Astronomy Savvy Trivia Quiz

Answer: Plasma

Plasma is usually an ionized gas, meaning that one electron has been taken or added to an accumulation of atoms or molecules. This state of matter, which the founder called "radiant matter," was first identified in 1879 by Sir William Crookes inside a discharge tube. It was later renamed "plasma" by Irving Langmuir.

Answer: Venus

The Venera 7 entered the atmosphere of Venus on December 15, 1970. It landed on its surface and returned data for 23 minutes. This probe was the first to be successfully landed on the surface of another planet and also the first to transmit data from the surface of another planet. "Venera" is Russian for "Venus."

Answer: The Sun

A solar prominence is a jet of bright plasma that spews from the Sun's surface. It can take about a day to form and last for weeks. They can be thousands of miles long, the longest reported being about 216,000 miles in length. A prominence's usual mass contains about 100 billion tons of material.

Answer: Messier

Charles Messier was a French astronomer who organized a catalogue of deep-space objects. In 1774, when the catalogue was first published, the list only contained 45 items. The list now contains over 100 galaxies, planetary nebulae, open clusters, and globular clusters.

Answer: The Andromeda Galaxy

The Local Group is a group of galaxies that also includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. It contains over 30 galaxies. The gravitational center is located somewhere between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light-years from Earth and has about 20% more mass than the Milky Way.

Answer: Perigee

Though this term is usually used with the Earth's moon, it can also apply to any other Earth-orbiting objects, such as man-made satellites. The word comes from the Greek prefix "peri" meaning "near" and the Greek suffix "Gaea" meaning "Earth." The opposite of this term is "Apogee."

Answer: Syzygy

Solar and lunar eclipses, occultations and transits occur during a syzygy. "Syzygy" is also the shortest English word containing three "y"s.

Answer: The Earth and the Sun

An astronomical unit is sometimes abbrviated to AU, au, a.u. or sometimes ua. It is actually equal to the semi-major axis (the farthest point; since the orbit is elliptical) of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Answer: ~1.44

One solar mass is equal to the mass of the Sun, about 2 nonillion kilograms. If a white dwarf were to exceed ~1.44 solar masses, its electron degeneracy pressure would not be able to support it.

Answer: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is a form of cosmic radiation that fills the entire universe. It is considered to be one of the best evidence to support the Big Bang Theory.