Astrosynonyms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Luna

Luna would be the proper name for Earth's moon to go along with all other moons in our solar system. Luna is the Latin word for moon, and the adjective 'lunar' (coming from Luna) means to describe things that relate to our moon.

Answer: Sol

Sol is a more fancy name for the Sun, similar to the names of other stars like Sirius and Rigel. The adjective for Sol is 'solar', meaning things that relate to our Sun, e.g. solar energy, solar wind.

Answer: jovian

Jovian planet is termed after the biggest gas giant planet in our solar system - Jupiter. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are three other jovian planets orbiting our Sun, and there are countless more around other stars.

Answer: natural satellite

Although satellites are familiar to people meaning artificial objects orbiting around Earth for the purposes of communication, navigation, weather, etc., there are also natural satellites, which orbit around planets and are simply called moons.

Answer: False

Constellations are the 88 divided regions of the sky enclosed by boundaries, while asterisms are familiar star patterns usually within the constellation boundaries. The Big Dipper is an asterism located in the constellation Ursa Major.

There are familiar asterisms that span several constellations, including the Winter Hexagon and the Summer Triangle.

Answer: cosmos

Cosmos comes from the Greek word 'kosmos', meaning "order" or "world". Cosmos roughly means well-ordered world, which applies to the universe as a whole. Cosmology, combining cosmos and -ology, is the subfield of astronomy dealing exclusively to the study of the universe itself, including its origin, history, characteristics, and fate.

Answer: terrestrial planet

Terrestrial planet is one of two main classes of planets, the other being gas giant or jovian planet mentioned above. All the terrestrial planets have a solid surface to stand on. Earth is one terrestrial planet, along with Mars and Venus. The word terrestrial comes from the Latin word "terra", meaning earth or ground.

Answer: magnitude

Magnitude in astronomy is a logarithmic scale of brightness of celestial objects seen from Earth. The system is unusual that it is an inverse scale, meaning the lower the magnitude, the brighter it is and therefore easier to spot. A magnitude 2 object is brighter than a magnitude 3 object by a factor of about 2.5. A difference of 5 magnitudes would equal to a factor of 100 in brightness.

Answer: True

Sundown is a phenomenon when the sun disappears after it appears to sink below the western horizon. Sundown is referred because of the apparent direction of the setting sun. Sunset came from the Old English word for "west", the direction which one faces to see the setting sun.

An example of the common usage of sundown is in Jewish holidays that begin at nightfall, such as Passover.

Answer: stellum

Stellum could be the more scientific term for star, though stellum is almost never used. Stellum is the origin for the adjective 'stellar', meaning pertaining to stars.

Stellum came from the Latin word 'stella', meaning star. Stella is mentioned in the title of a book written by Tycho Brahe, "De nova stella" (On the New Star).