 6 13 AT the House of Commons, Ceremonials Minister Stephanie Peacock leads the debate on VE Day and VJ Day – the end of World War Two after the defeat of Japan in August 1945. 6:30pm: Queen Camilla officially opens the return of ceramic poppies to the Tower of London. More than 30,000 of the near 900,000 poppies which were first shown in 2014 are back. But this time they are inside the Tower, which was bombed during the war. 7:30pm: Edinburgh's Usher Hall hosts Scotland's Salute - A Tribute to VE Day 80th Anniversary Concert. Bagpipers will star as thousands attend Scotland's official VE Day 80 concert, which is organised by Royal British Legion Scotland and Poppyscotland. Band of HM Royal Marines, The Band of The Royal Regiment of Scotland, The Military Wives Choirs Scotland, as well as Amy Hawthorn and solo violinist Iona McDonald will perform. 9pm: Some 98 historic buildings around the UK will be lit up, including Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Marble Arch. St Paul's Church, Perth, York city walls, Cardiff Castle and Llangollen Town Hall in Mid Wales will have similar displays. WEDNESDAY, MAY 7 IN the evening of May 7, 1945, the BBC interrupted its radio programmes with a newsflash announcing that the next day would be Victory in Europe Day. On Wednesday, the Parliament Choir will host a Victory in Europe Day Anniversary Concert in the Westminster Hall. At Imperial War Museum North in Salford, some of the Letters to Loved Ones that families who lived through the war shared will become part of a film screening called The Next Morning. A National Service of Remembrance for Wales will be held at Llandaff Cathedral. THURSDAY, MAY 8 13 PUBS can stay open an extra two hours until 1am for VE celebrations. 9:30am: Town criers throughout the UK proclaim VE Day. 10am-12:30pm: Tower Gardens in Skegness, Lincs, hosts a free event – a Battle of Britain fly-past and ukulele band. 11am: Celebrations in Morecambe, Lancs, begin with a VE Day proclamation by the town crier, followed by a reception for veterans and families plus a free evening concert by Morecambe Brass Band. 12noon: National two-minute silence. Westminster Abbey's Service of Thanksgiving begins. Just like on VE Day 80 years ago, speakers of the Commons and Lords will walk from Parliament to Westminster Abbey for a televised service of thanksgiving attended by the Royal Family and veterans. On May 8, 1945, services were held at the Abbey every hour, and 25,000 people attended that day. 2pm: A Battle of Britain Spitfire and a Hurricane will lead a fly-past over the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, where the British Legion is hosting a tea party for around 40 World War Two veterans plus families and carers. 4pm: The veterans will hold a service at the Arboretum's Navy Memorial. 2pm: HMS Wellington, which served in the Atlantic during the Second World War and is now moored on the Thames at Embankment, is holding a VE Day tea party on Thursday and Friday for fun and fundraising. 6:30pm: Churches and cathedrals across the country ring their bells in celebration. 7-9pm: Birmingham is throwing a massive family-friendly city centre street party in Broadgate with wartime nostalgia, a big screen, VE Day 80 tributes, live music performers and beacon lighting. 13 13 8pm: Zoe Ball hosts a star-packed TV concert from a huge stage in front of 10,000 invited guests at Horse Guards Parade in London. The live two-hour show on BBC One is bringing back Dad's Army, starring Larry Lamb, Nigel Havers and Derek Jacobi. Three Dames – Joan Collins, Mary Berry and Sheila Hancock – who all remember VE Day in 1945 will be on stage. Succession's Brian Cox reads Prime Minister Winston Churchill's historic Victory speech. Fleur East opens the show with Strictly dancers Amy Dowden, Carlos Gu, Karen Hauer, Neil Jones, Lauren Oakley, and Kai Widdrington. 8pm: The Royal Albert Hall hosts music concert VE Day 80: The Party, where the war generation will tell their stories in aid of military charity SSAFA. Broadcast on Classic FM. 9:30pm: A thousand beacons will be lit across the UK, from Land's End to Golspie, 70 miles south of John O'Groats. Locations vary, from Anglesey, North Wales, to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, as well as at armed forces museums, castles, town squares, halls, seafronts and parks. As the beacons blaze, Chelsea Pensioner Colin Thackery, who served with the Royal Artillery in Korea and won Britain's Got Talent in 2019, will lead the country and community choirs singing the hymn I Vow To Thee My Country. TELLY NEWSREADER Sophie Raworth is presenting live coverage of the events in London on Monday in VE Day 80: The Nation Pays Tribute on BBC One. She is also hosting VE Day 80: The Nation Remembers from Westminster Abbey on Thursday. Alex Jones and Roman Kemp present an hour-long One Show VE special on Monday. Military history expert Al Murray interviews Britain's oldest world war veteran, 110-year-old Donald Rose, who fought in North Africa and Italy before being one of the first ashore on D-Day. Look out for One Big Thank You on Thursday's One Show. EastEnders has a special episode where Walford comes together to mark the historic milestone in The Queen Vic.
