A Spectacular View of Outer Space Quiz

Answer: Sun

Sometimes areas of the sun will suddenly look much brighter then their surroundings. These are areas where a large amount of energy is released from the surface of the sun. Some solar flares are more powerful than a million nuclear bombs going off at the same time.

Answer: Venus

Venus is the brightest object in the sky other than the sun and the moon and is often called both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. The surface of Venus is extremely hot and has an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. One day on Venus lasts more than 100 Earth days because it spins so slowly.

Answer: The Milky Way

Our planet Earth is just one of the many billions of planets that can be found in the Milky Way. Our galaxy looks like a giant pinwheel and is just one of the billions of galaxies in our universe.

Answer: Comet

This is an image of Halley's comet as it sped by Earth in 1986. It will return in 75 years, just like it has been doing for thousands of years. A comet is made of dust, debris, and ice and is often called a dirty snowball. These space snowballs will orbit in space until they melt.

Answer: Supernova

A supernova is the spectacular ending in the life cycle of some stars. Vast amounts of gas, dust, and other materials are blown outward. Almost everything in the galaxy is made from the material that was created when a star exploded.

Answer: False

There are actually four planets that have rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have rings; they are just not as spectacular as the rings the orbit the planet Saturn. These rings are made of rocks and ice.

Answer: The Moon

In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon. By the turn of the century, a total of 12 men had walked on the moon. Attempting to land on any of the other three objects given as incorrect answers would probably be fatal to any human due to heat.

Answer: Mars

The planet Mars appears to be red because it has high levels of iron oxide (rust) in the soil. Mars is similar to Earth in that it has mountains, valleys, volcanoes, and polar ice caps. The planet also has many craters that are scars where meteors have collided with the planet.

Answer: Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis is the result of charged particles coming from the sun colliding with particles in our atmosphere creating brilliant light displays over the far northern areas of the planet. The Aurora Australis is the same effect that appears over the southern polar regions.

Answer: Nebula

A nebula is a cloud of dust, debris and gas floating in outer space. The word nebula is the Latin word for cloud. Sometimes the debris inside a nebula mixes together to make new planets and stars.