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The Life and Death of Stars Trivia Quiz

Welcome to my second Author Quiz Challenge. Stars have lives similar to ours. They're born, they live for a few billion years then they die. This quiz is all about 'The Life and Death of Stars'.

A multiple-choice quiz by ElusiveDream. Estimated time: 2 mins.

Author
ElusiveDream

Time
2 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
356,283

Updated
Aug 24 23

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Easy

Avg Score
9 / 10

Plays
795

Last 3 plays: angostura (10/10), chuckdaniel (8/10), SLAPSHOT4 (10/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. How are new stars born? Hint

From colliding comets

No one knows

They appear from thin air

From clouds of gas and dust

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Question 2 of 10

2. How long is a star's life-cycle? Hint

Fifty-one trillion years

Seventy-eight billion years

Thirty-four million years

It depends on the size of the star

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Question 3 of 10

3. Not including the Sun, which star is closest to Earth? Hint

Regulus

Proxima Centauri

Aldebaran

Pollux

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Question 4 of 10

4. Which of these is a star that ends its life via a massive explosion? Hint

Pulsar

Supernova

Quasar

Brown Dwarf

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Question 5 of 10

5. Which of the following stars is classed as a super red giant? Hint

The Sun

Mira

Betelgeuse

Sirius A

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Question 6 of 10

6. Eventually all stars will die. What will happen to the Sun as its life begins to come to an end? Hint

It will slowly disintegrate

The sun won't die

It will go through the red giant stage

It will expand until it explodes

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Question 7 of 10

7. When we go outside on a clear night, we can see that the stars make patterns in the sky. What do we call these patterns? Hint

Symbols

Hieroglyphs

Monograms

Constellations

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Question 8 of 10

8. Some stars sit so close together that they orbit around each other.

True

False

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Question 9 of 10

9. What name do we give to a large group of stars orbiting a common center of mass? Hint

Colony

Fraternity

Battery

Galaxy

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Question 10 of 10

10. The sun contains the elements hydrogen and helium.

True

False

Most Recent Scores

Dec 16 2024 : angostura: 10/10
Dec 05 2024 : chuckdaniel: 8/10
Nov 20 2024 : SLAPSHOT4: 10/10
Nov 05 2024 : genoveva: 9/10

Score Distribution

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. How are new stars born?

Answer: From clouds of gas and dust

Stars are born in the huge clouds of gas and dust we call nebulae. In most cases the nebulae themselves are produced from material left behind after old stars have died.

2. How long is a star's life-cycle?

Answer: It depends on the size of the star

A star's life-cycle depends greatly on the actual size of the star itself. For example, small stars like red dwarves have lifespans measuring many billions of years while massive stars like super red giants only live for a few million years. Basically, the bigger the star is, the shorter its lifespan.

3. Not including the Sun, which star is closest to Earth?

Answer: Proxima Centauri

Located in the constellation Centaurus, Proxima Centauri lies approximately 4.24 light-years from Earth.

Pollux, located in the constellation Gemini, lies thirty-four light-years from Earth while Aldebaran, located in the constellation Taurus, lies sixty-five light-years away.

Out of the four stars listed, the farthest from Earth is Regulus, which lies seventy-seven light-years away in the constellation Leo.

4. Which of these is a star that ends its life via a massive explosion?

Answer: Supernova

Sometimes a supernova is so bright it can be seen during the day. The first recorded supernova was observed by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD.

Pulsars and brown dwarves are separate types of stars while a quasar (quasi-stellar radio source) is a very distant and extremely active galactic nucleus.

5. Which of the following stars is classed as a super red giant?

Answer: Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is located in the constellation Orion.

Mira, located in the constellation Cetus, is classed as a red giant while Sirius A and our own Sun are classed as main sequence stars.

Sirius A is located in the constellation Canis Major and is often called the "Dog Star".

6. Eventually all stars will die. What will happen to the Sun as its life begins to come to an end?

Answer: It will go through the red giant stage

In about five billion years' time, the Sun will turn red and begin to expand to around two hundred times its usual size, thus becoming a red giant. It will stay this way for quite some time before slowly shrinking to a faint white dwarf no bigger than the Earth.

7. When we go outside on a clear night, we can see that the stars make patterns in the sky. What do we call these patterns?

Answer: Constellations

The largest constellation is Hydra, named after the nine-headed serpent of Greek mythology. The smallest is Crux, more commonly called The Southern Cross.

8. Some stars sit so close together that they orbit around each other.

Answer: True

These are called binary stars. Occasionally there can be as many as seven or eight stars orbiting each other.

9. What name do we give to a large group of stars orbiting a common center of mass?

Answer: Galaxy

Galaxies are classified according to their shape. For example: Centaurus A, located in the constellation Centaurus, is classed as an elliptical galaxy while NGC 1300, located in the constellation Eridanus, is classed as a barred-spiral galaxy.

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is classed as a spiral galaxy.

10. The sun contains the elements hydrogen and helium.

Answer: True

The sun has been shining steadily for approximately 5,000 million years. During this time it has converted four million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second!

Other elements found in the sun include oxygen, carbon, silicon, nitrogen, magnesium, neon, iron and sulfur.

Source: Author ElusiveDream

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor CellarDoor before going online.
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