Dancing With The Stars Trivia Quiz

Answer: Al-Raqis

Al-Raqis is Arabic for "The Dancer". It has also been translated as "The Trotting Camel", and is part of a five star group known as "Quinque Dromedarii"

If the name sounds familiar, the star is also known as Arrakis (or Alrakis). In the "Dune" sci-fi series by Frank Herbert, the name was used for the desert planet mined for spices. Apart from the name there is no connection, as Herbert set his fictional novel in the constellation Carina.

Answer: False

By the same reasoning, a blue star would be cool, even icy, right? Actually, the blue star is the hotter. You can see this by observing a candle flame - the outer edge will be red/orange, and cool as opposed to the center. As you move further into the flame, you will see yellow, but at the center of the flame, at the material being consumed, it will be blue.

Answer: All of these

We have learned so much about the movement of the Solar System since the time of Galileo. It would be hard now to imagine a scientist being ostracized for not believing the Earth was stationary and the sun revolved around it.

Answer: A pair of supermassive black holes orbiting each other.

In fact, the Institute discovered the first known pair of supermassive black holes within a single galaxy, implying two massive galaxies had merged. The discovery was made in 2010, when an assumed tidal disruption event was caught by the XMM-Newton space observatory in a galaxy approximately two billion light years away.

As the event was studied further, it was seen to fluctuate in the amount of x-rays spilling out into space, becoming less and less, then returned to the larger amount of x-rays as though nothing had happened.

Answer: No

Some are planets, like Venus, the so-called Morning Star, and Mars. Some are man-made satellites like the Space Station, galactic satellites, such as asteroids and comets, and some may be distant galaxies.

There are definitely a few more than a thousand points...

Answer: An onion.

In the film, Shrek explained that ogres were like onions, because they both had layers. More specifically, stars are composed of core, radiative and convective zones, a photosphere, a chromosphere and a corona. The only layer we really see of our favorite star is the corona which, during eclipses, can be seen as a fiery crown around the circumference of the Sun.

Answer: 4.2 light years

It takes 4.2 light years for the light to reach us, so visiting is kind of out of the question at this time. Using the fastest spaceship we have circa 2015 would mean a trip of about 70,000 earth years.

Answer: Orion

Betelgeuse can be translated from the Arabic as essentially, "the armpit of Orion". It's that bright spot on the upper left side of the constellation linking the Hunter's arm with his belt. Being a supergiant, it is likely using up its core, and actually may have already exhausted the fuel therein. The next expected stage for this star will be supernova... in a million years...

Answer: The Pleiades

The seven little Iroquois boys were excited to grow up and be brave warriors, and in their excitement began a war dance. The dancing became so exuberant that the boys' feet lifted off the ground. The more they danced, the higher they rose, until they reached the sky, becoming the Plieades. The Iroquois only see six stars, and the explanation is that one of the boys stopped dancing and fell back to earth.

In fact, there are a number of stars, and potential planets, within the star cluster. Depending on the source, there are between six and nine brilliant stars, but many more bright ones as well. It has been found that the gravitational pull is such that the cluster is not spreading away from within, but the entire star cluster is moving at a constant rate.

Hyades is also in Taurus, while Trapezium is in the Orion Nebula, and the Great Globular Cluster is in Hercules.

Answer: 4

Two amateur astronomers with the group Planet Hunters discovered a single planet orbiting within a four sun stellar system in 2012. Its initial designation was PH1, as the first find by the group. NASA has given it the appellation Kepler-64b, as it is part of the Kepler Mission search space. About 5000 light years away, it is along the Cygnus arm of our galaxy, and more specifically along the Orion arm of the Cygnus region.