Astronomy Trivia Question: 1 What survives impacting Earth's surface: a meteor, a meteorite or an asteroid? View the answerHide answer Meteorite. Question: 2 Which is the hottest planet in the solar system? View the answerHide answer Venus, with a surface temperature of 460 °C Question: 3 What is the strongest known magnet in the Universe? View the answerHide answer A neutron star. Question: 4 If you go into space, do you get taller? View the answerHide answer Yes, the cartilage disks in your spine expand due to the lack of gravity, making you taller. Question: 5 How far is the moon away from Earth? View the answerHide answer Around 376 600 km away. Question: 6 How old is our sun? View the answerHide answer Roughly 5 billion years. (A closer approximation is 4.6 billion years) Question: 7 What is the name given to planets outside our solar system? View the answerHide answer Extrasolar planets. Question: 8 Which planets have rings around them? View the answerHide answer Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune. Question: 9 Where is the largest known meteorite crater on Earth? View the answerHide answer Vredefort Ring in South Africa, 299km diameter! There is conjecture around the Chicxulub crater in Mexico being potentially bigger though. Question: 10 What causes an aurora? View the answerHide answer Charged particles from the solar winds slowing down in our atmosphere. Question: 11 Which of Saturn's moons has seas of methane? View the answerHide answer Titan. Question: 12 Which equation describes the likelihood of extraterrestrial life? View the answerHide answer The Drake equation, named after Frank Drake.N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • LWherebyN = The number of civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.R* = The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space. Question: 13 Does the Sun move? View the answerHide answer Yes! The entire solar system is orbiting the center of our galaxy plus the Sun itself rotates. Question: 14 What would happen if you 'fell' into a black hole? View the answerHide answer A term 'spaghettification' has been used here! The closer you are to a black hole, the faster you accelerate towards it. Basically your feet would be pulled faster toward the black hole than your head which means you would stretch and stretch until shredded! Question: 15 How long does a day on Mercury last? View the answerHide answer 59 Earth days Question: 16 Who first proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system? View the answerHide answer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) Question: 17 How much rock was brought back to Earth by the Apollo missions? View the answerHide answer 380kg Question: 18 What was the biggest asteroid hit ever witnessed? View the answerHide answer The crash of Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid into Jupiter in 1994. Question: 19 When was the first liquid-fuel rocket launched? View the answerHide answer 1926 by Robert Goddard. Question: 20 Where is the largest volcano in the solar system? View the answerHide answer Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. Found on Mars, it is 3 times higher than Mt Everest. It can be this big due to lower gravity on Mars as well as the lack of plate tectonics. Question: 21 Which is largest moon in the solar system? View the answerHide answer Ganymede which orbits Jupiter. Question: 22 When was the first space station launched? View the answerHide answer In April 1971 (Salyut 1 by the former Soviet Union). Question: 23 How old is the universe? View the answerHide answer The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Question: 24 Is a ‘light year’ a measure of distance, time or brightness? View the answerHide answer Distance. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. Question: 25 How far away is the nearest star, not the sun? View the answerHide answer The nearest star to earth, excluding the sun, is about 4.3 light years away. Its name is Alpha Centauri. Question: 26 True or false. There is no gravity in space. View the answerHide answer False. All matter pulls all other matter towards it, this pull is what we call ‘gravity.’ In space, this pull is just much weaker because you are further away from other matter. Question: 27 Which planet in our solar system has the greatest number of moons? View the answerHide answer Jupiter, with 79 moons! Question: 28 Is there sound in space? View the answerHide answer No. The gas molecules in space - and yes there is gas - are too far apart for sound to properly travel. Question: 29 How fast can a neutron star spin? View the answerHide answer 60 to 600 times a second. Question: 30 How long will it take for the footprints on the moon to be erased naturally? View the answerHide answer About 100 million years. Question: 31 What is the biggest explosion humans have ever seen? View the answerHide answer Supernova. Each blast is the extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a massive star as it dies. Question: 32 In the 1960’s we sent a bunch of probes to Venus, where atmospheric pressure is 100 times higher than on Earth. Some were destroyed; what happened to these probes? View the answerHide answer They imploded Question: 33 How long does it take sunlight to travel