Space and astronomy: 45 trivia questions with sources
This category starts with planets, the Moon, and familiar solar-system objects before moving into orbits, telescopes, spacecraft, stellar evolution, black holes, cosmology, and gravitational effects.
45 questions · 21 easy, 9 medium, 15 hard · 45 with a source link
Suggested round splits
5 ways to break this category into rounds. The printed sheet keeps the whole list in one run, so split it while you plan rather than while you host.
Solar-system basics
The Sun, planets, the Moon, rotation, rings, temperature, and familiar nicknames.
Small bodies and distant worlds
Asteroids, comets, meteors, meteorites, dwarf planets, and outer-system belts.
Orbits and gravity
Weightlessness, eclipses, orbital points, planetary laws, tides, and redshift.
Missions and observatories
Artificial satellites, crewed exploration, probes, and space telescopes.
Stars and the wider universe
Fusion, stellar remnants, supernovas, pulsars, black holes, galaxies, and background radiation.
All 45 questions with answers
45 carry a pinned source revision
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
MercuryChecked against:
Essentially, because Mercury is closest to the Sun, when taking an average over time, Mercury is most often the closest planet to the Earth, and - in that measure - it is the closest planet to each of the other planets in the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet)?oldid=1365197728#Orbit%2C_rotation%2C_and_longitudeWhat is the largest planet in our solar system?
JupiterChecked against:
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter?oldid=1364889806Which planet is famous for its prominent rings?
SaturnChecked against:
Saturn and its rings are best seen when the planet is at, or near, opposition, the configuration of a planet when it is at an elongation of 180°, and thus appears opposite the Sun in the sky.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn?oldid=1364889895#ObservationWhat star is at the center of our solar system?
The SunChecked against:
The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star that makes up about 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun?oldid=1365815758#General_characteristicsHow many planets orbit the Sun?
EightChecked against:
The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the masses that orbit it, most prominently its eight planets, of which Earth is one.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System?oldid=1365257682What is Earth’s spin?
The rotation of planet Earth around its own axisChecked against:
Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_rotation?oldid=1364782554Which natural satellite orbits Earth?
The MoonChecked against:
The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon?oldid=1365616761What force does Newtonian mechanics explain with an inverse-square law?
GravityChecked against:
For most situations, orbital motion is adequately approximated by Newtonian mechanics, which explains gravity as a force obeying an inverse-square law.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit?oldid=1358633821What is the Sun?
StarChecked against:
The Sun is the star located at the centre of the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun?oldid=1365815758What nickname is Mars known by?
Red PlanetChecked against:
It is also known as the " Red Planet ", for its orange-red appearance.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars?oldid=1365946194What is the name of our galaxy?
The Milky WayChecked against:
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a D 25 isophotal diameter estimated at 26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,600 light-years), but only about 1,000 light-years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bar).
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way?oldid=1366030769Which planet has a surface hotter than Mercury’s?
VenusChecked against:
This makes the Venusian surface hotter than Mercury 's, even though Venus is nearly twice Mercury's distance from the Sun and thus receives only around a quarter of Mercury's solar irradiance, of 2,600 W/m 2 (double that of Earth).
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus?oldid=1364888249#Atmosphere_and_climateWhat do astronauts wear outside a spacecraft to survive?
Space suitChecked against:
A space suit (or spacesuit) is an environmental suit used for protection from the harsh environment of outer space.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_suit?oldid=1358061362What is a shooting star actually called?
A meteorChecked against:
A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a streak of light via its rapid motion and sometimes also by shedding glowing material in its wake.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor?oldid=1345850245How was Pluto immediately classified?
The ninth planetChecked against:
It was immediately hailed as the ninth planet, but its planetary status was questioned when it was found to be much smaller than expected.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto?oldid=1364946785What was the first artificial satellite?
Sputnik 1Checked against:
Two months later the R-7 launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit, and became the basis for the R-7 family which includes Sputnik, Luna, Molniya, Vostok, and Voskhod space launchers, as well as later Soyuz variants.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race?oldid=1364197645#Soviet_rocket_developmentWhat phase occurs when the Moon is completely illuminated from Earth?
The full moonChecked against:
The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moon?oldid=1349686235How long does sunlight take to reach Earth, approximately?
About 8.3 minutesChecked against:
Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth from the surface of the Sun.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight?oldid=1364119502What is the name for a rocky object orbiting the Sun, especially between Mars and Jupiter?
AsteroidChecked against:
The term asteroid, never officially defined, can be informally used to mean "an irregularly shaped rocky body orbiting the Sun that does not qualify as a planet or a dwarf planet under the IAU definitions".
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid?oldid=1365586432#TerminologyWhy do astronauts appear weightless while orbiting Earth?
The free-fall conditionChecked against:
In Newtonian physics the sensation of weightlessness experienced by astronauts is not the result of there being zero gravitational acceleration (as seen from the Earth), but of there being no g-force that an astronaut can feel because of the free-fall condition, and also there being zero difference between the acceleration of the spacecraft and the acceleration of the astronaut.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weightlessness?oldid=1362025557#Weightlessness_in_Newtonian_mechanicsHow large is Uranus’s axial tilt?
Axial tilt of 82.23°Checked against:
It has a marked axial tilt of 82.23° with a retrograde rotation period of 17 hours and 14 minutes.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus?oldid=1364889948What links Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto?
