Who am I?
Pop culture
Missions/Objects
Life on Objects
Wild Card
100
Mars
100
In The Martian, Mark Watney is stranded on this planet. What planet is it?
Mars
100
This NASA rover is currently exploring Mars and is specifically associated with searching for signs of ancient microbial life.
Perseverance
100
Which moon has a thick atmosphere and lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons on its surface?
Titan
100
If a planet's distance from its star increases by a factor of 2, how does the received stellar intensity change according to the inverse-square law?
It decreases by a factor of 4.
200
Icy and crater-free moon of Jupiter that hides a massive global saltwater ocean beneath its frozen crust
Europa
200
In Pokémon, the legendary Pokémon Deoxys is associated with space. Its name comes from a biological molecule. What type of molecule is DNA?
A nucleic acid
200
This mission studied Saturn and its moons and sent the Huygens probe down to the surface of Titan.
Cassini-Huygens
200
Europa and Enceladus are especially interesting for habitability because scientists have evidence that both contain what beneath their icy surfaces?
Subsurface liquid-water oceans
200
n exoplanet passes directly in front of its star and causes the star's brightness to decrease periodically. Which detection method is being used?
transit method
300
A distant dwarf planet located in an icy ring at the edge of our solar system.
Makemake
300
In the movie Interstellar, the crew visits a planet covered in shallow water while searching for a potentially habitable world. In the real Solar System, which moon is also considered a promising place to search for habitable conditions because it likely has a subsurface ocean?
Europa
300
This NASA mission returned samples from asteroid 101955 Bennu to Earth.
OSIRIS-REx
300
Why can tidal heating make an otherwise extremely cold moon potentially more habitable?
Gravitational interactions can generate internal heat, helping maintain liquid water beneath an icy surface.
300
A planet's spectral absorption features indicate the presence of a particular gas in its atmosphere. Why can spectroscopy be useful when studying habitability?
Atmospheric spectral features can reveal chemical composition and potentially identify gases relevant to habitability.
400
My main mission was to travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, study it from orbit
OSIRIS-REx
400
In Star Wars, Tatooine is depicted as orbiting two stars. What is the real astronomical term for a planetary system with two stars?
binary-star system
400
This spacecraft is designed to investigate Jupiter's moon Europa, including its ice shell and ocean environment.
Europa Clipper
400
scientists discover a moon with liquid water, an energy source, and abundant carbon-containing molecules. Why are these three findings significant for habitability?
they provide three important conditions potentially needed for life: a solvent (water), an energy source, and chemical building blocks.
400
Planet A has twice the radius of Planet B but the same albedo and receives the same stellar flux per unit area. Which planet receives more total stellar energy, and by what factor?
Planet A receives 4× as much total energy because cross-sectional area scales as R2.
500
67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko (hehehe 67 :p) was studied by this mission.
Rosetta
500
Superman's home planet, Krypton, is fictional, but scientists searching for real potentially habitable planets would look for certain properties. Name three conditions from the Solar System event rules that could make an object more habitable.
suitable temperature, atmospheric composition/retention, stable liquid water, tidal heating
500
Match each mission to its primary target:
JUICE — Dragonfly — Rosetta — DAVINCI
A. Titan
B. Venus
C. Jupiter system / icy moons
D. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
JUICE → C, Dragonfly → A, Rosetta → D, DAVINCI → B
500
Name types of extrmeophiles and include what specific environment they belong to.
- Thermophiles: Hot places like volcanic springs and deep-sea vents, where rigid proteins keep cells from falling apart in high heat.
- Psychrophiles: Freezing areas like Antarctic ice and polar seas, using special antifreeze proteins to protect cell walls.
- Halophiles: Extremely salty locations like salt flats and evaporation ponds, using organic solutes to keep water inside their cells.
- Acidophiles & Alkaliphiles: Highly acidic volcanic soils or basic soda lakes, managing harsh pH levels with specialized cell membranes.
- Piezophiles: Deep ocean trenches with massive atmospheric pressure, utilizing compact amino acids to prevent cell crushing.
500
An exoplanet has a measured radial-velocity signal. The star alternately moves toward and away from Earth because of the planet's gravitational pull. What observable property is being measured, and what causes the periodic shift?
The star's line-of-sight velocity is being measured. The planet's gravitational pull causes the star to orbit the system's center of mass, producing periodic Doppler shifts in the star's spectral lines.