Light
Mars
Pluto
Famous Scientists
How Do We Get to Space?
100
A "Mach" is a unit of measurement that is equal to (the speed of an object) DIVIDED BY (the speed of sound). This is the unit of measurement identified by the International Astronomical Union to measure distance in space.
What is the "light-year"?
100
This turns the soil on Mars red.
What is iron oxide?
100
Pluto's orbital is especially elliptical, which brings it closer to the sun than this, it's neighbor planet.
What is Neptune?
100
She was the first person to ever win two Nobel Prizes - one in physics and one in chemistry. She died from radiation poisoning from a life spent doing research.
Who is Marie Curie?
100
In addition to routinely exercising, astronauts must be able to withstand being spun around in a human-sized this.
What is a centrifuge?
200
The human eye can only see light whose wavelength[s] correspond to the Visible Spectrum. This type of electromagnetic radiation has wavelengths that are too long to be seen.
What are infrared waves?
200
Mars has two permanent polar ice caps that are composed primarily of frozen this chemical substance.
What is water?
200
Pluto has four moons. This is the largest.
What is Charon?
200
The branch of physics he "invented" is very useful for predicting the behavior of gravitational bodies - but it's not very useful for when we're moving close to the speed of light.
Who is Isaac Newton?
200
When the Space Shuttle program was terminated in 2011, after 135 missions in 20 years. Only two missions were unsuccessful - the Space Shuttle Challenger failed to launch properly in 1986. This shuttle failed to re-enter properly as a result of it's insulation having sustained damage during the launch.
What is the Space Shuttle Columbia?
300
Light is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" of energy referred to as this.
What are photons?
300
During the winter, Mars's polar ice caps get even colder (due to lack of sunlight) and accumulate a layer of this chemical substance.
What is carbon dioxide?
300
Pluto was recently reclassified as a dwarf planet after the discovery of this system of minor planets that surrounds the solar system.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
300
Her data was used to determine the double helical structure of DNA, but she never lived to receive the Nobel Prize.
Who is Rosalind Franklin?
300
This is the only international satellite where research experiments can be performed in space over the course of decades if necessary.
What is the International Space Station (ISS)?
400
He was the first to describe the dual nature of light - it is both a particle and a wave.
Who is Albert Einstein? (think: Wave-Particle duality)
400
Mars has two moons - name either one.
What is Phobos? or What is Deimos?
400
This space probe/telescope has provided our only best images of Pluto.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
400
He discovered Penicillin, the world's first antibiotic, by accident.
Who is Alexander Fleming?
400
This is one of the two primary components of rocket fuel.
What is liquid nitrogen? or What is liquid hydrogen?
500
This is the term for the distortion in time that any moving body would experience if it were moving at or even close to the speed of light.
What is "time-lag"?
500
Located in the Tharsis region, this is the highest mountain in the solar system.
What is Olympus Mons?
500
Pluto's atmosphere has a high concentration of this stinky gas.
What is methane?
500
He was the first to design simple experiments that accurately measured the speed of light.
Who is Albert Michelson?
500
This is the component of the Space Shuttle that contains the fuel necessary to propel lift off. It is jettisoned 10 seconds after MECO (Main Engine Cut Off).
What is the Space Shuttle External Talk (ET)?
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