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The number of planets in the Solar System:
NINE
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, neptune, Pluto)
Which is the odd one out?
COPERNICUS
(Andromeda, Hercules and Orion are constellations)
The age of the universe is around...
15 BILLION YEARS
The universe probably began with a...
BIG BANG
Who was the first to suggest that all the planets orbit the sun?
NICHOLAS COPERNICUS
Which planet orbits the sun in the shortest time?
MERCURY
(It is closest to the sun)
Which is the odd one out?
TITAN
(Io, Europa and Ganymede are moons of Jupiter
- Titan belongs to Saturn)
Which planet has no moons?
VENUS
(Mercury also has no moons)
The point in the sky directly over your head is called the...
ZENITH
Who discovered Uranus?
WILLIAM HERSCHEL (in 1781)
A planet's natural satellite is called...
A MOON
Stars which change in brightness are called...
VARIABLE STARS (or just 'variables')
A piece of rock in orbit between Mars & Jupiter could be...
AN ASTEROID
(Asteroids are small irregular lumps of rock
most are in the asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter)
A darker, cooler region on the sun is called...
A SUNSPOT
When was the first photograph of the dark side of the moon taken?
IN 1959
(by the first object to go around the moon
- Russia's Luna 3)
Who was the first man into orbit?
YURI GAGARIN (on April 12 1961 in Vostok 1)
When did men first land on the moon?
IN 1969 (July 20th)
(Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11)
Who was the first woman into space?
VALENTINA TERESHKOVA
(Spent 5 days in orbit in July 1963)
When was the Hubble Space Telescope launched?
IN 1990
A supernova is...
AN EXPLODING STAR
A light-year is a unit of...
DISTANCE
(the distance travelled by light in one year
- 9.46 million million kilometres)
Our closest star is
THE SUN
The Plough (or Big Dipper) is part of which constellation?
URSA MAJOR (the Great Bear)
How many minutes does the sun's light take to reach earth?
EIGHT MINUTES
The following are all space probes except...
CHALLENGER
(which was a space shuttle
- the one which tragically exploded after launch in 1986)
The first 'A' in NASA stands for...
AERONAUTICS
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
A region of space with strong gravity that even light cannot escape is...
A BLACK HOLE
Scintillation is another word for...
TWINKLING
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