Astronauts
Astronomers
Planets
Comets and Asteroids
The Sun
100
Who is the first man in space?
Yuri Gagarin
100
What did Isaac Newton do?
Laws of motion
100
How many planets are there in our solar system?
Hint: Pluto is a dwarf planet!
Eight
100
What is a comet?
Comets are often described as "dirty snowballs."
100
What does the term "heliocentric" mean?
Heliocentric Universe is used to describe a universe where the sun is at the center and all other bodies revolve around it?
200
Who was the first man to walk on the moon?
Neil Armstrong
200
Who came up with the heliocentric model?
Nicolaus Copernicus
200
What is the closest planet to Earth?
Venus
200
How fast do comets move across the sky?
Comets appear static in the night's sky. Any apparent movement in position over the course of a night is mostly down to the earth's rotation. Over a period of nights the comet will be seen in a slightly different part of the sky as it continues on it's orbit around the sun.
200
What are the Interior Zones of the Sun?
Core, Radiative, Convective
300
What was the name of the mission that got to the moon, but didn't get to land because of technical problems?
Apollo 13
300
Why is Galileo Galilei famous?
"Father of modern physics"
300
What is the largest planet in the solar system?
Jupiter
300
Does the tail always follow behind a comet?
Another misconception about comets is that as they hurtle through space the tail follows behind. In fact the tail is caused by the solar winds so it always points away from the sun. This means that as the comet moves away from the sun the tail is pushed out in front of it.
300
How big is the sun?
Huge
400
What is Jim Lovell's famous call to Houston?
400
Who discovered the orbital period of Halley's Comet?
Edmund Halley
400
Name the 4 terrestrial planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
400
The first asteroid, 1 Ceres, was discovered on Jan 1, 1801, who discovered it and how big is it?
Giuseppe Piazzi -Ceres was not only the first asteroid discovered, it is also the largest known asteroid being about 933 kilometers long.
400
What is the corona?
A corona is a type of plasma "atmosphere" of the Sun or other celestial body, extending millions of kilometers into space, most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but also observable in a coronagraph. The Latin root of the word corona means crown.
500
What was the name of the first chimpanzee in space?
Ham
500
What ancient astronomer thought the universe is geocentric ( Earth is in the middle with all other bodies revolving around it)
Aristotle
500
Which planet has the largest crater in the solar system?
Mars - Hellas Planitia
500
Which asteroid was discovered to have its own satellite?
Ida
500
When will the sun turn into a red giant and destroy Mercury, Venus, and Earth?
In about 5 billion years
