50 Astronomy & Space Quiz Questions and Answers
This page lists 50 real questions from the Quizlino Astronomy & Space category, each with four options, the correct answer and, where available, a short explanation. They are arranged from easy to hard, so you can start at the level that suits you. The full category contains 260 questions spread across its levels, so what you see here is a sample to study from, not the whole quiz.
- Cover the answer line, read the question and decide on your option first.
- Check the answer, then read the explanation even if you were right.
- Make a note of the questions you missed and come back to them after a few days.
- When you feel ready, play the timed Astronomy & Space to test yourself properly.
Astronomy & Space: Easy Questions
Warm-up questions that most players can answer.
Q1. Which planet is known as the Red Planet?
Answer: B. Mars
Explanation: Mars looks red because its surface is covered with dust rich in iron oxide, which is the same substance as rust.
Q2. Which is the largest planet in our Solar System?
Answer: C. Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter is so large that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it, and it is heavier than all the other planets combined.
Q3. What is the name of Earth's natural satellite?
Answer: C. Moon
Explanation: The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and orbits at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometres.
Q4. Which star is at the center of our Solar System?
Answer: C. Sun
Explanation: The Sun is a star that contains about 99.8 percent of all the mass in the Solar System.
Q5. Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Answer: D. Mercury
Explanation: Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and completes an orbit in only 88 Earth days.
Q6. What is the name of the galaxy that contains our Solar System?
Answer: C. Milky Way Galaxy
Explanation: The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars, and the Solar System lies in one of its outer arms.
Q7. Which planet is famous for its beautiful ring system?
Answer: B. Saturn
Explanation: Saturn's rings are made mostly of pieces of ice and rock, ranging in size from dust grains to boulders.
Q8. What is the name of the first human to walk on the Moon?
Answer: C. Neil Armstrong
Explanation: Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on 20 July 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.
Q9. Which planet is known as Earth's "sister planet" because of its similar size?
Answer: B. Venus
Explanation: Venus is almost the same size and mass as Earth, although its surface is far hotter and its atmosphere is crushingly thick.
Q10. What is the largest star in our Solar System?
Answer: C. Sun
Explanation: The Sun is the only star in the Solar System, so it is both the largest and the only one.
Q11. Which planet is known as the Blue Planet?
Answer: B. Earth
Explanation: Earth is called the Blue Planet because about 71 percent of its surface is covered by water.
Q12. What do we call a scientist who studies stars, planets, and space?
Answer: B. Astronomer
Explanation: An astronomer studies objects beyond Earth. An astronaut is a person who travels into space.
Q13. Which planet has the most well-known Great Red Spot?
Answer: B. Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a giant storm, wider than the Earth, that has been observed for well over a century.
Q14. What is the name of the first artificial satellite launched into space?
Answer: C. Sputnik 1
Explanation: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, which marked the start of the Space Age.
Q15. Which force keeps planets orbiting the Sun?
Answer: B. Gravity
Explanation: The Sun's gravity pulls the planets towards it, and their sideways motion keeps them moving around it instead of falling in.
Q16. What is the name of the path a planet follows around the Sun?
Answer: C. Orbit
Explanation: An orbit is the curved path of one object around another. Planetary orbits are ellipses, which are slightly stretched circles.
Q17. Which planet is famous for having the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons?
Answer: B. Mars
Explanation: Olympus Mons on Mars is about 22 kilometres high, roughly two and a half times the height of Mount Everest.
Q18. What is the name of NASA's famous space telescope launched in 1990?
Answer: C. Hubble Space Telescope
Explanation: The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and has sent back detailed images of the universe for more than three decades.
Q19. Which planet takes about 365 days to orbit the Sun?
Answer: C. Earth
Explanation: Earth takes about 365 and a quarter days to orbit the Sun, which is why a leap day is added every four years.
Astronomy & Space: Medium Questions
A step up in difficulty, for players who know the basics.
Q20. Which spacecraft was the first to successfully fly by Pluto?
Answer: B. New Horizons
Explanation: NASA's New Horizons flew past Pluto in July 2015 and returned the first close-up pictures of its surface.
Q21. Which planet has the most circular orbit around the Sun?
Answer: A. Venus
Explanation: Venus has the least stretched orbit of any planet, so its distance from the Sun hardly changes during its year.
Q22. What is the name of the brightest planet visible in the night sky?
Answer: B. Venus
Explanation: Venus is the brightest planet because it is close to Earth and its thick clouds reflect most of the sunlight that falls on them.
Q23. Which mission made the first successful soft landing on the Moon?
Answer: A. Luna 9
Explanation: The Soviet probe Luna 9 made the first soft landing on the Moon in February 1966 and sent back pictures from the surface.
Q24. Which moon is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System?
Answer: C. Io
Explanation: Io, a moon of Jupiter, has hundreds of active volcanoes, heated from within by the pull of Jupiter's gravity.
Q25. What is the name of the first American astronaut to orbit Earth?
Answer: B. John Glenn
Explanation: John Glenn orbited the Earth three times in February 1962 aboard the spacecraft Friendship 7.
