It's National Space Day! How Far Have Humans Found Out About the Cosmos?

National Space Day 2021 is celebrated on May 7, the first Friday of May. It is an annual celebration to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to young people as career paths.

The National Space Day, also called International Space Day, is the perfect time for everyone to enjoy all things related to the cosmos. These include achievements from the past century until today and future space projects that will carry humanity into further understanding the universe.

According to International Business Times, children and adults can use this day to learn more about space, like watching space-related movies or documentaries, plan stargazing activities, or perhaps watch recent launches of space rockets.

There is also the option to look into recent scientific advancements in space exploration or perhaps look into what the Hubble Space Telescope saw in space on your birthday.

National Space Day History

According to Time Bulletin, the celebration of National Space Day started in 1997 when Lockheed Martin Corporation made it a one-day event. However, former astronaut and senator John Glenn extended it in 2001 and made it into International Space Day.

Lockheed Martin Corporation's aim at that time was to promote space and aerospace career paths to the youth to help boost space exploration and research.

But this supposed to be a one-day event over two decades ago has become so famous after four years since it started and now became an annual celebration.

Scientific associations around the world celebrate this day with demonstrations, get-together, and promoting educational programs about space. Indeed, it is a phenomenal day to find out more about the universe and encourages the public to study space and space explorations.

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How Far Have Humans Found Out About the Universe?

Humans have come so far in understanding the cosmos and yet there are still more to learn about the vastness of the universe. Scientists and astronauts in various space agencies are conducting space explorations to further understand the universe.

An article on NASA's website says that the universe has a "foamy" structure. It contains galaxies and clusters of galaxies that make up the universe surrounded by a network of enormous cosmic voids.

Scientists have discovered that aside from the visible matter, there is also the unseen matter known as the "dark matter." It takes up approximately 27% of the matter-energy content of the universe which scientists hope to understand the structure and processes by which it forms the universe and its evolution.

Over the past decades, humanity has come a long way from sending humans to the moon, to sending rovers and orbiters to study other planets.

Also, the space race may have started with only the US and Russia, but now other countries, like China, Japan, and India have begun exploring the galaxy as well.

In the coming years, space exploration is expected to take off further to bring humans to other planets and make them interplanetary species.