Solar System Tourism Brochures Online Quiz | Sci / Tech

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "Come to our beautiful planet, where you can fill your lungs with carbon dioxide, or be blown by winds moving at 220 miles per hour containing droplets of sulfuric acid! The planet is the hottest in the Solar System, with a temperature of around 500 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit), and is only the 2nd from the Sun, giving you an opportunity to soak up those rays!"

Answer: Venus

Venus is the brightest natural object in the Earth's sky after the Sun and the Moon, and was named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus.

The Venusian atmosphere contains approximately 96% carbon dioxide, resulting in a strong greenhouse effect, thus raising temperatures by as much as 400 degrees Celsius than what it would have been had it not been for the carbon dioxide. Because of its temperature, atmosphere and surface pressure (90 times greater than that on Earth!), many people have compared Venus to what most perceive 'Hell' to be like.

2. "Visit our home, the 7th planet from the Sun, and the 3rd-largest. Our planet's atmosphere contains traces of methane, giving the planet that lovely hue of blue-green! You will get to be on the only planet that rotates side along its journey along the Sun, unlike any other! Come here, and on your way you'll see our planet's rings, which are believed to contain some of the Solar System's darkest matter!"

Answer: Uranus

Uranus, unlike all the other planets, rolls on its side along its journey revolving around the Sun. This is because the axis on which it rotates lies close to the plane of its orbit. And so both its north pole as well as its south pole lie on the planet's side!

The planet wasn't discovered until 1781, when it was discovered by Sir William Herschel, before which it was ignored and thought of as just "some other star". In fact, in 1690, John Flamsteed sighted it and called it '34-Tauri'. When Herschel discovered the planet in 1781, he called it 'Georgium Sidus', (meaning 'George's Star), in honour of the English monarch King George III.

3. "Our cool world, with a maximum temperature of -229 degrees Celsius, is named after the Roman god of the underworld, what you might perhaps call a misnomer! You can also have a look at our largest moon, Charon. Come visit us!"

Answer: Pluto

For a relatively brief period of 20 years in its 248 years-long orbit, Pluto's highly eccentric orbit crosses that of Neptune, making it closer to the Sun than Neptune. The last time this happened was between February 7, 1979 and February 11, 1999. Pluto has an 'atmosphere' only when it comes very close to the Sun, at other times the atmosphere just gets completely frozen.

In an International Astronomical Union (IAU) resolution passed in August 2006, it was declared that Pluto did not meet the newly-defined criteria for being considered a "planet", and was thereby put in the newly-defined category of "dwarf planets". However, since this quiz was written more than 2 years before the passing of the IAU resolution and for sentimental reasons, I'd choose to retain this question, despite the term "planet" being a part of the quiz's title.

For posterity, I am listing the 3 main conditions that a body must fulfill in order to be considered a "planet", courtesy Wikipedia: 1. The object must be in orbit around the Sun. 2. The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium. 3. It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Of these, our old friend Pluto fails to meet the 3rd criterion.

4. "Come one, come all...come see the most enchanting gas-giant of them all, of a lovely dark-blue shade! Allow your mind to be blown away by the fastest winds in the Solar System, with speeds reaching 2,000 kilometres per hour! Don't forget to bring your sweater along, as it gets as cold as -220 degrees Celsius!"

Answer: Neptune

The planet Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea (called 'Poseidon' in Greek mythology).

Because Neptune's orbit lies so far from the Sun, it receives little Solar heat, and has an average surface temperature of -218 degrees Celsius. It does, however, seem to have some source of heat *within* itself, which might be heat leftover by matter during the planet's birth, which is now slowly radiating away into space...

5. "Ah...the 3rd planet from the Sun...2/3rds of its surface is covered by water, the rest by land. It has an atmosphere containing an ideal amount of oxygen (21%), and a one-of-a-kind climate. There are several noticeable features on this planet, particularly a large area covered by water referred to by locals as "The Pacific Ocean", a large land-mass in the planet's northern hemisphere called "Eurasia", and fragments of a huge wall running through a region known as "China", to only mention a few. Come visit; we guarantee you won't leave unsatisfied!"