Q26. Which planet has the highest escape velocity among the planets in the Solar System?
Answer: B. Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter has the strongest gravity of any planet, so an object needs a speed of about 60 kilometres per second to escape from it.
Q27. Which spacecraft performed the first successful landing on Titan?
Answer: C. Huygens
Explanation: The European probe Huygens landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in January 2005 after travelling there with the Cassini spacecraft.
Q28. Which star is the brightest in the constellation Lyra?
Answer: B. Vega
Explanation: Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and one of the brightest stars in the northern night sky.
Q29. What is the largest known type of star in the universe?
Answer: C. Red Supergiant
Explanation: Red supergiants such as Betelgeuse are among the largest stars known, with diameters hundreds of times that of the Sun.
Q30. Which NASA mission explored both the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres?
Answer: A. Dawn
Explanation: The Dawn spacecraft orbited the asteroid Vesta from 2011 and then travelled on to orbit Ceres in 2015.
Q31. What is the name of the closest galaxy to the Milky Way that is visible to the naked eye?
Answer: A. Andromeda Galaxy
Explanation: The Andromeda Galaxy, about 2.5 million light-years away, is the nearest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and can be seen without a telescope in dark skies.
Q32. Which spacecraft was the first to orbit Mercury?
Answer: B. MESSENGER
Explanation: NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury in 2011 and mapped the whole planet.
Q33. Which planet has the most extreme temperature difference between day and night?
Answer: A. Mercury
Explanation: Mercury has almost no atmosphere to hold heat, so its surface swings from about 430 degrees Celsius by day to about minus 180 at night.
Q34. What is the name of the largest volcano on Earth?
Answer: A. Mauna Loa
Explanation: Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the largest active volcano on Earth, rising about nine kilometres from the ocean floor.
Q35. Which space telescope specializes in observing X-rays from space?
Answer: B. Chandra X-ray Observatory
Explanation: The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched by NASA in 1999, studies very hot regions of space such as exploded stars and the surroundings of black holes.
Q36. Which mission delivered the first images from the surface of Titan?
Answer: C. Huygens
Explanation: The Huygens probe photographed Titan's surface after landing in 2005, showing a landscape scattered with pebbles of ice.
Q37. Which planet has the most flattened shape due to its rapid rotation?
Answer: B. Saturn
Explanation: Saturn spins so fast that it bulges at the equator, making it noticeably wider than it is tall.
Astronomy & Space: Hard Questions
Challenging questions for confident players.
Q38. Which NASA mission has been continuously exploring Jupiter since arriving there in 2016?
Answer: C. Juno
Explanation: The Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter in July 2016 to study the planet's atmosphere, magnetic field and interior.
Q39. Which type of celestial object is Proxima Centauri?
Answer: B. Red Dwarf
Explanation: Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is a small, cool and dim star of the type called a red dwarf.
Q40. Which mission successfully placed the first rover on Mars?
Answer: B. Sojourner (Mars Pathfinder)
Explanation: Sojourner, a small rover carried by the Mars Pathfinder mission, began exploring the surface of Mars in July 1997.
Q41. What is the name of the largest impact basin on the Moon?
Answer: C. South Pole–Aitken Basin
Explanation: The South Pole-Aitken Basin, on the far side of the Moon, is about 2,500 kilometres across and one of the largest known craters in the Solar System.
Q42. Which planet's moon Charon is so large relative to its planet that they are often considered a binary system?
Answer: C. Pluto
Explanation: Charon is about half the diameter of Pluto, and the two bodies circle a point in space that lies between them.
Q43. What is the primary gas found in Jupiter's atmosphere?
Answer: C. Hydrogen
Explanation: Jupiter's atmosphere is roughly ninety percent hydrogen, with most of the rest being helium.
Q44. Which observatory released the first image of a black hole in 2019?
Answer: B. Event Horizon Telescope
Explanation: The Event Horizon Telescope, a worldwide network of radio telescopes, released the first image of a black hole in April 2019. It lies in the galaxy M87.
Q45. Which ESA spacecraft landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko?
Answer: B. Philae
Explanation: Philae, the lander carried by the Rosetta spacecraft, touched down on the comet in November 2014.
Q46. What is the name of the theoretical boundary beyond which the universe cannot currently be observed?
Answer: B. Cosmic Horizon
Explanation: The cosmic horizon marks the limit of the observable universe. Light from beyond it has not had time to reach us.
Q47. Which planet in the Solar System radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun?
Answer: C. Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter gives off almost twice as much heat as it receives from the Sun, because it is still slowly releasing heat from its formation.
Q48. Which spacecraft was the first to perform a flyby of Saturn?
Answer: C. Pioneer 11
Explanation: Pioneer 11 flew past Saturn in September 1979, ahead of the two Voyager spacecraft.
Q49. Which planet has the shortest rotation period (fastest day) in the Solar System?
Answer: B. Jupiter
Explanation: Jupiter rotates once in just under ten hours, giving it the shortest day of any planet.
Q50. Which NASA mission was the first to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres?
Answer: A. Dawn
Explanation: Dawn entered orbit around Ceres in March 2015, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet.
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