Virgo Trivia
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46 free Virgo trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Virgo trivia quiz covers the sixth sign of the zodiac from every side. The astrology questions ask about the maiden's dates, Mercury rulership, earth element, negative polarity, opposite sign and Hindu equivalent. The astronomy questions turn to the biggest constellation in the zodiac: Spica the ear of grain, the arc-to-Arcturus trick for finding it, the Bowl of Virgo, Vindemiatrix, the equinox point that now sits inside its borders, the thousand-galaxy Virgo Cluster, M87 and the first photograph of a black hole, the Sombrero Galaxy, the first quasar and the first exoplanets. The mythology is rich: Astraea the star-maiden of justice who abandoned Earth, Demeter and Persephone and the pomegranate seeds, the Eleusinian Mysteries, Erigone and her faithful dog, Parthenos and the broken wine jar, the Babylonian Furrow and Frond of Erua, the Egyptian wheat harvest and the medieval Virgin Mary. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question, so the quiz suits a Virgo birthday, a pub quiz or an astronomy club night. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Zodiac, Astrology and Planets quizzes next.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Virgo's star Porrima is named after a goddess of prophecy from which mythology?
Roman
Roman: Porrima was a goddess of prophecy, and her Latin name stands out because most star names are Arabic; a telescope splits the star into two near-twin suns.
Q 02Virgo is the zodiac's sixth sign when counting from which sign?
Aries
Aries comes first because its sign begins at the March equinox, the point the signs are counted from; counting on from there makes Virgo sixth, the last sign of the zodiac's first half.
Q 03Which planet rules Virgo in traditional astrology?
Mercury
Mercury also rules Gemini, but astrologers read it differently in each: Gemini gets the planet's talk and expression, while Virgo gets its analysis and eye for fine detail.
Q 04Virgo belongs to which classical element?
Earth
Earth: the four elements repeat in a fixed order around the zodiac, fire, earth, air, then water, so every fourth sign shares one, and Virgo lands on earth's second turn.
Q 05Which sign sits directly opposite Virgo on the zodiac wheel?
Pisces
Pisces sits 180 degrees from Virgo, so their seasons fall six months apart; astrologers treat the pair as two ends of one axis, Virgo's practical help against Pisces's spiritual guidance.
Q 06Under the tropical zodiac the Sun is in Virgo between roughly which dates?
August 24 to September 23
August 24 to September 23 is one listing of the sign's dates; the moment the Sun enters the sign shifts slightly from year to year, and many horoscopes print August 23 to September 22 instead.
Q 07Astrologers class Virgo, Gemini and Sagittarius together as which kind of sign?
Mutable
Mutable signs each close out a season, Virgo at the end of the northern summer, and astrologers say that in-between timing is what makes them adaptable and changeable.
Q 08In traditional zodiacal body lore, which part of the body does Virgo rule?
The intestines
The intestines: medieval doctors kept a 'zodiac man' chart of these pairings and would not bleed or cut a part of the body while the Moon was passing through its sign.
Q 09Which Sanskrit name, meaning 'maiden', does Virgo carry in Hindu astrology?
Kanya
Kanya is also a month of the Indian solar calendar, from mid-September to mid-October, weeks behind the Western sign because Hindu astrology follows the stars themselves.
Q 10Virgo is the largest constellation of the zodiac and the second-largest in the whole sky after which one?
Hydra
Hydra, the water snake, edges out Virgo by fewer than ten square degrees of sky, yet it is so faint that only one of its stars, Alphard, is at all bright.
Q 11For most of the zodiac sign Virgo's dates, the Sun really sits in front of which constellation's stars?
Leo
Leo: the signs were pinned to the seasons long ago and the sky has since drifted by about one sign, so the Sun does not reach the constellation Virgo until around September 16.
Q 12Which of these key points on the ecliptic lies within the boundaries of Virgo?
The autumn equinox point
The autumn equinox point, where the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south each September, has sat inside Virgo for more than two thousand years; precession moves it only one degree per 72 years, so it stays for centuries yet.
Q 13What does the name of Virgo's brightest star mean in Latin?
Ear of grain
Q 21Which rock band's crest includes two fairies to stand for its Virgo frontman's star sign?
Queen
Queen's crest was drawn by the singer himself, an art-school graduate, who gave every member his sign: two lions, a crab, and a pair of fairies for his own Virgo.