from the Sun to the Earth? View the answerHide answer 8 minutes and 20 seconds Question: 34 What’s another name for the polar lights? View the answerHide answer Aurora Question: 35 Light-year is a unit used to measure... View the answerHide answer Distance. How far light travels in 1 year! (9.46 trillion kilometres (9.46 x 1012 km)) Question: 36 True or False: A person who studies the science of space is called an astrologer or astrologist. View the answerHide answer False. Correct answer: Astronomer. An astrologer is a person who believes that you can get information about people’s lives from patterns in the stars. Lots of scientists have tried to study this, but have not found any evidence that it actually has any effect on our lives. Question: 37 Cosmonaut Gennady Ivanovich Padalka has spent more time in space than any other person. How many days has he spent in space? View the answerHide answer 879 Question: 38 Which planet in our solar system is NOT named after a Roman god or goddess? View the answerHide answer Earth Question: 39 True or False: Only half of the planets in our solar system are made of rock and metal. View the answerHide answer True. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are terrestrial planets (also known as rocky planets). They are mostly made up of silicate rocks and metals. Jupiter and Saturn are known as gas giants, while Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Question: 40 How many moons does Saturn have? View the answerHide answer At least 82 moons are known to orbit Saturn, of which 53 are officially named; this does not include the hundreds of moonlets in its rings. Question: 41 When three or more planets or moons in our solar system line up, this is called? View the answerHide answer Syzygy Question: 42 What is the closest star to Earth, that isn’t the Sun? View the answerHide answer Alpha Proxima Centauri. It’s about 4.2 lightyears away from us. If you travelled there in one of today’s rockets, it’d take you about 168,000 years to get there! Question: 43 What is a ‘supermoon’? View the answerHide answer When the moon is full and at its closest point to the Earth. Question: 44 True or False: In space you could get killed by a pebble. View the answerHide answer True. Space debris (or space junk) orbiting the Earth can be travelling at up to 8km/s. That’s faster than a bullet! Question: 45 True or false: When astronauts come back from space they are slightly younger than they would have been if they’d never left. View the answerHide answer True. US astronaut Scott Kelly shaved 13 milliseconds off his Earth age by spending 11 months aboard the International Space Station. He and his identical twin Mark (who is also an astronaut) have also taken part in studies to investigate the genetic effects of spaceflight. Question: 46 If you dropped a hammer and a feather on the Moon, which one would hit the ground first? View the answerHide answer Neither, they would both hit the ground at the same time. The difference is that there’s no atmosphere on the moon and so no air resistance. On Earth, the air resistance will slow the feather down more than it slows down the hammer. The earth's gravity pulls all objects down at the same rate(9.8 m/s 2), assuming there is no air resistance. They actually did this experiment with a hammer and a feather on the Moon in 1971 during the Apollo 15 mission. Question: 47 True or false: The moon appears smaller on the horizon than when it is overhead. View the answerHide answer False The moon appears larger on the horizon. It’s called the moon illusion and no one knows exactly why it is happening, but they think it’s to do with how our brains adjust the size of things that we’re seeing by comparing it with familiar objects in the foreground. Question: 48 True or false: All the water on Earth arrived in comets and asteroids. View the answerHide answer True It happened billions of years ago during a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment. Love Science? Subscribe! Join our newsletter Receive more lesson plans and fun science ideas. PROGRAMS COURSES SHOP SCIENCE PARTIES Calendar of Events HIGH SCHOOL Science@Home 4-Week Membership 12PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 29, 2024 12PM - 12PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! PRIMARY Science@Home 4-Week Membership 2PM: March 2024 Feb 26, 2024 - Mar 22, 2024 2PM - 2PM Price: $50 - $900 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 PM Jan 18, 2024 2PM - 3PM Price: $50 Book Now! Light and Colour Online Workshop, Jan 18 AM Jan 18, 2024 9AM - 11AM Price: $50 Book Now! Lego Robotics, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024 Jan 24, 2024 9AM - 12PM Price: $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park Jan 2024 Jan 24, 2024 1PM - 4PM Price: $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park July 11 2023 Jul 11, 2023 9AM - 4PM Price: $100 Book Now! Fizzics Education STEAM Day: Robots vs Dinosaurs, Lalor, Apr 14 Apr 14, 2023 9AM - 12PM Price: $45 - $50 Book Now! Creative Coding, Sydney Olympic Park April 14 2023 Apr 14, 2023 9AM - 4PM Price: $100 Book Now! Science@Home After School 4-Week Membership: March 2023 Mar 06, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023 4PM - 5PM Price: $40 - $1200 Book Now!
