Astro-Quiz:

Exercise Your Brain!


1. The heliopause is
(a) the time of year when the apparent northward or southward motion of the Sun reverses
(b) the period of minimal sunspot activity
(c) the region where the solar wind and the interstellar medium pressures balance
(d) the time when the Sun will have used up all of its hydrogen fuel

2. The brightest star in the constellation Aquila is
(a) Albireo
(b) Aldebaran
(c) Altair
(d) Arcturus

3. A parsec is a unit of
(a) angular size
(b) distance
(c) time
(d) velocity

4. What type of galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy?
(a) elliptical
(b) spiral
(c) barred spiral
(d) irregular

5. Binoculars labeled 10x50 provide a magnification of what power?
(a) 5
(b) 10
(c) 50
(d) variable from 10 to 50

6. In cosmology, the Hubble Constant pertains to
(a) the ratio of the recession speed of a galaxy to its distance
(b) the focal length of the Hubble Space Telescope
(c) the average number of galaxies visible per square degree of sky
(d) the acceleration of the expansion rate of the universe due to dark energy

7. The "First Point of Aries" is the point in the sky that the Sun occupies on the March equinox; in which constellation is this point?
(a) Taurus
(b) Aries
(c) Pisces
(d) Aquarius

8. Which of these objects is closest in size to the Earth?
(a) Mercury
(b) Venus
(c) Mars
(d) Titan

9. Which of these is a pair of stars that do not belong to the same constellation?
(a) Albireo and Deneb
(b) Betelgeuse and Rigel
(c) Castor and Pollux
(d) Procyon and Sirius

10. Which are the two moonless planets of our solar system?
(a) Mercury and Venus
(b) Mercury and Uranus
(c) Venus and Neptune
(d) Uranus and Neptune

11. Who discovered Pluto?
(a) Clyde Tombaugh
(b) Edwin Hubble
(c) Percival Lowell
(d) Vesto Slipher

12. Who built the first radio telescope?
(a) Grote Reber
(b) Karl Jansky
(c) Bernard Lovell
(d) Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson

13. A comet's tail generally points
(a) outward, away from the Sun
(b) inward, toward the Sun
(c) forward, in the direction the comet is moving
(d) backward, opposite to the direction the comet is moving

14. Why do stars appear to twinkle?
(a) They have moving flares just like the Sun's solar flares
(b) They have moving dark spots just like the Sun's sunspots
(c) Their light is scattered by moving interstellar dust
(d) Their light is refracted by moving layers of our atmosphere

15. The primary explanation for the origin of lunar craters is that they are
(a) meteoric impacts
(b) volcanic eruptions
(c) dried-up lake beds
(d) sinkholes left behind when subsurface ice evaporated