Answer: Earth

The Earth actually takes 365.25636 days to complete one orbit (revolution) around the Sun, and takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds to complete one rotation.

6. "Take a look at the 2nd-largest planet in the Solar System, and yet another gas-giant! Our planet boasts of the Solar System's largest ring-system, extending 260,000 miles from the planet's surface. Our rings are made of silica, iron oxide and chunks of ice. Don't forget to stop by at the planet's largest moon, Titan, on your way here!"

Answer: Saturn

Saturn is an 'oblate spheroid' it is very noticeably flattened near the poles, and bulging near the equator. The diameter at the equator is 120,536 km, while that between the poles is just 108,728 km: nearly 10% less.

7. "DO come and visit the closest planet to the Sun, and the fastest-orbiting one as well, all in one trip! That's right, our planet is the closest to the Sun, and also has the fastest orbiting speed- 30 miles per second! Take a look at the Caloris basin, the planet's largest crater, measuring 800 miles across. Experience living in conditions where there is virtually no atmosphere!"

Answer: Mercury

Mercury has extreme surface temperatures, ranging from 800 degrees Fahrenheit to -270 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun-lit side (side where it is 'day') gets quickly heated up during day, reaching 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to the absence of a significant atmosphere, the heat escapes the planet during the night, and so the temperature on the dark side drops down to -270 degrees Fahrenheit.

8. "Take a trip to the Red Planet, the fourth from the Sun, and experience a whole new world! We have red dust covering most of the planet for the kids to play with, and several huge volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, the Solar System's biggest! Not to worry, though, these volcanoes are all extinct, and so there's nothing to fear. The planet also has two little, very irregularly-shaped satellites, Phobos and Deimos!"

Answer: Mars

In the 19th century, what were thought to be signs of life were observed on Mars. These included markings which looked like "canals", and some dark patches, supposedly appearing "seasonally" on the surface, which could have been the growth of "vegetation". It is, however, known that these "canals" are just an optical illusion, and that the dark patches are found in regions where the red dust covering most of the planet's surface, has been blown away. And so far, no confirmatory evidence of life has been discovered on the planet.

The planet is named after the Roman god of war.

9. "Come and visit the king of 'em all - the largest planet in the Solar System! Our planet is a massive gas giant, and its mass is 2.5 times that of the sum of the masses of all the other 8 planets! It also features the Great Red Spot, a high-pressure storm, which has lasted for at least 300 years. While you're here, why not take some time off to visit the planet's largest moons- Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa? You might even have a chance to witness a comet come crashing into the planet thanks to its strong gravitational force of attraction!"

Answer: Jupiter

Jupiter's diameter is 11 times that of the Earth, and volume 1,300 times!

In 1610, Galileo discovered Jupiter's 4 largest moons -- Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede (thus they are called 'Galilean Moons') orbiting Jupiter, thus giving support to Copernicus' heliocentric theory of planetary motion, i.e. that the planets all revolve around the Sun. This was contrary to the popular belief in *geocentric* motion, that all the universe's heavenly bodies revolve around the Earth, for which Galileo got in big trouble with the Christian Church, and had to face the Inquisition.

10. Most of these advertisers are completely untrustworthy, intent on convincing naive travellers that their inhospitable planets are nothing short of paradise. Fortunately, you, the highly judicious, experienced and scrutinising one, are capable of telling *which* of these planets is conducive to human life, which of these planets is the safest for *you* to choose for a holiday. Which one is it?

Answer: Earth

It's our very own Earth all right, currently believed to be the most habitable planet in our solar system...

Source: Author achernar

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Solar System Tourism Brochures Quiz

Unscrupulous tourism industry entrepreneurs are desperately trying to portray their solar system bodies as ideal tourist destinations through their brochures. Can you say which they are advertising?

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