Backstory: Space by the numbers

1/151 the size of Earth, Pluto is smaller than the moon. It was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.

102 ft. is how high Swedish high-jump gold medalist Stefan Holm might have reached had the 2004 Summer Olympics been held on Pluto. It's weaker gravity means people can leap 13.2 times higher than on Earth.

134340 is the new asteroid number assigned to Pluto. It joins more than 136,500 asteroids and comets in our solar system.

As technology improves, scientists are discovering more and more "worlds" and wonders.

201 planets outside of our solar system have been found by astronomers. Of these, 142 of them have been discovered in the past six years.

450 light-years away from Earth floats a planet bigger than any astronomers have ever found and less dense than they even thought possible. Discovered last month, HAT-P-1 is a ball of gas so light and fluffy that it would float on water.

21,000 light-years away is a planet 5.5 times the mass of Earth. Astronomers announced earlier this year that, of all the known planets outside our solar system, this is both the most distant planet and the closest in mass to Earth.

78,000 feet is the height of Mars' mountain Olympus Mons. Two and a half times taller than Mount Everest, it's the largest in the solar system.

4224 is the number of hours that pass between sunsets on Mercury. But there are only 88 days in a year (the time it takes to spin around the sun once).

65,403 miles per hour is the average speed that Earth spins around the sun.

238,857 miles is the average distance from Earth to the moon – the equivalent of circling the equator 9.6 times.

9,900 degrees F. is the surface temperature of the sun.

867.2 degrees F. is the mean surface temperature of Venus, the hottest of the eight planets.

–373.27 degrees F. is the mean temperature on Neptune, the coldest of the fraternal eight.

50 billion galaxies made up the universe, at last count.

2 million Virgin Atlantic frequent-flyer miles can be redeemed for a 75-mile trip into outer space. British businessman Alan Watts traded his miles in last month for one of the first 1,000 reservations with Virgin Galactic, which plans to launch a space tourism program by 2009.

1 small change for Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for lunar lexicography. Computer analysis of the staticky 1969 broadcast released this week shows there was a long-lost "a" in Armstrong's famous first words on the Moon. He actually said: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Sources: The Associated Press, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Geographic, NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma, Space.com, Boeing, the British Broadcasting Corporation.

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