Vredefort Ring in South Africa, 299km diameter! There is conjecture around the Chicxulub crater in Mexico being potentially bigger though.
The Drake equation, named after Frank Drake.N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • LWherebyN = The number of civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.R* = The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
A term 'spaghettification' has been used here! The closer you are to a black hole, the faster you accelerate towards it. Basically your feet would be pulled faster toward the black hole than your head which means you would stretch and stretch until shredded!
Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. Found on Mars, it is 3 times higher than Mt Everest. It can be this big due to lower gravity on Mars as well as the lack of plate tectonics.
The nearest star to earth, excluding the sun, is about 4.3 light years away. Its name is Alpha Centauri.
False. All matter pulls all other matter towards it, this pull is what we call ‘gravity.’ In space, this pull is just much weaker because you are further away from other matter.
No. The gas molecules in space - and yes there is gas - are too far apart for sound to properly travel.
Supernova. Each blast is the extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a massive star as it dies.
False. Correct answer: Astronomer. An astrologer is a person who believes that you can get information about people’s lives from patterns in the stars. Lots of scientists have tried to study this, but have not found any evidence that it actually has any effect on our lives.
True. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are terrestrial planets (also known as rocky planets). They are mostly made up of silicate rocks and metals. Jupiter and Saturn are known as gas giants, while Uranus and Neptune are ice giants.
At least 82 moons are known to orbit Saturn, of which 53 are officially named; this does not include the hundreds of moonlets in its rings.
Alpha Proxima Centauri. It’s about 4.2 lightyears away from us. If you travelled there in one of today’s rockets, it’d take you about 168,000 years to get there!
True. Space debris (or space junk) orbiting the Earth can be travelling at up to 8km/s. That’s faster than a bullet!
True. US astronaut Scott Kelly shaved 13 milliseconds off his Earth age by spending 11 months aboard the International Space Station. He and his identical twin Mark (who is also an astronaut) have also taken part in studies to investigate the genetic effects of spaceflight.
Neither, they would both hit the ground at the same time. The difference is that there’s no atmosphere on the moon and so no air resistance. On Earth, the air resistance will slow the feather down more than it slows down the hammer. The earth's gravity pulls all objects down at the same rate(9.8 m/s 2), assuming there is no air resistance. They actually did this experiment with a hammer and a feather on the Moon in 1971 during the Apollo 15 mission.
False The moon appears larger on the horizon. It’s called the moon illusion and no one knows exactly why it is happening, but they think it’s to do with how our brains adjust the size of things that we’re seeing by comparing it with familiar objects in the foreground.
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Thank you for looking to subscribing to our newsletter 🙂 Through this service you’ll be first to know about the newest free experiments, science news and special offers. PLUS: Get a free Kitchen Chemistry Booklet with >20 experiments, how to use variables plus a handy template!
Please fill out the details below and an email will be sent to you. Once you get that just click on the link to confirm your subscription and you're all done!