Solar System
Solar System - Part1
1) What is Alpha Centauri?
It is a star system that is believed to be closest to our Sun. It is 4.37 light years away from us
2) What is Proxima Centauri?
It is a small red star known to be the closest to the Sun. It is 4.24 light years away
3) What is the age of the Solar System?
4.6 billion years
4) What are terrestrial Planets?
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. They are small planets. They mainly have rock and metal
5) What are the 4 large outer system planets?
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus
6) What is Jupiter and Saturn mainly composed of?
Hydrogen and helium gases
7) What is Uranus and Neptune mainly composed of?
Water, ammonia and methane
8) What are the 8 planets?
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
9) What is asteroid belt?
It is the smallest and innermost known disc in the Solar System. It is located roughly between Jupiter and Mars. It contains many irregular shaped bodies called asteroids
10) What are meteoroids, meteors and meteorites?
Meteoroids are small objects in space. The fireballs that are formed when meteoroids enter earth and burned are called meteors. When meteoroids hits the earth’s ground they are called meteorite
11) What is ecliptic?
It is the plane of earth’s orbit around the Sun
12) How often is Halley’s comet visible from earth?
75-76 years
13) When did Halley’s comet last appear and when will it next appear?
Halley’s comet last appeared in 1986. It will appear next in 2061
14) What is distance from earth to Sun?
It is 1 Astronomical Unit (AU)
15) How many miles/Km is 1 AU?
1 AU is 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers
16) Which is the hottest planet?
Venus
17) Which is the largest planet in our Solar System?
Jupiter
18) Which planet is closest to Sun?
Mercury
19) What is shielding earth’s atmosphere from erosion by solar wind?
Earth’s magnetic field
20) What are comets?
They are small Solar System bodies. They are mostly composed of ice and some dust and rocks
21) Which Planets have rings?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
22) Which Planets do not have moons?
Mercury and Venus
23) Who is the first Woman to go to Space? When?
Valentina Tereshkova went to Space in 1963
24) Who is the first man to go into Space?
Yuri Gagarin went to Space in 1961
25) When does Solar eclipse occur?
When the moon comes between Sun and Earth. The moon casts shadow on Earth
26) When does Lunar eclipse occur?
When Earth is between Sun and Moon. Earth casts shadow on moon
27) What is the visible surface of Sun?
Photosphere
28) How much time it takes for light to reach earth from sun?
Average of 8 minutes 20 seconds
29) Which Planet has highest density?
Earth
30) Which is the brightest star in the Earth’s night sky?
Sirius (Dog star)
31) What is Cosmography?
It deals with the general features of the universe
32) What is Cosmology?
It deals with the origin and evolution of the universe
33) What is Astronomy?
It deals with celestial objects and phenomena
34) Which is a galaxy?
It is the collection of stars, dust etc held together by gravity
35) What is a Milky way?
The Milky Way is a large barred spiral galaxy. Our galaxy is called Milky way
36) Which is the fastest spinning planet?
Jupiter
37) Which Planet is called red planet?
Mars
38) Which is called morning star or evening star?
Venus
39) What is a Ganymede?
It is a satellite of Jupiter. It is the largest and most massive moon of Solar System
40) Which planet has maximum number of moons?
Saturn
41) What are the moons of Mars?
Phobos and Deimos
42) Which is the Green Planet?
Uranus
43) Which Planets rotate west to east?
All Planets except Uranus and Venus. Uranus and Venus rotate east to west
44) What is a black hole?
It is a place in space where light cannot get out because of high gravitational pull
45) Who was the first person to step on moon? When?
Neil Armstrong in 1969
46) What is “Curiosity”?
It is a Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars
47) From where was Curiosity launched? When
It was launched from Cape Canaveral on 26 Nov 2011
48) Which is the closest galaxy to our galaxy?
Andromeda
49) What is Supernova?
It is the largest explosion of a star that takes place in space
50) What causes ocean tides?
The gravity of the moon
51) What is the colour of the Sun?
White
52) What is Harvest moon?
