Science today is advancing so rapidly that sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between reality and fiction. The following 10 statements hover between these two states. For each statement, identify whether it is fact or fiction, and find the explanation below. 
1. We have solid evidence that the solar system is not unique. We know that there are many other suns with planets around them.
2. Some organisms can survive in space for several years without any protective layer.
3. Organisms have been found that can survive in water heated to 112 degrees Celsius.
4. We have evidence that some forms of life exist beyond Earth, at least in primitive forms.
5. We have the technology necessary to send astronauts to other stars within a reasonable time frame. The only issue is that such a mission would be extremely expensive.
6. All the gas giant planets in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have rings.
7. In the Star Wars series, TIE fighters are propelled by ion engines. Although these spacecraft are fictional, ion engines are indeed operational on some spacecraft today.
8. There is no gravity in space.
9. The basis of “instantaneous transportation across distant space” (teleportation) – famously featured in the Star Trek series – sounds like mere theory. In reality, scientists have “teleported” the quantum state of single atoms from one location to another.
10. Tatooine, the home planet of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, has two suns – a phenomenon astronomers refer to as a binary star system. Scientists have recently discovered that planets can indeed form in such star systems.
Answers
1. True
Advanced telescopes and detection equipment have helped discover dozens of new planetary systems over the past decade, including several systems with multiple planets. Some of these systems are very similar to our solar system.
2. True
A small group of familiar bacteria, Streptococcus mitis, managed to “hitch a ride” for nearly 3 years on NASA’s Surveyor spacecraft, an unmanned lander that landed on the moon in 1967. The crew of Apollo 12 retrieved these organisms and brought them back to Earth in sterile conditions. This unexpected experiment demonstrated that certain organisms can survive for years under exposure to cosmic radiation, the vacuum of space, freezing temperatures, and without nutrients, water, or energy. Some researchers believe that life may have traveled from Mars to Earth on a meteorite.
3. True
More than 50 heat-loving microorganisms have been found thriving at extremely high temperatures in locations such as hot springs in Yellowstone National Park (USA) and on the walls of deep-sea “smokers.” Some species thrive best at 105 degrees Celsius and can still reproduce at 112 degrees. Bacteria have also been found beneath ice near the poles, in highly alkaline lakes, and deep underground, consuming rock as food.
4. Fiction
While many scientists speculate about the existence of extraterrestrial life, there is still no definitive evidence to support this. Future missions to Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and new space telescopes will seek answers to this persistent question.
5. Fiction
Even the Voyager spacecraft, which left our solar system many years ago traveling at nearly 60,000 km per hour, would take 76,000 years to reach the nearest star. Due to such vast distances, interstellar travel would require vehicles moving at speeds close to the speed of light. This exceeds the limits of current spacecraft, regardless of how much funding is provided.
6. True
The rings of Saturn are the most famous and visible, but they are not unique. Rings are also found around Uranus and Neptune.
7. True
Ion propulsion has long been mentioned in many works of science fiction, but in recent years, some unmanned spacecraft using this technology, such as NASA’s Deep Space 1, have been successfully tested.
8. Fiction
If there were truly no gravity in space, the moon would drift away from Earth, and our entire solar system would drift in all directions. While gravity does decrease with distance, it never completely disappears, no matter how far you travel into space. Astronauts experience a feeling of “weightlessness” because they are always in a state of free fall around the Earth.
9. True
Since the late 1990s, scientists have demonstrated that they can teleport data using photons, although photons are absorbed by surfaces they collide with. More recently, scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the USA have successfully teleported information between atoms for the first time, using the principle of quantum entanglement.
Experts indicate that this technology could eventually lead to the development of ultra-fast quantum computers. But the bad news, at least for science fiction fans, is that experts do not predict we will be able to “beam up” in this way anytime soon.
10. True
Binary star systems are quite common in our Milky Way galaxy. Even three-star systems exist in gravitational harmony. Among the more than 100 new planets discovered in recent years, some have been found orbiting binary star systems. Sadly, no one has yet found a habitable planet like Tatooine.
Thuan An (according to Space)
