As the festive period is here once again, a lot of social gatherings and family time are part of the itinerary for most. So this year instead of telling the regular old Christmas cracker jokes why not entertain your friends and family with these pretty amazing space facts instead?

* There are thousands of other planets out there.

We have eight planets in our Solar System. However, outside of our Solar System there are thousands of other planets. The extra-solar planets or exo-planets are in orbit around another star. So far we have almost 1800 confirmed new worlds, with another 3000 awaiting confirmation. Astronomers are looking to a star’s goldilocks zone for planets that may be habitable, just like the Earth. The majority of planets discovered so far are hot gas giant planets.

* In space the skin on your feet peels off!

This is a pretty gross fact but in the micro-gravity environment, astronauts are not using their feet to walk. Therefore the skin on their feet starts to soften and flakes off. As laundry facilities do not exist in space, astronauts will wear the same underwear and socks for a few days. Those socks then need to be taken off very gently. If not those dead skin cells will float around in the weightless environme

* On Venus a day is longer than a year.

This is tricky one to get your head around but a year on Venus (that is the length of time it takes to complete one whole orbit around the Sun) is 224.7 Earth days. However it takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis just once.

* The astronauts were placed in quarantine after returning from the moon.

There is a famous image of President Nixon talking to the Apollo 11 crew consisting of Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. This continued until after the Apollo 14 crew returned safely. After this it was decided that the Moon did not contain any deadly diseases. The Apollo 13 crew, who had a malfunction and had to return to Earth, did not have to be quarantined after their re-entry as they didn’t actually walk on the moon.

* One million Earths can fit inside the Sun.

Ancient astronomers once believed the Earth was at the centre of the Universe but now we know that the Sun is at the centre of our Solar System and our planets orbit the Sun. The Sun makes up 99.8% of the entire mass of the whole Solar System. One million Earths would be needed to be the same as the sun.🙅🙅💝

* You become taller in Space.

Another change to the human body in micro-gravity is that spine straightens out, as gravity is not pushing you down. In fact you can be up to as much as 5cm taller in the Space Station.

*Extreme weather warning!

Some times on the Earth, especially here in Northern Ireland the weather can be a bit rubbish! However our weather is awesome compared to some of the other planets. Jupiter has fast winds and the Great Red spot, a massive hurricane style storm, has raged there  for the last 300 years. Mercury and Mars have extreme temperature changes in the same day. Venus is a scorching five times hotter than boiling water. Saturn and Uranus also have extremely fast winds. However Neptune has the fastest ever wind speeds reaching a staggering 1600mph! ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️

Running for Mayor

TO PROMOTE ASGARDIAN

ENGLISH

MY MAIN PROJECT IS TO PROMOTE ASGARDIA TO HELP NEXT GENERATIONS OF ASGARDIANS TO COMMUNICATE BESIDE ONE NEW STYLE OF LIFE.

PORTUGUES

Meu principal projeto é promover Asgardia para ajudar as próximas gerações de Asgardianos a se comunicar ao lado de um novo estilo de vida.

"A mandatory requirement for a candidate nomination is the registration fee (donation) the amount of the registration fee is 100 Euros"

DECREE No 14

ON HOLDING ELECTIONS TO THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF ASGARDIA

01 FEBRUARY 2018 (04 FEBRUARY 0002)

In accordance with article 48 of the Constitution of Asgardia, elections to the Parliament of Asgardia begin no later than six months a er the Constitution has gone into e ect.  e Constitution was accepted by the popular vote of Asgardians on 9 September 2017 (28 August 0001 by Asgardian calendar) and, on that date, it was put into e ect by Decree No 9.

By this Decree, I con rm  e Provision on Elections to the First Parliament of Asgardia, presented by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), which was created on 1 September 2017 (20 August 0001) by Decree No 7 in accordance with subsection 4 of Article 4 of the Constitution of Asgardia, taking into account the updates and additions to its contents.

( e text of  e Provision is attached to this decree.)

e  nal voting on electing the Members of Parliament of Asgardia will take place 1-9 March 2018 (4-12 March 0002).  e results of the voting will be tallied on 1 April 2018 (7 April 0002).

In accordance with subsection 9 of Article 33 of the Constitution of Asgardia, I reserve the right to dissolve the Parliament a er every doubling of the total number of Asgardians beginning on 9 June 2018 (20 June 0002) for the purpose of a thorough representation of all citizens of Asgardia in Parliament and a possible correction in the number of language-based districts and/or the according number of Parliament Members apportioned to those districts.

In accordance with article 48 of the Constitution of Asgardia, the current decree in the section on the elections to the  rst Parliament of Asgardia becomes void a er the elected Parliament adopts the Law on Electing Members of Parliament.

PROVISION

On Elections to the First Parliament of Asgardia

01 February 2018 (04 February 0002) via conference call

In accordance with subsection 2 of Article 33 of the Constitution of Asgardia, 150 Members of Parliament will be elected based on the language principle, proportional to the 12 o cial languages of Asgardia.

e language principle of the formation of the Parliament as a national, representative and legislative body has been chosen for the reason that Asgardia views Earth’s humanity as a whole, in reality divided only based on linguistic attributes.

Every Asgardian chose their language in their pro le during the completion of the registration form. As a result, it was determined, by а signi cant margin, that the following are the 12 o cial languages of Asgardia: English, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Russian, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, German, Farsi.

e other languages did not receive a su cient number of Asgardian votes for the allocation of an individual seat in Parliament.  us the 12 electoral districts were formed, in accordance with the statistics of languages chosen by Asgardians.  e 13th district was formed for speakers of all other languages.

All Asgardians who are 18 or older as of 1 March 2018 (4 March 0002 by the Asgardian calendar) and who have accepted the Constitution of Asgardia, are automatically assigned to the electoral district in accordance with the language they have chosen during registration. An Asgardian may change their electoral district once on the condition that they are pro cient in the language of the electoral district to which they are transferring.

All Asgardians have the right to nominate themselves and to be nominated by other Asgardians, their groups, and by civic organisations, including Earthly ones.

WWW.ASGARDIA.SPACE

STUBENRING 2/8-9, VIENNA, 1010, AUSTRIACITIZENS@ASGARDIA.SPACE

For candidate registration, it is necessary to complete a pro le with a brief candidate platform and to select up to three committees of the Parliament (out of the 12 proposed ones), in which the candidate would like to work.