It is the full moon that takes place closest to the autumn equinox. The moon rises about the same time for a few nights in the Northern Hemisphere. It helps in harvesting
53) What is Hunters moon?
It is a full moon that happens in October. Once in 4 years it happens in November
54) What is gibbous moon?
The moon more than half full, but not fully illuminated
55) What part of earth’s gravitational pull is the moon’s gravitational pull?
Moon’s gravitational pull 1/6th of that of earth
56) What is Sun dial?
It is a device that tells the time of day by the position of the Sun in the sky
57) What is a Solar day or Earth day?
It is time taken by earth to rotate about its axis so that the Sun appears in same position in sky
58) What is Sideral day?
It is the time taken by Earth to rotate about its axis so that the distant stars appear in the same position in the sky
59) Who discovered earth is revolving around Sun?
Nicolaus Copernicus
60) What is Hubble Constant?
It is a unit that describes how fast the universe is expanding at different distances from a particular point in space
61) One year in different planets?
Mercury-88days, Venus-22 days, Earth-365 days, Mars-687 days, Jupiter-4333 days, Saturn-10759 days, Uranus-30687 days, Nptune-60190 days
62) Which is the first satellite in space? When launched?
Sputnik 1 launched in 1957
63) Which is the first flight to land on moon?
Apollo 11
64) Which is the first human spaceflight?
Vostok 1
65) When was Hubble space telescope placed into orbit by space shuttle Discovery?
On April 25, 1990
66) Apollo missions?
| Apollo Series | Launch | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo 1 | Feb 1967 | Never Launched. Got destroyed due to fire |
| Apollo 4 | Nov 1967 | Unmanned flight |
| Apollo 5 | Jan 1968 | Unmanned flight |
| Apollo 6 | Apr 1968 | Unmanned flight |
| Apollo 7 | Oct 1968 | Manned flight. Test flight of Block II CSM in Earth Orbit |
| Apollo 8 | Dec 1968 | Manned flight. First circumlunar flight of CSM |
| Apollo 9 | Mar 1969 | Manned flight. First crewed flight test of Lunar Module |
| Apollo 10 | May 1968 | Manned flight. Dress rehearsal for lunar landing |
| Apollo 11 | July 1969 | Manned flight. First crewed landing on moon (Neil Armstrong and others) |
| Apollo 12 | Nov 1969 | Manned flight. First precise Moon landing in Ocean of Storms |
| Apollo 13 | Apr 1970 | Manned flight. Landing on moon cancelled. Crew returned |
| Apollo 14 | Jan 1971 | Manned flight. Conducted first materials science experiments in space |
| Apollo 15 | July 1971 | Manned flight. 3 days lunar stay. First use of Lunar Roving Vehicle |
| Apollo 16 | Apr 1972 | Manned flight. Conducted 3 lunar EVAs and one deep space EVA |
| Apollo 17 | Dec 1972 | Manned flight. First professional geologist on the Moon |
67) Which is the first animal to orbit the Earth?
A Soviet dog by name Laika
68) Which is the first artificial object to get the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System?
Pioneer 10. It is an American space probe launched in 1972 that completed first mission to Jupiter
69) What is a Space shuttle?
It is a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by NASA
70) What is the official name of US Space Shuttle Program?
Space Transportation System
71) What are the space shuttles commissioned by NASA which are space worthy?
Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour
72) Which is the first man-made object to escape Earth’s gravity?
Luna 1
73) What is the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon?
Luna 2
74) Which spacecraft first took the photograph of the far side of the Moon?
Luna 3
75) Which was the first spacecraft to fly past Venus?
Venera 1
76) Which is the first automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars?
Mars 1
77) Which was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman?
Vostok 6. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman who went to space in June 1963
78) Whose space station is Mir?
Russia
79) Which was the first spaceflight to carry more than one crewman into orbit?
Voskhod 1
80) Which was the first flight without the use of spacesuits?
Voskhod 1
81) Which was the first to carry either an engineer or a physician into outer space?
Voskhod 1
82) Which is the first radio telescope in space?
Zond 3