Q 01/05

Where in the Solar System does the dwarf planet Haumea orbit?

A) In the asteroid belt

B) Between Saturn and Uranus

C) In the Kuiper belt

D) In the Oort cloud

Answer · why

C) In the Kuiper belt

In the Kuiper belt: Haumea circles about 43 times farther from the Sun than Earth does, which keeps its surface below minus 220 degrees Celsius, far t...

Q 02/05

Haumea is named after a goddess from the mythology of which Pacific islands?

A) Hawaii

B) Tahiti

C) Tonga

D) Samoa

Answer · why

A) Hawaii

Hawaii: the team put the name forward in 2006, but approval took two years while astronomers argued over who had really found the object.

Q 03/05

The goddess Haumea presides over what?

A) Volcanoes and lava

B) The sea and its storms

C) War and conquest

D) Childbirth and fertility

Answer · why

D) Childbirth and fertility

Childbirth and fertility: in one story she stops a chief's daughter from being cut open to deliver, gives her a remedy instead, and so teaches people ...

Q 04/05

Haumea spins once about every four hours, which has distorted it into what?

A) A thin, flattened disc shape

B) An elongated, egg-like ellipsoid shape

C) A smooth, near-perfect sphere

D) A lumpy, potato-like shape

Answer · why

B) An elongated, egg-like ellipsoid shape

An elongated, egg-like ellipsoid shape: astronomers first worked it out without seeing it, from the way Haumea's brightness rises and falls as it turn...

Q 05/05

How did astronomers best measure Haumea's size and shape in 2017?

A) By bouncing radar off it

B) By watching it cross a star

C) By flying a probe past it

D) By imaging it from orbit

Answer · why

B) By watching it cross a star

By watching it cross a star: telescopes at several observatories timed how long the starlight vanished, and each timing traced one slice across Haumea...