Beyond the Sky Trivia Quiz

Answer: Venus

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. One of the brightest objects in the sky visible to the human eye, it has long fascinated poets, writers and other artists and has been nicknamed the "morning star" and the "evening star". Similar in size and mass to earth, it is sometimes called a "sister planet" of earth.

Answer: Rings

Counting from the sun, Saturn is the sixth planet in our solar system. It gets its name from the Roman god of agriculture. The most distinctive aspect of Saturn is its ring system. The Italian scientist Galileo Galilei was able to observe them through a telescope as early as 1610. The rings are believed to consist of water ice and are held in place by Saturn's gravity.

Answer: Pluto

Since its discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was classified as a planet. It was the ninth planet from the sun, lying beyond Neptune. In 2006, the definition of a planet was changed and as a result, Pluto was categorized as a dwarf planet, reducing the number of planets in our solar system from nine to eight.

Titan, Rhea and Dione are all moons of Saturn. They were never classified as planets in their own right.

Answer: A hunter in Greek myth

Orion is visible in the night sky in both the northern and southern hemispheres of earth. Since it is so easily recognized, it has found mention in ancient texts of cultures across the world, from the Middle East to the Americas and Europe. The Greeks named it after Orion, a mighty hunter in their mythology. Orion's belt has three bright stars - Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Answer: Cross

Crux means "cross" in Latin and the constellation is so named due to its shape which is like that of a cross. Since it is visible from the southern hemisphere, it is commonly called the southern cross. This constellation is represented on the flags of many countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Answer: Comet

A comet is classified as a small solar system body. When it passes too close to the sun, its icy body begins to thaw giving out gases which results in it having a tail as it streaks across the sky. The orbits of comets are generally vary elliptical so they are only visible from the earth for short periods.

The English astronomer Edmond Halley was the first to realize that this particular comet is visible from the earth every 75-76 years when its orbit crosses the earth's visible region. Therefore the comet was named after him.

Answer: Mars

Mars is named after the Roman god of war. It is therefore not surprising that its two moons are named Phobos (which means fear) and Deimos (which means panic). Interestingly, these are the names of the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek god of war, Ares.

Mercury and Venus have no moons at all while Uranus has a whopping 27 moons!

Answer: USA

After World War II, the United States of America and the USSR were the two dominant superpowers in the world. They began a race in space exploration. The USSR got its first victory when it became the first country to send a human being into space. USSR's astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, won this honour in 1961. However, the USA became the first country to send human beings to the moon. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, it was indeed a small step for a man but a giant leap for mankind.

In 1991, the Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolved into 15 separate countries and no longer exists. Russia is the largest of the independent countries formed through this dissolution.

Answer: Northern Lights

The Aurora Borealis or northern lights is a display of bright lights visible in the night sky near the magnetic pole in the northern hemisphere. A similar feature called the Aurora Australis occurs in the southern hemisphere. This phenomenon occurs when electrically charged particles of the sun collide when they enter into the earth's atmosphere.

This collision results in bright colours visible in the night sky. The colours could range from green and purple to streaks of red and pink.

Answer: Milky Way

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our entire solar system. The galaxy nearest to us is the Andromeda galaxy. A galaxy is a system of stars, other planetary bodies and dark matter held together by gravitational forces. When seen from the earth, the arms of the Milky Way galaxy appear hazy and milky in the night sky which is why it was given that name.