Lost In Space Trivia Quiz

Answer: dwarf planet

Don't feel too sorry for Pluto. It's in good company. It shares the status of dwarf planet along with four other officially recognized dwarf planets: Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. Just like other planets, Pluto has moons. Charon is the largest of its moons.

Answer: the Earth moves between the Moon and Sun

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. Since the Moon doesn't have light of its own, it reflects the Sun's light. When the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon during a total lunar eclipse, the sun's light disappears altogether and the Moon takes on a red glow. A total lunar eclipse is sometimes called a Blood Moon.

Answer: Milky Way

Believe it or not, all four galaxies in the answer choices are real. Our galaxy is, of course, the Milky Way. One explanation for its name has to do with Greek mythology. According to Greek myth, the goddess Hera spilled milk in the sky and that is why it is called 'milky.' Galaxies are one of three main shapes: spiral, elliptical and irregular. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.

Answer: Uranus

Scientists theorize that Uranus most likely collided with a very large object not long after it was formed and that is why it is tilted. The other planets rotate around an axis which line up with the magnetic poles. Uranus has a magnetic field that is tilted 60 degrees from its axis of rotation.

Answer: Sun

The Sun is approximately 93 million miles from Earth. To get a perspective on how close that really is in terms of distance, Neptune is 2,795,084,800 miles from the Sun.

Answer: Taurus

The name of this star comes from the Arabic word meaning "the follower" because it appears to follow the constellation Pleiades. Aldebaran represents the eye of the bull in the constellation Taurus.

Answer: Orion

In Greek mythology the constellation Orion is named for a mighty hunter. In the northern hemisphere Orion can be seen during the winter months. Two bright stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel, form part of this constellation.

Answer: Mercury and Venus

Moons are sometimes referred to as natural satellites. Any satellite that tried to orbit Mercury or Venus would be destabilized by the Sun and would be drawn into it or would crash on its planetary surface. Did you know that our Moon steadies the Earth's spin and keeps it from wobbling? The climate, seasons, and tides all need to be stable long enough to allow complex life forms like humans and animals to develop.

Answer: Mars

The Opportunity was stationed near the Meridiani Planum, a crater on Mars. Officially it's called the Meridiani Planum Meteorite because that's where it was found. The rock is mostly made up of iron and nickel. Its discovery is significant because it's the first meteorite found on another planet.

Answer: exoplanets

In 2009 NASA launched its first exoplanet mission, Kepler. Scientist use a method called Doppler Spectroscopy, the most common method to locate exoplanets. So far the results have been very successful. Exoplanets are also sometimes called extrasolar planets.