Nessus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Centaurs

Nessus belongs to a group of objects known as centaurs. They are small worlds that have unstable orbits around the Sun. In 1920, astronomer Wilhelm Baade, discovered the first centaur from an observatory in Hamburg, Germany. In Greek mythology, a centaur was a being with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.

Answer: 7066

Numbers are often assigned to objects in the Solar System that are considered to be minor planets. These include the centaurs, asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects and dwarf planets. When the first asteroids were discovered they were eventually assigned numbers in addition to their name to identify the order in which they were discovered (e.g. 1 Ceres/4 Vesta).

As more and more objects were discovered the numbers kept getting higher. 7066 is associated with Nessus. 2060 belongs to another centaur named Chiron. 50000 belongs to the dwarf planet Quaoar and 134340 belongs to Pluto, which received the number after being demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006.

Answer: True

Nessus' orbit is inclined at 16° with respect to the orbital plane of the Solar System's eight full size planets. Nessus' perihelion (the point of an orbit closest to the Sun) brings it closer to the Sun than the planet Uranus. Nessus' aphelion (the point of an orbit furthest from the Sun) extends beyond the orbit of Neptune. Nessus will often cross the orbital path of both Uranus and Neptune at several points along its orbit around the Sun.

However, scientists do not believe that Nessus is in any danger of being destroyed any time soon.

Answer: 122

It takes Nessus 122 Earth years to complete one orbit around the Sun. As for the rest of the choices, Uranus orbits the Sun once every 84 years. Pluto orbits the Sun once every 248 years and the dwarf planet Eris orbits the Sun once every 558 years. Nessus orbits the Sun faster than the planet Neptune, which orbits the Sun once every 165 years.

Answer: Nessus is smaller than the dwarf planet Ceres

Nessus is a tiny world. It is estimated that Nessus is approximately 60 km / 37 mi in diameter. Driving across Nessus would be like driving from Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C. The dwarf planet Ceres, which is located within the Asteroid Belt has a diameter of 946 km (588 mi), which makes it much larger than Nessus.

Answer: Arizona

Nessus was discovered by a group of astronomers based at Kitt Peak National Observatory which is located near the city of Tucson, Arizona. The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory, which is located in the city of Flagstaff, Arizona. Tucson is located in the southeast portion of Arizona, while Flagstaff is located in the north central part of Arizona.

Answer: 1993

Nessus was discovered on April 26, 1993 by David Rabinowitz at Kitt Peak National Observatory. He was assisted by a group of astronomers collectively known as Spacewatch. Spacewatch was founded in 1980 and is based at the University of Arizona, which is also located in Tucson. Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory in 1930 and was considered to be a full size planet up until 2006, when it was demoted to dwarf planet. Eris, which was discovered in 2005, played a major role in determining Pluto's fate.

Answer: True

Nessus was named after one of the most famous centaurs in Greek mythology. Nessus gained notoriety for being a major adversary of the famous Greek hero Hercules/Heracles. Nessus would be featured as one of the supporting antagonists in the Walt Disney animated film "Hercules", which was released in 1997.

Answer: Destiny 2

I first learned of Nessus after playing the video game "Destiny 2", which was released for PS4, X-Box One and PC in 2017. It is set in a future Solar System, where worlds such as Mars, Titan, Io and others were eventually colonized by humans and various alien factions. During the game's main storyline, the playable character travels to Nessus, which is labeled as an "Unstable Centaur" in the game.

It was intriguing to learn that Nessus was actually part of the real Solar System.

Answer: red

Although Nessus is small and far away, scientists that have studied it have reported that Nessus' color index indicates that its surface is a dark shade of red. Per Wikipedia, "this is done by measuring the object's brightness through a set of different, wavelength-specific filters."