Space Records & Firsts

28 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Which probe made the first landing on a moon of the outer solar system, in 2005?
- A. Ingenuity
- B. Philae
- C. the Huygens probe
- D. Venera 7
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the Huygens probe
Did you know? Huygens touched down on Saturn's moon Titan in January 2005.
2.How far away is the Moon on average?
- A. About 3.84 million kilometers
- B. About 38,400 kilometers
- C. About 1.5 million kilometers
- D. About 384,400 kilometers
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About 384,400 kilometers
Did you know? Laser reflectors left by Apollo pinpoint the Moon's distance.
3.Which 1990 photo shows Earth as a tiny dot from beyond Neptune?
- A. the Blue Marble
- B. the Deep Field
- C. Earthrise
- D. the Pale Blue Dot
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the Pale Blue Dot
Did you know? Voyager 1 turned back to shoot the Pale Blue Dot in 1990.
4.What makes a full Moon count as a supermoon?
- A. It turns extra bright white
- B. It falls near the Moon's closest point to Earth
- C. It looks larger only in photos
- D. It rises exactly at midnight
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It falls near the Moon's closest point to Earth
Did you know? A supermoon rides close to perigee, looking slightly bigger.
5.How long is one rotation of Venus in Earth days?
- A. About 88 Earth days
- B. About 24 Earth days
- C. About 243 Earth days
- D. About 687 Earth days
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About 243 Earth days
Did you know? A Venus day outlasts a Venus year of 225 Earth days.
6.Which 1968 photo showed Earth rising over the lunar horizon?
- A. Earthrise
- B. the Golden Record
- C. the Blue Marble
- D. the Pale Blue Dot
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Earthrise
Did you know? Apollo 8's Earthrise became an environmental icon.
7.During which lunar phase can a lunar eclipse occur?
- A. First quarter
- B. Waxing crescent
- C. Full Moon
- D. New Moon
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Full Moon
Did you know? A lunar eclipse needs the Moon opposite the Sun.
8.How much travel time does sunlight need to reach Earth?
- A. About 8 seconds
- B. About 8 hours
- C. About 1 second
- D. About 8 minutes
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About 8 minutes
Did you know? Sunlight covers 150 million kilometers in about 8 minutes.
9.Which spacecraft is the farthest human-made object from Earth?
- A. New Horizons
- B. Pioneer 10
- C. Voyager 1
- D. Voyager 2
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Voyager 1
Did you know? Voyager 1's signals now take over 22 hours to reach home.
10.What did the ancient Greek word for planet literally mean?
- A. Fixed light
- B. Bright star
- C. Falling star
- D. Wanderer
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Wanderer
Did you know? Planets "wander" against the fixed stars.
11.How long does a Martian year last in Earth days?
- A. About 225 Earth days
- B. About 90 Earth days
- C. About 365 Earth days
- D. About 687 Earth days
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About 687 Earth days
Did you know? Mars takes almost twice as long as Earth to circle the Sun.
12.During which lunar phase can a solar eclipse occur?
- A. Full Moon
- B. Third quarter
- C. Waning gibbous
- D. New Moon
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New Moon
Did you know? A solar eclipse needs the Moon crossing between Sun and Earth.
13.How many planets are larger than Earth?
- A. Five
- B. Two
- C. Four
- D. Six
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Four
Did you know? Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all outweigh Earth.
14.Which five planets can everyone see with the naked eye?
- A. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus
- B. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
- C. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
- D. Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
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Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
Did you know? Skywatchers tracked the five naked-eye planets since antiquity.
15.How many astronauts walked on the Moon during the Apollo program?
- A. Nine
- B. Twelve
- C. Eighteen
- D. Six
Show answer
Twelve
Did you know? All twelve Moonwalkers flew on Apollo missions.
16.What does the folk term "blue moon" mean today?
- A. The second full Moon in one calendar month
- B. A Moon that turns visibly blue
- C. A full Moon seen at noon
- D. A new Moon during the day
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The second full Moon in one calendar month
Did you know? True bluish moons come from volcanic ash, not the calendar.
17.Which planets have no moons at all?
- A. Venus and Earth
- B. Mercury and Mars
- C. Mars and Venus
- D. Mercury and Venus
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Mercury and Venus
Did you know? Every planet beyond Earth's orbit has at least one moon.
18.Which full Moon is called the Harvest Moon?
- A. The first full Moon of summer
- B. The full Moon nearest the autumn equinox
- C. The full Moon of December
- D. The second full Moon in a month
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The full Moon nearest the autumn equinox
Did you know? The Harvest Moon rises close to sunset for several evenings.
19.What share of the solar system's mass does the Sun hold?
- A. About 99.8 percent
- B. About 50 percent
- C. About 90 percent
- D. About 75 percent
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About 99.8 percent
Did you know? Everything else shares the remaining 0.2 percent.
20.How many constellations has the IAU officially defined?
- A. 60
- B. 88
- C. 44
- D. 100
Show answer
88
Did you know? The IAU fixed the 88 constellation boundaries in 1928.
21.How many moons does Mars have?
- A. Two
- B. None
- C. One
- D. Three
Show answer
Two
Did you know? Mars's two moons are Phobos and Deimos.
22.Which four moons did Galileo see at Jupiter in 1610?
- A. Io, Callisto, Mimas and Enceladus
- B. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
- C. Phobos, Deimos, Titan and Europa
- D. Io, Europa, Titan and Triton
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Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
Did you know? The Galilean moons still carry their 1610 names.
23.Who became Canada's first astronaut in space, in 1984?
- A. John Glenn
- B. Marc Garneau
- C. Helen Sharman
- D. Chris Hadfield
Show answer
Marc Garneau
Did you know? Garneau flew on the shuttle Challenger in October 1984.
24.How long is Venus's year in Earth days?
- A. About 88 Earth days
- B. About 225 Earth days
- C. About 687 Earth days
- D. About 243 Earth days
Show answer
About 225 Earth days
Did you know? Venus circles the Sun faster than any other planet.
25.What was the longest single spacewalk's duration, set in 2001?
- A. About 12 minutes
- B. About 24 hours
- C. About 8 hours 56 minutes
- D. About 4 hours
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About 8 hours 56 minutes
Did you know? Susan Helms and James Voss set the mark outside the station.
26.Which rocky body feeds the Geminid meteor shower?
- A. Halley's Comet
- B. Vesta
- C. 3200 Phaethon
- D. Swift-Tuttle
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3200 Phaethon
Did you know? Phaethon sheds the grains that burn as Geminids.
27.Which spacecraft was the first to orbit an asteroid, in 2000?
- A. Hayabusa
- B. NEAR Shoemaker
- C. Dawn
- D. Rosetta
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NEAR Shoemaker
Did you know? NEAR Shoemaker circled asteroid Eros in February 2000.
28.How many times heavier than Earth is the Sun?
- A. About 3.3 million times
- B. About 33,000 times
- C. About 333,000 times
- D. About 1,000 times
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About 333,000 times
Did you know? The Sun makes up nearly all of the solar system's mass.

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