The four largest moons of JupiterChecked against:
The Galilean moons (/ ˌ ɡ æ l ɪ ˈ l eɪ. ə n /), or Galilean satellites, are the four largest moons of Jupiter.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_moons?oldid=1359245208How many people have walked on the Moon?
TwelveChecked against:
Twelve men walked on the Moon during six Moon landings of the Apollo program between July 1969 and December 1972.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts?oldid=1365496880#Apollo_astronauts_who_walked_on_the_MoonWhat is the boundary around a black hole beyond which light cannot escape?
Event horizonChecked against:
In 1958, David Finkelstein used general relativity to introduce a stricter definition of a local black hole event horizon as a boundary beyond which events of any kind cannot affect an outside observer, leading to information and firewall paradoxes, encouraging the re-examination of the concept of local event horizons and the notion of black holes.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_horizon?oldid=1358061908Why does a comet grow a tail near the Sun?
Solar radiationChecked against:
As a comet approaches the Sun, solar radiation causes the volatile materials within the comet to vaporize and stream out of the comet nucleus, carrying dust away with them.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail?oldid=1365322127What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
A barred spiral galaxyChecked against:
Astronomers first began to conjecture that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, rather than an ordinary spiral galaxy, in the 1960s.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way?oldid=1366030769#StructureWhich space telescope launched in 1990 and transformed astronomy from low Earth orbit?
The Hubble Space TelescopeChecked against:
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope?oldid=1366001248What is the closest star to the Sun?
Proxima CentauriChecked against:
Among the known stars, Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about 32,000 years and will be so for about another 25,000 years, after which Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B will alternate approximately every 79.91 years as the closest star to the Sun.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri?oldid=1364138807#Motion_and_locationWhat is the nearest point in an orbit around Earth called?
PerigeeChecked against:
Apsides pertaining to geocentric orbits, orbits around the Earth, are at the farthest point called the apogee, and at the nearest point the perigee, as with orbits of satellites and the Moon around Earth.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsis?oldid=1365739280How can the Moon cause a solar eclipse as seen from Earth?
The Moon passes between Earth and the SunChecked against:
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse?oldid=1362382170Which planet has the Great Red Spot?
JupiterChecked against:
The Great Red Spot is a persistent, high-pressure region in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, producing the largest anticyclonic storm in the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot?oldid=1363899609What are stars like the Sun expected to become later in their evolution?
White dwarf starsChecked against:
Stars like the Sun, whose mass is not high enough to collapse into a neutron star or black hole, are expected to become white dwarf stars later in their evolution.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf?oldid=1366046603What did the Voyager 1 probe photograph as the Pale Blue Dot?
EarthChecked against:
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of over 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot?oldid=1361316128According to Kepler’s second law, what does a line joining a planet and the Sun sweep out in equal time intervals?
Equal areasChecked against:
A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler's_laws_of_planetary_motion?oldid=1365729169#Second_lawWhat is a meteorite?
The remains of a meteoroidChecked against:
A meteorite is the remains of a meteoroid that has survived the ablation of its surface material during its passage through the atmosphere as a meteor and has impacted the ground.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid?oldid=1354793794How does the Sun generate its energy?
Energy is generated by nuclear fusionChecked against:
The solar core is the hot, dense region at the center of the Sun where energy is generated by nuclear fusion.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_core?oldid=1343609804Which moon has an atmosphere made mainly of nitrogen and methane?
TitanChecked against:
The atmosphere of Titan is mainly nitrogen and methane; minor components lead to the formation of hydrocarbon clouds and heavy organonitrogen haze.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)?oldid=1364908527What happens to a second body inside the Roche limit when tidal forces exceed its self-gravitation?
DisintegrateChecked against:
In celestial mechanics, the Roche limit, also called Roche radius, is the distance from a celestial body within which a second celestial body, held together only by its own force of gravity, will disintegrate because the first body's tidal forces exceed the second body's self-gravitation.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit?oldid=1357619363Why do pulsars appear to flash regularly?
A beam of emission is pointing toward EarthChecked against:
This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Earth (similar to the way a lighthouse can be seen only when the light is pointed in the direction of an observer), and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar?oldid=1365560340What is the cosmic microwave background?
Microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universeChecked against:
The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background?oldid=1365825568Which stellar explosion can briefly outshine an entire galaxy?
A supernovaChecked against:
The peak optical luminosity of a supernova can be comparable to that of an entire galaxy before fading over several weeks or months.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova?oldid=1364550221Which belt is home to Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake?
The Kuiper beltChecked against:
The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt?oldid=1359408916What can observations of the redshift-distance relationship determine?
The expansion history of the universeChecked against:
Observations of the redshift-distance relationship can be used, then, to determine the expansion history of the universe and thus the matter and energy content.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift?oldid=1363906266#Extragalactic_observationsAt which Lagrange point is the James Webb Space Telescope located?
L 2Checked against:
The James Webb Space Telescope, a powerful infrared space observatory, is located at L 2.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point?oldid=1364225588Why does a neutron star resist collapse under ordinary conditions?
A combination of strong force repulsion and neutron degeneracy pressureChecked against:
When densities reach a nuclear density of 4 × 10 17 kg/m 3, a combination of strong force repulsion and neutron degeneracy pressure halts the contraction.
Source: Wikipedia, pinned revisionPrint source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star?oldid=1365590699#Formation