Solar System

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

1.Which canyon on Mars is one of the longest canyon systems in the solar system?
- A. Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon
- B. Copper Canyon
- C. the Grand Canyon
- D. Valles Marineris
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Valles Marineris
Did you know? Valles Marineris stretches about 4,000 kilometers across Mars.
2.Which crater in Arizona was carved by an iron meteorite?
- A. Barringer Crater
- B. the Tycho Crater
- C. the Herschel Crater
- D. the Caloris Basin
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Barringer Crater
Did you know? Barringer Crater is about 1.2 kilometers wide.
3.Which dwarf planet was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006?
- A. Makemake
- B. Eris
- C. Pluto
- D. Haumea
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Pluto
Did you know? The IAU's 2006 definition changed Pluto's status after Eris's discovery.
4.Which moon is the largest moon of Uranus?
- A. Pan
- B. Rhea
- C. Titania
- D. Dactyl
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Titania
Did you know? Titania's canyon systems hint at ancient internal activity.
5.Which moon feature is one of the dark basalt plains on the Moon's face?
- A. a mare
- B. Europa
- C. a circumpolar star
- D. Apollo 8
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a mare
Did you know? Ancient skywatchers read the mare as a human face.
6.Which planet shows a blue-green color caused by methane in its air?
- A. Jupiter
- B. Uranus
- C. Saturn
- D. Mars
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Uranus
Did you know? Methane in Uranus's atmosphere absorbs red light and reflects the rest.
7.Which planet atmosphere is what gives Mars its rusty red color?
- A. iron sulfide
- B. iron oxide
- C. copper oxide
- D. magnesium oxide
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iron oxide
Did you know? Rusty iron oxide dust coats much of the Martian surface.
8.Which planet feature is the hemisphere forever turned away from Earth?
- A. the rings of Jupiter
- B. the Moon's far side
- C. Saturn's hexagon
- D. the Great Dark Spot
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the Moon's far side
Did you know? The Moon's far side stayed unseen until Luna 3's 1959 photos.
9.Which solar feature is the roughly 11-year rhythm of sunspot counts?
- A. the corona
- B. the solar cycle
- C. a prominence
- D. the heliopause
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the solar cycle
Did you know? Solar maximum brings more sunspots and flares.
10.Roughly what share of the Sun is hydrogen?
- A. About 40 percent
- B. About 95 percent
- C. About 74 percent
- D. About 10 percent
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About 74 percent
Did you know? Helium makes up most of the remaining quarter.
11.Which volcano on Mars is the tallest known volcano in the solar system?
- A. Mauna Kea
- B. Mount Fuji
- C. Mount Etna
- D. Olympus Mons
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Olympus Mons
Did you know? Olympus Mons covers an area about the size of Arizona.
12.Which dwarf planet is the largest object in the asteroid belt?
- A. Eris
- B. Makemake
- C. Pluto
- D. Ceres
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Ceres
Did you know? Ceres is the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system.
13.Which moon orbits Neptune backwards, likely a captured object?
- A. Triton
- B. Hyperion
- C. Miranda
- D. Europa
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Triton
Did you know? Triton's backwards orbit points to a capture from the Kuiper Belt.
14.Which planet is the least dense planet and would float in water?
- A. Saturn
- B. Mercury
- C. Jupiter
- D. Earth
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Saturn
Did you know? Saturn's average density is lower than that of water.
15.Which planet atmosphere makes up most of Titan's thick atmosphere?
- A. carbon dioxide
- B. nitrogen
- C. oxygen
- D. methane
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nitrogen
Did you know? Titan is the only moon with a dense atmosphere.
16.Which solar feature is the steady stream of charged particles flowing off the Sun?
- A. the solar wind
- B. the solar core
- C. a prominence
- D. helioseismology
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the solar wind
Did you know? The solar wind inflates the heliosphere for billions of kilometers.
17.How heavy is the pressure on Venus's surface, next to Earth's?
- A. About 9 times Earth's
- B. About 900 times Earth's
- C. About 90 times Earth's
- D. About the same as Earth's
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About 90 times Earth's
Did you know? Venus's crush of air would flatten an unprotected lander.
18.Which dwarf planet is more massive than Pluto and slightly smaller in diameter?
- A. Eris
- B. Pluto
- C. Makemake
- D. Ceres
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Eris
Did you know? Eris's discovery triggered the debate that reclassified Pluto.
19.Which moon is the small Saturnian moon with a giant crater?
- A. Rhea
- B. Iapetus
- C. Miranda
- D. Mimas
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Mimas
Did you know? Mimas is sometimes nicknamed the Death Star moon.
20.Which planet has almost no atmosphere to hold on to heat?
- A. Neptune
- B. Uranus
- C. Mars
- D. Mercury
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Mercury
Did you know? Mercury swings from about 430 °C in daylight to about −180 °C at night.