Q 22By what other name is the Virgo Supercluster known?
The Local Supercluster
The Local Supercluster is the name Gérard de Vaucouleurs settled on in 1958, after first calling our home collection of clusters the 'Local Supergalaxy'.
Q 23Which galaxy in Virgo hosted the first-ever direct image of a black hole, released in April 2019?
Messier 87
The star's name is Latin for 'ear of grain', the spike of grain the maiden holds in classical star maps; Ptolemy's Greek name for the star, Stachys, means the same thing.
Q 14Roughly how far away is the Virgo Cluster, far beyond Andromeda?
About 54 million light-years
About 54 million light-years: close enough that the cluster's brightest members show up in a small telescope.
Q 15Stargazers follow the Big Dipper's handle in an 'arc to Arcturus', then on to which star, Virgo's brightest?
Spica
Spica lies about 250 light-years away and is really two stars whirling around each other every four days, so close that gravity pulls each of them into an egg shape.
Q 16Which ancient astronomer is thought to have discovered precession using positions of Virgo's brightest star?
Hipparchus
Hipparchus compared his position for the star with one Timocharis had recorded about 150 years earlier, found it had drifted some two degrees, and concluded that the whole sky was slowly shifting.
Q 17Arcturus, Virgo's brightest star and one of the Lion's bright stars together form which seasonal asterism?
The Spring Triangle
The Spring Triangle usually takes Regulus as the Lion's corner, though some stargazers swap in dimmer Denebola, which makes the triangle more nearly equal-sided.
Q 18Which planet last passed in front of Virgo's brightest star in 1783, with the next pass due in 2197?
Venus
Venus covered the star on 10 November 1783 and is not due back until September 2197; because the star lies so near the Sun's path, the Moon hides it far more often.
Q 19Five of Virgo's brighter stars trace a curved asterism known as what?
The Bowl of Virgo
The Bowl of Virgo is a half-ring of five stars; Chinese astronomers made the same stars part of the walls of a celestial palace court, with the faint stars inside cast as ministers.
Q 20Which star in Virgo once marked the start of the grape harvest by rising at dawn?
Vindemiatrix
Vindemiatrix means 'grape-gatherer' in Latin; Ovid says the star is Ampelus, a youth loved by Bacchus who fell to his death picking grapes and was lifted into the sky.
Messier 87's black hole was caught by the Event Horizon Telescope, eight radio observatories linked across the globe to act as a single dish as wide as our planet.
Q 24Roughly how massive is the central black hole imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019?
About 6.5 billion suns
About 6.5 billion suns, over a thousand times the mass of the Milky Way's own central black hole; that sheer size is why its shadow could be pictured from another galaxy.
Q 25A giant Virgo galaxy is ringed by over 10,000 of which objects, against the Milky Way's 150 to 200?
Globular clusters
Globular clusters are dense swarms of ancient stars, and the galaxy is thought to have pulled many of its thousands away from smaller galaxies that strayed too close.
Q 26Which nickname belongs to M104, a bright galaxy in Virgo that we see almost edge-on?
The Sombrero Galaxy
The Sombrero Galaxy joined the Messier list late: Messier only noted it by hand in his own copy in 1781, and it became M104 in 1921, when Camille Flammarion found the note.
Q 27M104's famous silhouette comes from a large central bulge and what other feature?
A prominent dust lane
A prominent dust lane rings the galaxy's disc; William Herschel noted the 'dark stratum' in 1784, and infrared studies show it is where the galaxy still makes new stars.
Q 28Virgo contains 3C 273, notable as the first-ever identified example of what?
A quasar
A quasar: 3C 273 looked like a faint nearby star until Maarten Schmidt read its spectrum in 1963 and realised it lay far beyond the Milky Way, blazing with extraordinary power.
Q 29Roughly how far away is 3C 273, visible in backyard telescopes?
2.4 billion light-years
About 2.4 billion light-years by the usual estimate, and it is so luminous that from some 30 light-years away it would shine as brightly in our sky as the Sun.
Q 30A planet of Chi Virginis weighs at least 11 Jupiters, nearly enough to count as what?
Brown dwarf
Brown dwarf: above about 13 Jupiter masses an object can fuse deuterium, so astronomers class it as a 'failed star' and no longer a planet, and this one's minimum mass falls just short.