It's not Kevin Spacey Trivia Quiz

Answer: She died from overheating before her oxygen ran out while still in space.

The Soviets never intended to retrieve Laika's capsule, which created a controversy outside the Soviet Union. At first it was believed that Laika simply perished from oxygen deprivation, but in 1998 it was reported that she died when the cabin overheated on the fourth day.

In 2002 a Russian scientist reported that in 1957 it was "practically impossible to create a reliable temperature control system" for the cabin before the launch took place. In 1958 Laika's body and Sputnik 2 disintegrated on re-entry.

In 2008 a statue and plaque were set up in Laika's memory at the Russian space training base.

Answer: neutron star

Neutron stars result from a large star's collapse during a supernova. Despite their tiny size, star-wise, they are very dense and have a mass many times that of our sun. When neutron stars spin, they become pulsars. A carbon star, similar to a red giant, gets its name because its atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. Peculiar stars are so called because of the unusual metals in their surface layers. And even though methane dwarfs are called dwarfs, they are still normal star size, but are dimmer than our sun.

Answer: Betelgeuse

Using good ol' Sol (our sun) as a radius of 1, Betelgeuse would measure 950. Although there are over 20 stars with larger radii (six are named Cygni, such as NML Cygni at 1,650, KY Cygni at 1,420, and BI Cygni at 916, for example), I went with Betelgeuse because it has a more recognizable name. Meanwhile, Aldebaran is at 44.2, Polaris is at 46, and Sirius is at 5.9. That is, Sirius A, the brightest star in the sky which is only about six times the radius of our sun. Sirius is also a double star, but Sirius B is much dimmer now, even though it once was the brighter of the two.

Answer: a cow in Cuba

My source says the Cuban government gave the unfortunate bovine a state funeral, since it was a victim of "imperialist aggression." My source is the 1987 edition of the "Reader's Digest Book of Facts."

Answer: Draco

Draco is a dragon. The constellation of Draco was one of Ptolemy's 48 constellations listed in his "Almagest." J.K. Rowling's Draco Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" books was named for this constellation. Aquila is Latin for eagle, and is named for the eagle that carried Thor's thunderbolts. Cygnus is the swan, and this constellation includes the Northern Cross.

It was also mentioned by Ptolemy. Unlike the other three constellations, Corvus is in the southern sky. Corvus is the Latin name for the crow.

Answer: Metis and Adrastea

Metis and Adrastea probably travel so fast because they are very small and are very close to Jupiter. They are so fast that they would circle the Earth in under half an hour. Ganymede and Io are two of the solar system's four largest moons. Phobos and Deimos are Mars' moons, while Rhea and Dione are moons of Saturn.

Answer: Tyche

If Tyche exists, its orbit is 500 times farther out than Neptune, out where sunlight cannot reveal it to us. Speculation includes such concepts that Tyche may glow in the visible spectrum and that it may have "horns" or "antlers." One origin of the speculation about this gas giant lies in evidence that it dislodges comets from the Oort Cloud.

Answer: Kepler 62f

Kepler may be better known as an astronomer, and, of course, that is the area of his expertise that best fits this question. But none of the others could be called "17th-Century" guys, right? Anyhoo, these Kepler 62 planets (Kepler-62 is the star in Lyra that they orbit) are all larger than earth, but they may be covered in water, possibly frozen.

The star Kepler-62 is slightly smaller and cooler than the Earth. It's interesting that Lyra should even have such planets, undiscovered until ten years after the making of the film.

Answer: quasars

The name quasar comes from the phrase "quasi-stellar radio source." Some of these objects are as bright as 100 galaxies combined. One of them (PKS 2000-330) is traveling away from the Milky Way at 91 percent of the speed of light. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit radiation like the lighthouse lamp as it rotates. Magyars are Hungarians and protostars are stars that are still in the process of coming into being.

Other incorrect answers I wanted to use include bulgars, milkbars and fubars.

Answer: It points ahead of the comet in its path.

The comet's tail is gas and dust boiled off the comet by the sun and pushed by a solar wind emanating from the sun, so the tail is always pointed directly away from the sun, no matter what direction the comet is traveling. With each comet's passing of the sun, it grows smaller, meaning eventually the sun will destroy it unless it ends sooner by crashing into a planet or being claimed by the sun's gravitational field and falling into it.