A Pictorial Tour of the Solar System Quiz

Answer: Eighteenth

Herschel was not the first astronomer to observe Uranus - it had been recorded by John Flamsteed (Britain's first Astronomer Royal) in 1690, but was believed to be a star. Even Herschel, who reported his findings to the Royal Society in the early part of 1781, thought he'd found a comet. Uranus was identified as a planet by 1783, with Herschel being rewarded by King George III for his discovery.

Answer: Mars

Due to its height, Olympus Mons was originally seen by astronomers in the nineteenth century, but was not fully identified until the spacecraft Mariner 9 reached Mars in 1971. The mountain was then seen to be a shield volcano, formed by flows of lava. Its height is between thirteen and fourteen miles, making it almost three times the height of Mount Everest.

Answer: Gerard Kuiper

The Kuiper belt is the region beyond Neptune, the outermost planet in the Solar System. It was identified in 1992 and named for Kuiper who had predicted that the region might contain dwarf planets. It is sometimes referred to as the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, as the Irish astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth had also proposed the existence of the region.

The photo shows Pluto with its largest satellite, Charon.

Answer: Great Dark Spot

The Great Dark Spot was identified by the space probe Voyager 2 in 1989. It likely consisted of stormy weather, with the fastest winds in the Solar System - nearly 1500 miles per hour - and covered an area around the same size as Earth. By 1994, when the Hubble Space Telescope was in range to take a further image, the Great Dark Spot had disappeared from sight, although a different storm was discovered to the north of the planet and given the name of the Northern Great Dark Spot.

The Dark Blue Spot I made up, the Mare Frigoris is situated on Earth's moon and Planum Boreum is the northern pole of Mars.

Answer: American

The comet was spotted by Alan Hale in New Mexico and by Thomas Bopp in Arizona, who both reported their findings to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the official body for verifying new discoveries. By 1996, the comet had become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, reaching its maximum brightness in 1997. It is sometimes referred to as the Great Comet of 1997.

Answer: The constellation Leo

The Leonids appear to originate from the constellation of Leo, and were named accordingly. The shower of 1833, pictured, was one of the most spectacular ever seen, particularly over North America. The Leonids are associated with the comet named Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865 by Ernst Tempel and by Horace Tuttle in 1866.

As the two men made their observations less than a month apart, the comet was named for them both.

Answer: Mercury

The Caloris Basin, or Caloris Planitia, was first seen in 1974 by the Mariner 10 probe, but its location meant that only half of the crater could be seen at the time. A full picture was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft, which was put into orbit around Mercury in 2008. The crater measures around 950 miles in diameter and is surrounded by mountains which are over one mile in height.

Answer: Strife

Eris was identified in January 2005 by a team of astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in California. It was originally designated as the tenth planet, as it is bigger than Pluto, and its discovery led to the setting up of a commission to decide on the precise criteria needed to decide whether of not an object should be classed as a planet.

This resulted in Pluto being downgraded to a dwarf planet, with Eris being placed in the same category. It was given the name of Eris in September 2006, having previously being referred to as Xena.

The Greek goddesses of dawn, poverty and starvation are Eos, Penia and Limos respectively.

Answer: Titania

Titania was the queen of the fairies, in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream", and the name of the king of the fairies in the same play, Oberon, was used for the second largest moon, discovered at the same time. All the options listed are real moons of Uranus, from Shakespearean plays. Titania consists of rock and ice, in roughly equal proportions, although only one close viewing of the moon was made during the twentieth century, in 1986 by the spacecraft Voyager 2.

Answer: Mars and Jupiter

The asteroid belt is where many of the largest asteroids, including Ceres, Hygeia, Pallas and Vesta are located. The space between Mars and Jupiter had been noted in the late eighteenth century, with astronomers of the time believing that there should be an additional planet between them.

A concerted effort to study the area was made in early years of the nineteenth century, which led to the identification of the largest of the asteroids.