Astronomy Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 61
In 1918, Harlow Shapley estimated that which galaxy, which contains the Earth, was 100,000 parsecs in diameter?
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milky way
What pole does the constellation Crux point to?
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south pole
Which ninth planet has an unusual orbit that sometimes brings it closer to the sun than the eighth planet?
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pluto
What is the term for the moon's change from new to full before it wanes?
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waxing
What is the name of the band of constellations where 8 of the planets in our solar system appear from Earth's perspective?
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zodiac
What does the planet Mercury have a thin layer of that contains helium and sodium?
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atmosphere
What gas in the sun's core has fused approximately half of its amount into helium?
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hydrogen
Who was the astronomer born as Niklas Koppernigk and served as a canon of Frauenberg Cathedral from 1497 until his death in 1543?
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nicolaus copernicus
Which planet has a ring system that spans more than 170,000 miles in diameter, but is only about a mile thick?
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saturn
How many weeks are there between full moons?
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4
What constellation, along with the North Star, is depicted on Alaska's flag?
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big dipper
What is the most massive object in our solar system?
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sun
Around the center of which galaxy does the sun complete one revolution every 225 million years?
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milky way
What is the name of the galaxy that contains all of the individual stars visible to the naked eye?
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milky way
What planet has a dark band within its rings known as the Encke division or Encke doodle?
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saturn
What type of minor planet, found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is Vesta, the only one visible to the naked eye?
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asteroid
What planet comes after Venus and Earth when moving away from the Sun?
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mars
Which largest planet has Trojan asteroids that move in two groups, one 60� ahead and the other 60� behind its orbit?
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jupiter
In 1857, James Clerk Maxwell determined the rings of which planet are made of small, unconnected particles?
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saturn
What is the name of the natural satellite that may have once been part of Earth or a separate planet itself?
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moon
Which is the only calendar month that can go without a full moon?
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february
What astronomical object is Hyakutake, known for its 360-million-mile-long tail?
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comet
Which planet is associated with Giovanni Schiaparelli's description of 'canali,' which means channels in Italian?
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mars
What celestial body was discovered by 20th-century scientists in their search for Planet X?
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pluto
Which planet in our solar system is commonly referred to as the 'Red Planet'?
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mars
Which celestial body features prominences that include dark filaments and clouds of gas?
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sun
Which marine animal represents the constellation Cancer?
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crab
Which planet has a smallest moon named Pan that orbits within the Encke division of the A-Ring?
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saturn
What astronomical body is the main cause of tides in the ocean?
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moon
What celestial object loses its tail as it moves away from the sun?
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comet
In a heliocentric model of the solar system, what is at its center?
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sun
Which planet has an atmosphere composed of 99% nitrogen and oxygen?
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earth
What is the closest star to the Earth?
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sun
What is the name of the planet that is second from the Sun?
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venus
What is the name of the galaxy that the Earth is a part of?
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milky way
What heavenly body's surface can an observer see 59% of in a month?
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moon
In December 1994, asteroid 1994 XM1 came within 65,000 miles of which planet, causing concern due to the close proximity?
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earth
Which planet in our solar system is the most well-studied after Earth, according to the Information Please Almanac?
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mars
What is the name of the flattened disk visible in the night sky that represents our galaxy?
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milky way
Which planet's astronomical symbol is represented by a trident?
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neptune
Which planet, located near Earth, has an atmospheric pressure approximately 90 times greater than Earth's?
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venus
Which planet is known as the third rock from the sun?
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earth
What term, derived from Greek meaning 'to leave out', describes the phenomenon where one celestial body obscures another?
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eclipse
At its closest approach, Jupiter is 367 million miles from which planet?
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earth
For which planet's 'canals' did Percival Lowell build an observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. to study?
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mars
What body accounts for over 99% of the mass of our solar system?
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sun
Where was the Stars & Stripes first planted on July 20, 1969?
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moon
Which planet, often referred to as 'Earth's Twin,' rotates in the opposite direction from Earth?
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venus
Which planet has rings that begin about 4,000 miles above its surface and span over 35,000 miles wide?
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saturn
What was the first general-purpose orbiting telescope launched on April 24, 1990?
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hubble space telescope
Which planet in our solar system has a mass more than twice that of all other planets combined?
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jupiter
What type of celestial object is Encke's with a return period of under 4 years and Halley's with a 76-year return period?
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comet
Which planet's surface material is colored reddish due to oxidized iron?
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mars
Which planet completes one rotation on its axis every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds?
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earth
What is the largest planet in our solar system that has moons named Ganymede and Callisto?
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jupiter
What force is responsible for holding a galaxy together?
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gravity
What is the brightest planet in the nighttime sky as viewed from Earth?
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venus
What type of heavenly body did English physicist Ralph Fowler explain the structure of, specifically the white dwarf type?
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star
Which faint Zodiac constellation is represented by a crab?
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cancer
What theory of how the universe was created is supported by the discovery of wrinkles in the fabric of space in 1992?
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big bang
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