21.Which atmosphere is the main acid in the clouds of Venus?
- A. nitric acid
- B. carbonic acid
- C. hydrochloric acid
- D. sulfuric acid
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sulfuric acid
Did you know? Venus's sulfuric acid clouds reflect sunlight brilliantly.
22.Which solar feature is the Sun's outer atmosphere, visible in total eclipses?
- A. helioseismology
- B. a coronal mass ejection
- C. the corona
- D. sunspots
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the corona
Did you know? The corona is mysteriously hotter than the Sun's surface.
23.How strong is the Moon's surface gravity, next to Earth's?
- A. About one-third of Earth's
- B. About one-tenth of Earth's
- C. About half of Earth's
- D. About one-sixth of Earth's
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About one-sixth of Earth's
Did you know? Moonwalking astronauts bounced in one-sixth gravity.
24.Which moon is the most heavily cratered body in the solar system?
- A. Proteus
- B. Telesto
- C. Callisto
- D. Rhea
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Callisto
Did you know? Callisto's ancient surface has barely changed in billions of years.
25.Which planet is the only planet not named after a god?
- A. Jupiter
- B. Earth
- C. Uranus
- D. Neptune
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Earth
Did you know? Earth's name comes from old words for ground and soil.
26.Which solar feature is a disturbance of Earth's magnetic field by solar activity?
- A. a geomagnetic storm
- B. the heliopause
- C. a solar flare
- D. helioseismology
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a geomagnetic storm
Did you know? Severe geomagnetic storms can disturb power grids.
27.Which planet has the strongest planetary magnetic field?
- A. Earth's
- B. Mercury's
- C. Jupiter's
- D. Saturn's
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Jupiter's
Did you know? Jupiter's magnetic field is some 20,000 times Earth's strength.
28.Which moon is Saturn's second-largest moon?
- A. Nereid
- B. Tethys
- C. Amalthea
- D. Rhea
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Rhea
Did you know? Rhea is a heavily cratered ball of ice and rock.
29.Which planet has the shortest day of any planet, spinning in about ten hours?
- A. Jupiter
- B. Saturn
- C. Uranus
- D. Venus
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Jupiter
Did you know? Jupiter's rapid spin helps stretch its clouds into colorful bands.
30.Which solar feature are cooler dark patches that come and go on the Sun?
- A. sunspots
- B. a prominence
- C. a geomagnetic storm
- D. helioseismology
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sunspots
Did you know? Sunspots are cooler because strong magnetic fields block heat flow.
31.Which two moons are larger than the planet Mercury?
- A. Triton and Charon
- B. Titan and Europa
- C. Titan and Ganymede
- D. Callisto and Io
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Titan and Ganymede
Did you know? Both giants still weigh less than Mercury.
32.Which moon is the smaller and outer of Mars's two moons?
- A. Umbriel
- B. Pan
- C. Deimos
- D. Mimas
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Deimos
Did you know? Both Martian moons may be captured asteroids.
33.Which planet rotates backwards compared with almost every other planet?
- A. Uranus
- B. Mercury
- C. Venus
- D. Neptune
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Venus
Did you know? Venus spins the opposite way, so its Sun rises in the west.
34.Which solar feature is a sudden release of magnetic energy on the Sun?
- A. sunspots
- B. the chromosphere
- C. a solar flare
- D. the solar cycle
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a solar flare
Did you know? Powerful flares can disturb radio communications on Earth.
35.The moons of Uranus take their names from which literature?
- A. Greek mythology
- B. The Bible
- C. Norse sagas
- D. Shakespeare and Alexander Pope
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Shakespeare and Alexander Pope
Did you know? Titania and Oberon come from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
36.Which moon hides a salty ocean beneath its smooth icy shell?
- A. Dactyl
- B. Epimetheus
- C. Ariel
- D. Europa
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Europa
Did you know? Europa's cracked ice shell hints at a global subsurface ocean.
37.Which planet hosts Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano on any planet?
- A. Jupiter
- B. Mercury
- C. Saturn
- D. Mars
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Mars
Did you know? Olympus Mons rises about three times higher than Mount Everest.
38.Which solar feature is the visible "surface" of the Sun?
- A. the photosphere
- B. the chromosphere
- C. helioseismology
- D. sunspots
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the photosphere
Did you know? The photosphere's temperature is about 5,500 °C.
39.Which planet orbits nearest in size to Earth?
- A. Mars
- B. Venus
- C. Mercury
- D. Neptune
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Venus
Did you know? Venus is only about 5 percent narrower than Earth.
40.How old is the solar system, by current consensus?
- A. About 10 billion years
- B. About 600 million years
- C. About 4.6 billion years
- D. About 13.8 billion years
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About 4.6 billion years
Did you know? Meteorites date the solar system's birth at about 4.6 billion years.

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