Test Your Knowledge Of Outer Space With Our Solar System Quiz
Written by Vasilii Kulev
Last updated · 7 min play time
There are many other planets, dwarf planets, comets, meteors, asteroids, and a variety of other celestial bodies in our Solar System besides our home planet, Earth. This Solar System quiz will test your knowledge of our planetary neighbors.
Humanity's quest for knowledge never ends. The motivation and desire to explore space and our solar system is perhaps the biggest proof of that. Ever since ancient times, we've always wanted to know what lies beyond our vision.
After all, space exploration helps us solve mysteries and get a better understanding of the universe we live in.
There are several other planets, dwarf planets, comets, meteors, asteroids, and a variety of other celestial bodies in our Solar System besides our home planet, Earth. This Solar System quiz will test your knowledge of our planetary neighbors.
Quiz written by
Vasilii KulevVasilii Kulev is a digital marketing specialist during business hours and a trivia writer in his spare time. His areas of interest range from cars and music to science, history, and food. Whenever he's not busy writing quizzes, you can catch him at the local used records store or the newest craft beer bar. He also wrote this entire bio himself in third person.
Solar System Quiz Questions
20 Questions · 225 Plays · No comments
Question 1
Also a delicious candy bar, what's the name of the galaxy that includes our Solar System?
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ATriangulum Galaxy
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BAndromeda
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CMessier 81
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DMilky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System and the term refers to the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy strip of light seen in the night sky produced by stars that are too small to be identified individually with the human eye. Until the early 1920s, the majority of astronomers believed that the Milky Way contained all of the existing stars.
Question 2
Saturn is known to have at least 82 moons, which which one of the following being the largest?
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ATitan
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BEnceladus
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CMimas
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DTethys
Titan
Titan is Saturn's biggest moon and the Solar System's second-largest natural satellite. At the same time, it's the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and the only one to contain stable bodies. Titan is often referred to be a planet-like moon since it's 50% bigger in diameter and 80% more massive than Earth's moon.
Question 3
Name the frozen, small entity in the Solar System that heats and starts to emit gases as it approaches the Sun.
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AComet
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BAsteroid
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CMeteor
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DMeteorites
Comet
Comets are solar-orbiting snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust. They are the size of a small town when frozen. However, when a comet's orbit gets close to the Sun, it warms up and ejects dust and gases into a massive blazing head the size of most planets. Astronomers believe there are billions of comets circling our Sun.
Question 4
What are the radiation belts that originate from the solar wind called?
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AVan Allen radiation belts
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BBirkeland radiation belts
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CChristofilos radiation belts
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DMedi radiation belts
Van Allen radiation belts
The Van Allen belts are located in the Earth's magnetic fields' inner area. They serve as a trap for highly energetic electrons and protons. Satellites, for example, are put at risk by the belts and need sufficient shielding for their delicate components if they spend considerable time in that zone. The belts were first detected by James Van Allen, hence their name.
Question 5
Without any moons, which planet is the hottest in the Solar System?
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AMercury
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BJupiter
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CVenus
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DSaturn
Venus
While Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, Venus has a higher surface temperature than any other planet in the Solar System, at 737K. At the same time, Venus has no moons, a characteristic shared only by Mercury.
Question 6
Which of the following spacecrafts is the only one that visited the ice giant planets, Uranus and Neptune?
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ASpace Shuttle Discovery
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BGalileo
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CRosetta
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DVoyager 2
Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft that has ever visited Neptune and Uranus. It accomplished its main goal of exploring the Uranian system in 1986 and the Neptunian system in 1989. The Voyager 2 has been operating for more than 44 years and is currently 11.8 billion miles away from Earth.
Question 7
What dwarf planet is the biggest asteroid belt object between Mars and Jupiter, and was previously thought to be an asteroid?
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AEris
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BHaumea
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CMakemake
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DCeres
Ceres
Ceres was discovered in 1801 and was originally classified as a planet. However, in the 1850s, it was downgraded to an asteroid after the discovery of over 20 additional objects with similar trajectories. In 2006, it was finally classified as a dwarf planet due to its diameter of 580 miles, making it the only asteroid big enough to be rounded by its own gravity.
Question 8
Although the Sun is the biggest object in the Solar System, it's just a medium-sized star in the Milky Way galaxy. What is the Sun classified as?
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ARed Giant
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BBlue Giant
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CYellow Dwarf
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DRed Dwarf
Yellow Dwarf
The Sun is categorized as a G-type main-sequence star, or as a yellow dwarf. Although the Sun, like other G-type stars, is white, it looks yellow when observing it from Earth because of our atmosphere.
Question 9
Filled with the solar magnetic field, what is the area around the Sun and the Solar System called?
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AHeliopause
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BHeliosphere
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CInsterstellar Medium
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DMagnetosphere
Heliosphere
The heliosphere is composed of the magnetosphere, astrosphere, and the Sun's outermost atmosphere layer. It manifests as a huge, bubble-like area of space.
