A ten-question quiz regarding the Universe and life.
Quiz number 2
Ask your family or friends these questions and test their knowledge, you can give detailed answers that might surprise them.
No googling!
Multiple choice answers. Good luck
British spelling
Question 1
There are over 200 moons orbiting planets in the Solar System.
What moon is the largest?
( Titan / Ganymede or Callisto )
Question 2
Olympus Mons is an inactive volcano on Mars.
How high is Olympus Mons?
( 8.9 / 15.9 or 21.9 kilometres )
Question 3
Comets are snowballs of gas, rock and dust that orbit the Sun.
One of the most well-known is Halley’s comet.
When will Halley’s comet return and be visible in the night sky again?
( 2041 / 2051 or 2061 )
Question 4
What is the highest recorded surface temperature on Earth?
( 53.7 / 56.7 or 59.7 degrees Celsius )
Question 5
Proxima Centauri is a star that is nearest to the Sun.
How far is Proxima Centauri from the Sun?
( 2.3 / 3.4 or 4.2 light-years )
Question 6
Water covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and is very deep in certain places.
What is the deepest part of any ocean?
( 6 / 11 or 15 kilometres )
Question 7
At any one time, the atmosphere of the Earth holds an astonishing amount of water.
Roughly, how much water is there in the Earth’s atmosphere?
( 6,900 / 12,900 or 16,900 cubic kilometres )
Question 8
UY Scuti is arguably the largest star known at this time. The Sun has a diameter of 1.3927 million kilometres.
What is the diameter of UY Scuti?
( 1.3765 / 2.3765 or 3.3765 billion kilometres )
Question 9
As you know the Sun is much larger than Earth, but by how much.
By volume, how many Earths could fit inside the Sun?
( 1.3 / 1.9 or 2.1 million Earths )
Question 10
The space probe Voyager 1 was launched into space in September 1977 and is the most distant object that has ever left our planet.
How far from the Earth is Voyager 1 now?
( 8.5 / 16.5 or 23.5 billion kilometres )
Answers
Answer to question 1 / Ganymede
Ganymede, a satellite of Jupiter has a diameter of 5,270 kilometres, making it larger than our Moon.
Answer to question 2 / 21.9 kilometres
Olympus Mons is the highest volcano in the Solar System, as a comparison, the highest mountain on Earth Mount Everest is 8.8 kilometres high.
Answer to question 3 / 2061
When comets come close to the Sun they warm up and produce a glowing tail which can be seen in the night sky. Halley returns to Earth every 75 years, so depending on when you were born some will see it twice in their lifetime. I saw it in 1986 but will never see it again.
Answer to question 4 / 56.7 degrees Celsius
That temperature was recorded in California’s death valley way back in 1913.
Answer to question 5 / 4.2 light-years
Proxima Centauri the Sun’s closest star neighbour may seem very close at just 4.2 light-years. But remember for every second of that 4.2 years the light leaving that star will have travelled 300,000 kilometres towards us.
Answer to question 6 / 11 kilometres
The deepest part of any ocean is the Challenger Deep located in the Mariana Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Answer to question 7 / 12,900 cubic kilometres
The water held in the atmosphere is very small compared to the total water on Earth which is estimated to be 1,358,000,000 cubic kilometres.
Answer to question 8 / 2.3765 billion kilometres
We think our Sun is massive but is minuscule compared to UY Scuti
Answer to question 9 / 1.3 million Earth’s
Yes, the Earth is very small in comparison to our local star the Sun.
Answer to question 10 / 23.5 billion kilometres
As of 2022, Voyager 1 keeps moving away from the Earth at over 60,000 kilometres per hour. Maybe in the distant future, some other life form will find it. That is of course if there is intelligent life somewhere out there in the unknown.
If you have found this short quiz educational then please follow the links for more.