The Many Moons of Our Solar System Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Moons come in many sizes. Which moon is the largest moon in the solar system?

Answer: Ganymede

Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, is not only the largest moon with a diameter of 3,280 miles, or 5,262 km, but it's bigger than two planets, Mercury and Pluto. If Ganymede was in its own independent orbit, it would be classified as a planet.

2. Aside from Earth, all of the other planets appear to be geologically dead. For centuries, Earth was the only world to have known active volcanoes. Which moon was the first to be discovered to have active volcanoes?

Answer: Io

Io, another one of Jupiter's moons, was first photographed during the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys in 1979. Scientists were pleasantly surprised to see the sulfur eruptions. When the Galileo spacecraft arrived in 1996 it discovered that many surface features had been changed in the previous 17 years.

3. At one time only planets were known to have moons. Which asteroid was the first found to have a satellite orbiting it?

Answer: Ida

Dactyl was discovered to be orbiting Ida by Galileo in August 1993 as it flew through the asteroid belt on its way to Jupiter. There are 9 asteroids known to have satellites, the most recently discovered as of March 2003 was Hermione.

4. Except for the recently discovered moons far out in the solar system, almost all moons have had official names -- the same in every language -- for many years. One planet has a moon with no other official, definite name. Which one is it?

Answer: Earth

Our moon has no official name other than "Moon," and its translations in other languages. Some people have suggested names, one of the most popular is Luna. By the way, our moon is the fifth largest in the solar system.

5. Our moon has been seen in the sky for all of human history. Beyond our own, the first four moons to be seen were discovered in 1610. Which planet's moons were they?

Answer: Jupiter

Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa were discovered by Galileo Galilei. Many Jupiter moons have been discovered since then, the most recent discoveries have just been named Callirrhoe, Chaldene, Magaclite, Kalyke, and Erinome. They are named after characters in Greek mythology who are related to Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology).

6. Most moons are named for mythical characters. This planet has moons named for characters from several different Shakespeare plays.

Answer: Uranus

Uranus has at least twenty moons. Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Puck, Miranda, Caliban, and Sycorax are all Shakespearean names. Miranda is one of the most interesting. It has a diameter of only 290 miles, or 470 km, but it has huge fault canyons that are as deep as 12 miles, or 20km.

It's thought that Miranda may have been shattered in collisions with large objects several times in the distant past, and reassembled itself each time.

7. Moons that are geologically active are among the most interesting. This moon is known for its giant ice geysers.

Answer: Triton

Triton, which looks like a cantaloupe, orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit, the only large satellite to do so. This means it orbits opposite to the rotation of the planet. Triton is the coldest object in the solar system with a surface temperature of -391 degrees Fahrenheit, or -235 Celsius.

8. Of the planets in our solar system, the gas giants all have many moons. Which of the inner four rocky planets has the most moons?

Answer: Mars

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. With their irregular shape, they resemble potatoes. They are named for the attendants of the Roman war god Mars, their names mean fear and panic. On March 4, 2004, the NASA Mars Rover Opportunity photographed the first ever solar eclipse seen from the surface of another planet when it captured the image of tiny Deimos crossing in front of the sun.
Mercury and Venus have no moons.

9. Almost all unmanned space missions that have landed on another world beyond our moon have landed on planets. There is a moon which was visited by a space probe in 2005. Which one is it?

Answer: Titan

The Cassini mission arrived at Saturn in July 2004. It was due to release the Huygens probe several months later which landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The Voyager flybys were unable to penetrate Titan's thick atmosphere with their cameras, and scientists are curious as to what lies beneath the clouds.

10. Most moons have their own orbits, relatively far away from any other moons. These two moons are in almost the same orbit, close to Saturn's rings.

Answer: Janus and Epimetheus

Despite their odd orbits, these two icy moons never come closer to each other than 13,000 miles or 21,000 km apart. When they do pass that close, their gravitational fields cause them to exchange distances from Saturn, so that one is always slightly closer to the planet than the other.
Nereid, one of Neptune's moons, is so far away from the planet that it takes 360 days for it to complete one orbit.

Source: Author NYFOREVER

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

I'm sure you know a lot about the nine planets in our solar system. But how much do you know about the many moons orbiting them?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>