Great Science Questions Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jupiter

The Great Red Spot is a high pressure storm in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter. While spots were first observed in 1665, the current spot has only been under observation since the 1870s.

It is the largest storm in the solar system, measuring 16,350 kilometers in diameter in April 2017 (1.3 times the diameter of Earth). The Great Red Spot has decreased in size in recent decades, and there are concerns it could eventually disappear.

Answer: New Zealand

Great apes are the members of the family Hominidae, which includes humans. Our relatives are orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Sadly, most great apes are endangered, especially orangutans, whose rain forest home is being destroyed. Gorillas are also classified as "critically endangered."

Since the 1990s, there has been a campaign to recognize the "personhood" of our ape relatives. New Zealand was the first country to ban the use of apes in testing, back in 1999. Austria instituted a ban in 2012. And the member states of the European Union instituted a ban in 2010, which started on January 1, 2013. That would include France and the UK at the time.

Answer: Plastic

There are several garbage patches in the world's oceans, but the largest is in the North Pacific. By 2020, it contained 79 thousand metric tons of garbage and sprawled 1.6 million square kilometers (almost the size of Alaska). The vast majority is plastic, especially microplastics which are created when plastics degrade. The floating plastic creates ecological hazards, especially to birds and marine mammals.

In recent years, several non-governmental organizations have started efforts to clean up the garbage patch, but it is a monumental task, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated it would take 67 boats one full year to clean up just one percent of the Pacific Garbage Patch,

Answer: Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman (1918-88) won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electro-dynamics. Feynman is widely regarded as one of the finest minds of the 20th century. His ability to break down complex scientific theories into understandable language earned Feynman the nickname "The Great Explainer."

After graduating from MIT and Princeton, Feynman worked on the Manhattan Project, helping design the atomic bomb. While Feynman did his Nobel winning work at Cornell, he spent most of his career at Cal Tech.

Answer: Astronomy

Curtis and Shapley were discussing the simple matter of the nature of the universe. Shapley argued that the universe consisted of a single galaxy, while Curtis argued it was made of multiple galaxies. On that matter, Curtis was right, To his credit, Shapley did argue that the galaxy was larger than previously thought and that Sol was not at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Both got the size of the Milky Way wrong: Curtis dramatically undercalculated it, while Shapley was off by a factor of three. The Milky Way is big (105 light years) but not that big.

The debate took place at the Smithsonian Institution on April 26, 1920. At that time, Einstein's theory of relativity was still being debated by scientists; it had been verified by observations of solar eclipses in 1919.

Answer: Halley

Edmond Halley identified his namesake comet in 1705. The comet reappears on a cycle of 75 to 79 years. During its appearance in 1986, spacecraft from NASA were able to scientifically analyze the comet up close.

Great comets have three criteria: 1) a bright nucleus, 2) travels close to the sun and 3) travels close to the earth. Notable great comets in recent decades include Hyakutake (1996) and Hale Bopp (1997).

Answer: Orion

The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, actually visible to the naked eye just under the second star in Orion's belt. It is easily seen with telescopes. It is also known as Messier 42. The nebula is roughly 24 light years across and around 1300 thousand light years away from the sun.

Answer: Laniakea

The Great Attractor is a point in the Laniakea supercluster (which contains the Milky Way) that has the gravitational pull equivalent to millions of galaxies. The Milky Way is being pulled towards it at a rate of 1.3 million miles every hour - fortunately, it is very, very, very far away from us. We have a few billion years before we need to worry about it, and the Milky Way is likely to run into something else long before that.

Laniakea supercluster contains roughly 100,000 galaxies (it is really really big). The word is Hawaiian meaning "immense heaven." Many of the world's most powerful telescopes are located in Hawaii on Mauna Kea.

There is a debate over exactly what the Great Attractor is, other than it has an extremely powerful gravitational field. It could be either a massive black hole or a collection of black holes,

Answer: Hercules-Corona Borealis

The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall was discovered in 2013 by researchers István Horváth, Jon Hakkila and Zsolt Bagoly as part of NASA's Gamma Ray Burst research team. The wall could extend between 9.7 and 10 billion light years, just over 10 percent of the observable universe.

There is still some controversy regarding the existence of Hercules-Corona Borealis, although the discoverers maintain their data is sound. They are hoping that the proposed THESEUS space telescope (scheduled for launch in 2032) might be able to prove their thesis.

Answer: Dominicans

Albertus Magnus (1200-1280) was a Dominican priest, taking his orders in 1223. He was a professor of theology at the University of Paris (AKA Sorbonne). Albertus was one of the most important thinkers of the medieval era, promoting logic and science as a means of understanding the world.

Albertus was an extremely prolific writer, covering a wide range of academic fields, including theology, philosophy and the sciences. His contributions to science include astronomy, biology and zoology, mineralogy and alchemy. Albertus also served as an important mentor to Saint Thomas Aquinas, the foremost thinker of the middle ages.

The Dominican order was founded by Saint Dominic in 1216, so Albertus Magnus would have been one of the first Dominicans. The order is well known for its educational work, and it was home to many of the most important thinkers of the Middle Ages,.