Space Trip for Kids Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mercury

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun in our particular solar system. It is also the smallest of our planets and the one with the fastest orbit. It was named after a messenger of the ancient mythical Roman gods. He was called Mercury and was a fellow considered to be very swift of flight.

The pictured clue is of the metallic chemical element, MERCURY, in its liquid form. This product is also known as quicksilver and is used in manufactured goods such as thermometers and barometers.

Answer: The red planet

The fourth planet from our sun, Mars, is often called the red planet. This is because of the iron oxide throughout its surface which makes it appear slightly red. We usually think of iron oxide as rust, and, as you know, rust has a reddish colour.

The pictured clue is of a very RED rose.

Answer: Rings

Saturn is the second largest of the planets in our solar system. It is encircled by a system of nine big rings and three intermittent ones. These are made up of water, ice, carbon, billions of specks of dust and much larger rocks. Those rings of Saturn are quite lovely to look at through giant telescopes from our earth.

The pictured clue is of RINGS, as in the rings of Saturn.

Answer: Gravity

Without the natural force of our gravity keeping us and everything else on our planet right where we are, we'd all go floating off madly into space. Gravity is also the force that formed our planets, stars, the galaxies and the universe. It attracts objects to one another until they begin to form bigger and bigger shapes, and eventually planets and astronomical marvels.

The pictured clue is of some GRAVes, as in GRAVity.

Answer: Milky Way

The Milky Way is that lovely, lovely glowing band of light you can sometimes see in the sky on a very clear night. It is a spiral galaxy of which we are part, and is just one of billions of other galaxies right throughout the universe. We humans are only just beginning to understand a tiny fraction of how that wonderful universe operates. The Milky Way contains about a trillion other stars and billions of other planets we are yet to discover. It's all very exciting, isn't it?

The pictured clue is of milk, as in the MILKy Way - although there's no milk up there. It was given that name because of that hazy white light we see up in the sky - a little bit like watered down milk.

Answer: Blue

Our blue planet is just so incredibly lovely. From space it appears to be a soft and beautiful shade of blue. It is absolutely perfect for the creation of all forms of life, with everything on and in it working in complete harmony with each other. Man, alas, is the biggest threat to that loveliness continuing. I hope, as you grow older, that you will learn to love and cherish this planet as I do, and do your best to protect its wonders always.

The pictured clue is of our beautiful planet looking down upon it from space. The blue that stands out so much is that of our massive oceans all over the globe. The continents when seen from space are more a combination of green and brown.

Answer: Neptune

Poor old Neptune must be frightfully cold, don't you think? This planet, which is so far away from us that we cannot see it with our normal eyesight, is seventeen times larger than earth. Just to give you an idea of how cold it must be there, Neptune is 4,503,000,000 kilometres from the sun. Earth, on the other hand, is only 149,600,000 kilometres from that amazing ball of fire.

The pictured clue is a statue of the ancient Roman mythical god, NEPTUNE, after whom the planet was named.

Answer: Eagle

Apollo 11's lunar module was the small landing craft that took astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from their large rocket ship down to the surface of the moon on that historic day, 20th July, 1969, when man first set foot on it surface. Because these amazing little machines looks a little like giant insects, astronauts usually refer to them as "bugs", but each one has an official serial number and name given to it by NASA designers. Apollo 11's lunar module was given the serial number LM-5 and the official name of Eagle.

The pictured clue is of an EAGLE.

Answer: Black hole

A black hole in space is not really a hole at all. It's the remains of giant stars in the universe, much bigger than our sun, that have come to the end of their life span, burned out, and then collapsed in upon themselves. Like a balloon that slowly loses its air and shrivels up into this tiny little thing, a black hole continues to shrivel further, and becomes so EXTREMELY compacted that no light can escape at all - hence the name black hole.

The pictured clue is of a BLACK HOLE. It is an artist's impression of what a black hole in the centre of a galaxy might look like.

Answer: Mars One

That's going to be so massively exciting when - and if - it eventually happens. Just imagine, for the first time in the entire history of mankind, we are going to branch out to live upon another planet. Just like man once sailed our massive oceans to settle on new continents.

Mars One is a project driven by an organisation based in the Netherlands that hopes to place humans on that planet in the 2020s, initially in very small groups comprised only of scientists to set everything up - and then over time with more and more people from earth following. Perhaps it may happen one day, but I somehow doubt that Mars One will be a fully operational settlement on Mars by those planned dates. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

The pictured clue is of a solitary ONE.