Astronomy General Knowledge Quiz #2

Can you answer these questions about star-gazing?
Quiz by Kestrana
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Last updated: May 6, 2015
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First submittedMay 6, 2015
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Average score50.0%
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Hint
Answer
What is the name of the brightest star in the night sky?
Sirius
What was the first man-made object to orbit the Earth?
Sputnik
What planet in the solar system is not named after a Roman or Greek god?
Earth
When the Sun's magnetic field is distorted, what phenomena is created?
Sunspots
Which planet in our solar system has the longest day?
Venus
Which modern constellation is the largest?
Hydra
I move at 299 million meters a second. What am I?
The Speed of Light
What Greco-Egyptian astronomer was the authority on stars in the Middle Ages?
Ptolemy
In 1066, what object appeared in the sky, signalling bad luck to King Harold of England?
Halley's Comet
What is the name of Saturn's largest moon?
Titan
What is the latin name for the Sun?
Sol
What astronomer was famously tried for heresy by the Catholic Church?
Galileo Galilei
What is a colloquial name for the star Polaris?
The North Star
Which other galaxy is closest to the Milky Way?
Andromeda
What is the name of a star in the constellation Orion, or a kids' TV show and movie?
Betelgeuse
What observational satellite crashed into Mercury in April 2015 after studying it for 4 years?
Messenger
What part of the Moon did Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land in?
Sea of Tranquility
How many officially recognized constellations are there?
88
What is the name of the most prominent crater on the Moon?
Tycho
What word means to orbit in the opposite direction of the spin of the object you're orbiting?
Retrograde
3 Comments
+3
Level 24
Jan 4, 2016
Umm.... the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is the Canis Minor Dwarf Galaxy. The next closest is SagDEG (Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy). Only when NOT including dwarf galaxies is Andromeda the closest.
+3
Level 82
May 26, 2016
I second this. There are a number of galaxies closer than Andromeda - the two Magellanic Clouds, as well as those mentioned above. If you change the answer the dispute about the status of the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy will come up, so perhaps change the question to specify 'non-dwarf' galaxy.
+3
Level 70
Jul 16, 2019
Ptolemy was much earlier than the Middle Ages, no?!