The universe is majestic. It's also quite terrifying.
Think about it: At the end of the day, does any of this even matter? We just so happen to be the "lucky ones" to exist on a floating rock that revolves around a fiery orb situated in a vast ocean of stillness and nothingness.
Wild, huh? Just wait until we tell you how deadly asteroids can be...
Of course, space is far more scary than that. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface.
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor zjaf asked the online community:
"What's the scariest space fact/mystery in your opinion?"
"The potential for complete and immediate annihilation by vacuum decay."
WhenTardigradesFly
Why did I decide to read about this right now? There goes my day.
"There could be..."
"There could be a planet-sterilizing gamma-ray burst heading our way right now. There's no way to stop it, and we wouldn't even know it's coming until it arrives."
gofunk1
No way to stop it and no escape.
What a lovely existential crisis we're all having.
"The universe outside of Earth..."
"The universe outside of Earth is completely silent. Sound on Earth travels through vibrations in the air. But in outer space, there is no air for sound to travel. Basically saying, nobody will hear you scream."
Iloveicecream
Time to rewatch Alien. This is getting me into the mood.
"That, in the space between the stars and planets..."
"That, in the space between the stars and planets, there is just the endless void.
It's the most "nothing" that there ever will be yet at the same time we can traverse this sea of infinity."
NoCalorieWater
Disconcerting and disorienting, isn't it?
"That far away..."
"A few people have said this but just the size of space is creepy to me. That far away.... but what almost depresses me more that unlike in Stargate I will never be able to travel to any of it. Would love to see whats out there."
[deleted]
Admittedly, I don't have a desire to see space. There is so much on this planet I have yet to see.
"There is a full stop to humanity..."
"There is a full stop to humanity. We will cease to exist, every single atom that is and has been earth will ultimately be destroyed, by our own sun.
Won't be for billions of years, but unless humans can successfully colonise other planets our entire existence will be inevitably wiped."
Ummar64
Have you seen how we treat our own planet? It might be in the best interest of the universe at large if we do stop.
"A... thing..."
"A... thing... that affects the motion of galaxies for hundreds of millions of light years."
[deleted]
It’s thought to just be a bigger bunch of galaxies!
"It won't be humans..."
"It won't be humans that colonize space but it will be our creation. We will have to give birth to a species that colonize space. Unfortunately, humans are not meant for space travel. If we wanted though we could reintroduce humanity at the destinations."
40Oztofreedomtoday
I'll pass, thanks. Have you dealt with humans?
"It's possible..."
"It's possible that the entire universe could have started collapsing from the center and we would not know about it (at least from Earth) for about 13.8 billion years."
R34LHooman
Imagine that. You're just chilling... watching RuPaul's Drag Race. And then, all of a sudden... darkness. You go to your death never knowing who won the Snatch Game.
"Voyager 1..."
"Voyager 1 will outlive Planet Earth."
skakodler
Who knows how long that thing will last. Maybe it'll never be found, and live for eons until its atoms begin to decay..
Okay... it's safe to say that I won't be sleeping tonight. But I can't help but be super fascinated (despite the terror), so if you'll excuse me, I'll be busy reading creepy space facts on Wikipedia until about 4 a.m. I never learn.
Have some space facts you'd like to horrify us with? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below!
@WSJ/X
@victinbcn/Bluesky
@EgioVictor/X
@bartije/X
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social