Q 01/05

Which space shuttle carried nearly 2,500 young moon jellyfish into orbit in 1991 to study weightlessness?

A) Discovery

B) Atlantis

C) Endeavour

D) Columbia

Answer · why

D) Columbia

Columbia carried the jellies as the lone jellyfish experiment on a nine-day life-sciences mission, flying alongside studies of humans and rodents.

Q 02/05

Which country's Oskarshamn nuclear plant shut a reactor in 2013 after moon jellyfish clogged its cooling pipes?

A) Finland

B) Sweden

C) Norway

D) Denmark

Answer · why

B) Sweden

Sweden's plant, home to one of the world's largest reactors, had tons of the jellies cleared from its pipes before it could restart.

Q 03/05

What are the four horseshoe shapes visible through the top of a moon jellyfish's see-through bell?

A) Reproductive organs

B) Venom glands

C) Light-sensing eyespots

D) Swimming muscles

Answer · why

A) Reproductive organs

Reproductive organs, known as gonads, form the four horseshoes, and they are the mark by which a moon jelly is most readily recognized.

Q 04/05

Roughly how much of a moon jellyfish's soft, translucent body is made up of nothing but water?

A) About 35%

B) About 55%

C) About 75%

D) About 95%

Answer · why

D) About 95%

About 95% is water, leaving only a sliver of solid matter, which is why a jelly lifted out of the sea slumps into a shapeless blob.

Q 05/05

Which of these body parts does a moon jellyfish get through life without?

A) Mouth

B) Stomach

C) Brain

D) Muscles

Answer · why

C) Brain

Brain, heart and eyes are all missing, yet a simple net of nerves lets a moon jelly smell, taste and tell light from dark.