Q 01/05

Most known asteroids orbit in the main belt between which two planets?

A) Mars and Jupiter

B) Earth and Mars

C) Jupiter and Saturn

D) Venus and Earth

Answer · why

A) Mars and Jupiter

The belt lies roughly 2 to 4 astronomical units from the Sun.

Q 02/05

Which astronomer coined the word asteroid, from Greek for 'star-like'?

A) Johann Bode

B) William Herschel

C) Giuseppe Piazzi

D) Heinrich Olbers

Answer · why

B) William Herschel

Early asteroids showed no disc in telescopes, so they looked like stars that moved.

Q 03/05

What was the first asteroid to be discovered, on 1 January 1801?

A) Pallas

B) Juno

C) Ceres

D) Vesta

Answer · why

C) Ceres

It was announced as a new planet and is now classed as the belt's only dwarf planet.

Q 04/05

Giuseppe Piazzi, who found the first asteroid, was a priest of which religious order?

A) Jesuit

B) Benedictine

C) Franciscan

D) Theatine

Answer · why

D) Theatine

He was also a mathematician and ran the observatory at Palermo.

Q 05/05

Piazzi's original two-part name for his discovery honoured the goddess of agriculture and whom?

A) King Ferdinand III of Sicily

B) Emperor Ferdinand of Austria

C) His father Ferdinando

D) Ferdinand Magellan

Answer · why

A) King Ferdinand III of Sicily

The goddess's oldest temple stood in Sicily, which made her a doubly local choice.