Question 10
When it comes to space, scientists use a variety of measures. But what measure is used when calculating the distance from Earth to the Sun?
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AMeters
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BMiles
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CAstronomical Units
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DLight-years
Astronomical Units
The astronomical unit is equal to around 150 million kilometers, or 93 million miles. It's used to measure the distance from Earth to the Sun. However, the actual distance changes by approximately 3% as Earth circles the Sun once a year.
Question 11
To reach our sight, photons released from the Sun's surface must travel through the vacuum of space. How long does that take?
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A17 minutes and 27 seconds
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B8 minutes and 20 seconds
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C4 minutes and 59 seconds
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D25 minutes and 5 seconds
8 minutes and 20 seconds
Sunlight travels from the Sun's surface to the Earth in about 8.3 minutes. On the other hand, a photon traveling from the Sun's core to its surface would take between 10,000 and 170,000 years if it encountered a charged particle.
Question 12
Approximately where is the asteroid belt, the torus-shaped area in the Solar System, located?
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ABetween the orbits of Mercury and Venus
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BBetween the orbits of Earth and Mars
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CBetween the orbits of Jupiter and Mars
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DBetween the orbits of Saturn and Uranus
Between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars
The asteroid belt area in the Solar System is located approximately halfway between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It includes a large number of solid, irregularly shaped entities ranging in size from meteors to asteroids or minor planets. It's considered the main asteroid belt, in order to distinguish it from other asteroid populations found throughout the Solar System.
Question 13
Our Solar System formed when a massive interstellar molecular cloud collapsed due to gravity. How many years ago did this happen?
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A23 billion
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B9 billion
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C500 million
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D4.5 billion
4.5 billion
Around 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system originated from a thick cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The cloud disintegrated as a result of the shockwave produced by a near supernova. When this dust collided, a solar nebula was formed. Finally, the substance exerted enough pressure on hydrogen atoms that they started to fuse into helium, releasing an enormous quantity of energy. That's how our Sun was born!
Question 14
What planet in the Solar System is not visible to the naked eye and was discovered mathematically rather than empirically?
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AUranus
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BNeptune
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CSaturn
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DMars
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and furthest planet in our Solar System. It's dark, frigid, and blasted by supersonic winds. Since its discovery in 1846, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit in 2011. Because of Neptune's distance from the Sun, the high noon on the great blue planet would appear to us like a gloomy twilight.
Question 15
What terrestrial planet is smaller than the Solar System's two biggest natural satellites, Ganymede and Titan?
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AEarth
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BMars
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CPluto
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DMercury
Mercury
Mercury, named after the Roman deity of trade, is the Solar System's smallest planet. At the same time, it's also the fastest, moving at roughly 29 miles per second. A planet's speed increases as it gets closer to the sun, which is why Mercury has the shortest year of all the planets, only 88 days.
Question 16
One of the first things many kids learn about our solar system, how many major celestial bodies orbit our Sun directly?
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ASix
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BSeven
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CNine
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DEight
Eight
The Solar System is composed of eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are classified as terrestrial planets, while Jupiter and Saturn are classified as gas giants. Finally, Uranus and Neptune are classified as ice giants.
Question 17
Which planet orbits the Sun once every 84 years, passing through each of the zodiac's twelve constellations in an average of seven years?
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AMercury
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BJupiter
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CNeptune
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DUranus
Uranus
Named after the Greek god of the sky, Uranus orbits the Sun once every 84 years. Since its discovery in 1781, the planet will have completed its third full circle around the Sun in 2033.
Question 18
What's the name of the hypothetical ninth planet in the Solar System, which according to two scientists circles the Sun every 15,000 years?
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A90482 Orcus
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BPluto
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CPlanet Z
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DPlanet Nine
Planet Nine
Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet located in the Solar System's outer area. Its gravitational effects may account for the improbable grouping of orbits for a collection of extreme trans-Neptunian objects, which are things beyond Neptune that orbit the Sun. These alignments imply that an unknown planet may be guiding the orbits of the Solar System's most distant known objects.
Question 19
A dwarf planet is a spherical celestial entity orbiting the Sun that is comparable to a planet but is not big enough to clear its orbital area or other celestial bodies. How many of these planets are there in the Solar System?
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AFive
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BSix
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COne
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DTwo
Five
The International Astronomical Union officially acknowledges five dwarf planets in the Solar System: Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Makemake, and Haumea. Several dozen more are being evaluated for the category, and astronomers believe that the Solar System may include hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of dwarf planets.
Question 20
As kids, we learn that the Earth orbits the sun in an almost round trajectory. At what speed does Earth cover this route?
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A200 kilometers per second
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B5 kilometers per second
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C30 kilometers per second
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D90 kilometers per second
30 kilometers per second
Earth orbits at an average speed of 29.78 kilometers per second (107,208 kilometers per hour; 66,616 miles per hour), which is fast enough to traverse the planet's diameter in seven minutes and the distance to the Moon in four hours.
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