Space Quiz

Approximately 4.6 billion years ago a large cloud of gas and dust was disturbed by some force. (Scientists have theorized that this force was a nearby supernova.)

According to the IAU’s definition for planet, there are 8 known planets in the Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto is no longer considered a planet under the IAU definition.

There is no atmosphere in space, which means that sound has no medium or way to travel to be heard.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system and has an average surface temperature of around 450° C. Interestingly, Venus is not the closest planet to the Sun – Mercury is closer but because Mercury has no atmosphere to regulate temperature it has a very large temperature fluctuation.

While the entire suit costs a cool $12m, 70% of that cost is for the backpack and control module.

Research by Yale University scientists suggests that a rocky planet called 55 Cancri e — which has a radius twice Earth’s, and a mass eight times greater – may have a surface made up of graphite and diamond.

Astronomers have found a massive water vapor cloud which holds 140 trillion times the mass of water in the Earth’s oceans somewhere around 10 billion light years away – making it the largest discovery of water ever found.

Made of three quarters hydrogen and helium for most of its remaining mass, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system with a mass of around 330,000 times that of Earth.

At 4.5 billion years old, the Sun has burned off around half of its hydrogen stores and has enough left to continue burning hydrogen for another 5 billion years.