Space Facts Quiz

1. How long does light from the Sun take to reach Earth?

1. About 1 day
2. About 1 hour
3. About 1 second
4. About 8 minutes

2. What is a light-year?

1. A measure of time
2. The distance light travels in one year — about 9.46 trillion km
3. The speed of light
4. The time it takes light to cross our galaxy

3. What is the name of our galaxy?

1. Andromeda
2. The Magellanic Cloud
3. The Milky Way
4. The Sombrero Galaxy

4. What is a black hole?

1. A collapsed neutron star
2. A region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing — not even light — can escape
3. A very dark region of empty space
4. The centre of every galaxy

5. How many planets are in our solar system?

1. 10
2. 7
3. 8
4. 9

6. What is the Big Bang theory?

1. Our galaxy was formed from a massive collision
2. Stars were created by a giant explosion
3. The universe has always existed
4. The universe originated from an enormous explosion about 13.8 billion years ago

7. Who was the first human to walk on the Moon?

1. Buzz Aldrin
2. Michael Collins
3. Neil Armstrong
4. Yuri Gagarin

8. What is the International Space Station (ISS)?

1. A permanently crewed research laboratory orbiting Earth at ~400 km altitude
2. A proposed future Mars base
3. A satellite GPS system
4. A satellite observatory

9. What is the most abundant element in the universe?

1. Carbon
2. Helium
3. Hydrogen
4. Oxygen

10. How old is the universe, according to current scientific estimates?

1. 13.8 billion years
2. 20 billion years
3. 4.5 billion years
4. 6.5 billion years

11. What spacecraft first left our solar system, becoming the most distant human-made object?

1. New Horizons
2. Pioneer 10
3. Voyager 1
4. Voyager 2

12. What is the largest planet in our solar system?

1. Jupiter
2. Neptune
3. Saturn
4. Uranus

13. What is dark matter?

1. An unobserved form of matter that makes up ~27% of the universe and doesn't interact with light
2. Black holes and dark nebulae
3. The material at the centre of black holes
4. The space between galaxies

14. Which planet has the most moons in our solar system (as of 2024)?

1. Jupiter
2. Neptune
3. Saturn
4. Uranus

15. What causes a solar eclipse?

1. Earth passes between the Sun and Moon
2. Earth's shadow falls on the Moon
3. Sunspots block light from reaching Earth
4. The Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight

16. What is the asteroid belt and where is it located?

1. A belt of asteroids orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune
2. A cloud of comets surrounding our solar system
3. A region between Mars and Jupiter containing millions of rocky bodies
4. A ring of asteroids around Saturn

17. What is the Hubble Space Telescope named after?

1. A NASA engineer
2. Edwin Hubble, who discovered that the universe is expanding
3. Hubble, an American military general who funded it
4. The astronaut who built it

18. What is a neutron star?

1. A star made entirely of neutrons
2. A star that has no protons in its core
3. An early stage in stellar formation
4. The extremely dense remnant of a massive star after a supernova, composed mainly of neutrons

19. Which space agency successfully landed the Mars Curiosity rover on the Red Planet?

1. CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration)
2. ESA (European Space Agency)
3. NASA
4. Roscosmos

20. What percentage of the universe is made up of 'ordinary' (visible, baryonic) matter?

1. 27%
2. 5%
3. 50%
4. 75%