A Heavenly Body By Any Other Name Quiz

Answer: Sol

Approximately 4.6 billion years old, the sun is actually a star that is at the center of the solar system. It is made of very hot plasma, that is approximately 73% hydrogen, 25% helium, and oxygen, carbon, and other elements. The energy that is caused by the sun fusing hydrogen into helium is what provides heat and light. How much heat? Scientists estimate that the core of the sun - its hottest part - is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit! They believe that the sun will last for another 5 billion years before it will become a white dwarf.

In the meantime, the sun is the most important source of energy for life on Earth. The ancient people knew that for a fact; many cultures worshiped a sun god, such as Helios in ancient Greece or Amaterasu in Japan.

The name "sol" is from the Latin, however, and the word "sun" is derived from the Old English "sunne".

Answer: Morning Star

Named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus is considered to be Earth's sister planet because it, too, is a terrestrial planet, and is similar in mass, composition, and size to Earth. Don't get any ideas, though. The atmosphere of Venus is radically different from Earth's, as it is 96.5% carbon dioxide and about 3.5% nitrogen.

In addition to that, it is the hottest planet in the solar system as its dense atmosphere traps the heat. Unlike the other planets, Venus does not have any moons or rings, but it does have a lot of volcanic activity.

In the night sky, the brightness of Venus is second only to the moon, hence its name, "Evening Star". In fact, it is so bright that on a clear day it is also visible, hence the name, "Morning Star".

At first early people thought Venus was two different stars. Actually, as the planet rotates, it changes the time of day Venus is visible to earth. The ancient Sumerians apparently knew this, as it was recorded in their writings.

Answer: Luna

The moon is Earth's only natural, permanent satellite, and the fifth largest satellite in the solar system. It is also the only satellite that orbits a terrestrial planet. While it appears to be the same size as the Sun, it is about 400 times smaller. Why the misleading appearance? It is also about 400 times closer to Earth! Some scientists believe that about 4.6 billion years ago, Earth collided with another planet named Theia, which caused it to break into pieces.

The pieces, kept together by Earth's gravitational pull, eventually formed the Moon.

There are other theories as well, such as the Moon actually being a fragment of the Earth that formed after being hit by an asteroid. Like Earth, the Moon has its own gravitational pull; its pull is what causes tides to occur.

It is really uncommon to call the Moon by any other name. The term was derived from the Old English "mona". The ancient Romans named the Moon "Luna", and a derivation of the name, "lunar" is used as an adjective, along with "selenian", which is derived from the Greek, Selene.

Answer: North Star

The brightest star in Ursa Minor, Polaris is almost located exactly at the north celestial pole. That is why it is also known as the North Star. Consequently, because it marks the way due north, and appears to never move in the night sky, it has been studied and used for centuries in navigation. The name Polaris comes from Latin "stella polaris", or "polar star", and was given during the Renaissance. It has been known by many names by different cultures, including "lodestar", or "guiding star", and Cynosura, due to its position in "the dog's tail".

Answer: 1943 XB

So is it an asteroid or a dwarf planet? Apparently, both! Ceres, also known as 1943 XB or AB99 OF, is the largest asteroid in the solar system, and is the smallest known dwarf planet, with a diameter of 580 miles. Found in 1801 by Diusepe Piazzi, who at first thought it might be a comet, Ceres was named for the Roman goddess of agriculture, and was first classified as a planet.

In the 1850s, however, its designation was downgraded to asteroid, as more similar objects had been discovered by that time.

These objects were called asteroids because of their similarity to stars. The alternate names are from the numbering systems used for the designation of asteroids and dwarf planets. Ceres is also known as Ceres 1 because it is the only designated dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt.

Answer: Blue Planet

Also called the Blue Planet, about 70% of Earth is covered in water, but only about 3% of the water is fresh. In fact, it's the only planet that is known for sure to have liquid water on its surface, and, therefore, the only one known to sustain life as we know it! Did you know that the Earth is not really round? Its shape is described as being "geoid". That means that its shape has a bulge.

This occurs at the equator, and is caused by its rotation. Speaking of rotation, did you known that the rotation of Earth is gradually slowing down by about 17 milliseconds per hundred years? In approximately 140 million years, the length of a day will be 25, rather than 24, hours! Earth is the only planet in our solar system that was not named after a deity; the ancient Romans, being able to see five planets, named them after gods and goddesses, and modern scientists continued the tradition after the discovery of two more. No one seems to know exactly why Earth was not named like the others - or, who named it for that matter!

Answer: Plough

The Big Dipper is an asterism - that means it is a particular arrangement of stars. Found in the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Dipper is named because some observers have seen that it consists of seven stars that form the handle and cup of, well, a dipper or ladle.

It is interesting that it is known by many different names; some cultures, like the Romans and Native Americans, call the seven stars the Big Bear, the French call it the Saucepan, and the English call it the Plough because when they view the arrangement of stars, they see a wagon. Scientists believe that in approximately 100,000 years an eighth star will join the group, and the Big Dipper will completely change its shape as the stars move around.

Answer: Messier 31

The Andromeda Galaxy, located about 2.5 million light years from Earth, formed about 10 billion years ago. It is the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, and is believed to be 25-50% larger with at least twice the number of stars. It was first described in 964 by Persian astronomer, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who called it a "nebulous smear".

It continued to be known as a nebula, a cloud of dust and gas, until 1925 when Edwin Hubble measured the distance of the "smear" from the Milky Way and proved that it was not a cluster of stars in our galaxy, but a new galaxy that was quite a distance away.

The Andrameda Galaxy is also called Messier 31 because the French astronomer, Charles Messier, categorized it that way in 1764.

Answer: D/1993 F2

The husband/wife team of Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, along with David Levy first found the comet named for them in March 1993; it was orbiting Jupiter at the time, the first active comet to be seen orbiting a planet. Until the discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, the ninth comet discovered by the trio, all other comets had been discovered revolving around the sun. Jupiter's tidal forces were probably responsible for the fragmentation of the comet, which struck the planet in July 1994. Even in fragments, the comet's impact on Jupiter was so forceful that for many months the damage done was more visible on the planet than the famous Great Red Spot. The alternative name is a more formal designation; the D represents that the comet has disappeared and no longer exists, the 1993 is for the year of its discovery, and the F2 indicates that is was the second comet found in the second half of March, according to the numbering system that is used at this time.

Answer: Alpha Orionis

The tenth-brightest star, Betelgeuse, with its distinctive red color, was described as being "ruddy" by the ancient astronomer, Ptolemy. Interestingly, the Chinese described it 300 years earlier as being yellow, which could mean the star had transformed from a yellow supergiant to a red supergiant during that time. Red supergiants are stars that scientists believe are close to the end of their existence; Betelgeuse may become a supernova in 10,000-100,000 years.

The star is easy to spot because of its color, and is most apparent all over the globe - with the exception of Antarctica - rising in the east after sunset by mid-December.

Its estimated size is about 600 million miles in diameter, 700 times larger than the sun! The name Betelgeuse is derived from Arabic, and is translated as "the armpit or hand of Orion".

It is believed that it was named Alpha Orionis because, at the time, it was the brightest star in the Orion constellation. Today, Rigel, known as Beta Orionis, is brighter.