The Night Sky Trivia Quiz

Answer: their temperature

Blue stars are the hottest stars, while red stars are the coolest. Our sun is yellow, which means it is about 5,200 to 6,000 degrees Kelvin. The more massive a star is, the faster it will burn, and the hotter it will be. This causes hotter stars to die more quickly, because they burn at a higher rate. Stars are classified on a scale of O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. O stars are the hottest, while M stars are the coolest. Our sun is a G star (on the bottom half of the scale, relatively cooler than the other stars).

Answer: you would be stretched out

Spaghettification is the process of being stretched out like spaghetti (hence the name) once you enter a black hole. Spaghettification is caused by tidal forces. Tidal forces are the difference of gravitational pull on an object. If you were to fall into a black hole feet first, there would be more of a gravitational pull on your feet that your head.

As you fall into the black hole, the tidal forces would eventually become so strong that they rip you apart. Throughout this time, you will be stretched out.

Answer: year

It takes the moon the same time to spin around one time on its axis as it does to go around the earth. This causes one day on the moon (one spin on its axis) to be the same length as one year on the moon (one orbit around earth). This also results in us only ever being able to see the same side of the moon from earth.

Answer: 3/4 full, getting smaller

The moon has eight different phases: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. A new moon is when we cannot see any of the moon at all. A waxing crescent means that we are gradually seeing more, and it is 1/4 full (we see a crescent). First quarter is when we see 1/2 of the moon.

A waxing gibbous is when we can see 3/4 of the moon, and it is getting bigger. A full moon is when we can see all of the moon, and it is at the peak of its cycle (it is like the top of a rollercoaster; from here it will begin to get smaller).

A waning gibbous means that it is 3/4 full and getting smaller, third quarter is when we can see half, and a waning crescent is when we see 1/4 and it is getting smaller.

Answer: when they have too much iron

Nuclear fusion is fusing elements in the core of a star to make more. It starts with hydrogen, and two hydrogen will make one helium, and two helium will be fused, and so on. The last and heaviest element in this process is iron. When a star runs out of hydrogen to fuse and has too much iron, it will die.

Answer: a second full moon in the same month

A blue moon has a high chance of occurring if there is a full moon at the beginning of the month. One full cycle of the moon takes about 29 days, so if there is a full moon in the first few days of a month, then there will likely be a blue moon. It is possible that the moon can actually be blue in color, although this is not related to a blue moon. If you've ever heard the phrase "once in a blue moon", it is referring to something rare or unlikely.

Answer: Jupiter

Jupiter, as of 2016, has 67 known moons, along with being the largest planet in our solar system. At its equator, it is 143,000 kilometers (89,000 miles) wide. Jupiter's four largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were discovered by Galileo in 1610.

Editorial note - by 2019, Jupiter was classed as having 79 moons in total, confirmed and provisional. Saturn is now believed to have 82 in total.

Answer: Mercury

Mercury was the second smallest planet in our solar system, until astronomers decided that Pluto was actually a dwarf planet. Pluto was the smallest planet, but Mercury took its place. Mercury is about 20 times less massive than Earth, and Mercury's diameter is about 2 1/2 times less than that of Earth.

Answer: True

There is a supermassive black hole in the center of every galaxy, including our own Milky Way. The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is about 27,000 light years away from earth, so it shouldn't be sucking us in any time soon. The mass of the black hole at the center of the galaxy is related to the mass of the galaxy itself.

Answer: spiral galaxy

The Milky Way is a spiral shaped galaxy. There are three types of galaxies: spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Elliptical galaxies are shaped like ovals, and irregular galaxies are neither spiral or elliptical and were likely made that way by colliding with another galaxy, although this is not certain. The closest galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, is also a spiral galaxy.