Q 01/05

In 2008 NASA beamed which Beatles song toward Polaris to mark the agency's 50th anniversary?

A) Across the Universe

B) Here Comes the Sun

C) Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

D) Good Day Sunshine

Answer · why

A) Across the Universe

Across the Universe. NASA sent it from a giant dish near Madrid on the 40th anniversary of the song's recording, and Paul McCartney's message to the a...

Q 02/05

What kind of star is Polaris Aa, the main component of the system?

A) Red dwarf

B) White dwarf

C) Blue supergiant

D) Yellow supergiant

Answer · why

D) Yellow supergiant

Yellow supergiant. Polaris Aa has used up the hydrogen in its core and swollen to dozens of times the Sun's width, an unstable stage in which the whol...

Q 03/05

Like Polaris, which nearby star is really a triple system?

A) Barnard's Star

B) Alpha Centauri

C) Altair

D) Epsilon Eridani

Answer · why

B) Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri. To the eye it is one point of light as well, but a telescope splits it in two, and its third member, Proxima, the nearest star to the ...

Q 04/05

Which astronomer discovered Polaris B, the North Star's faint outer companion, around 1780?

A) Edmond Halley

B) Charles Messier

C) Caroline Herschel

D) William Herschel

Answer · why

D) William Herschel

William Herschel. He had come to England to work as a musician and built his own telescopes as a hobby; within two years of spotting Polaris B, that h...

Q 05/05

Which space telescope gave astronomers their first direct view of all three stars in the Polaris system?

A) Spitzer

B) Chandra

C) Hubble

D) Kepler

Answer · why

C) Hubble

Hubble. Astronomers had long known from the star's motion that an unseen companion hugged Polaris, but the pair sit so close together that no telescop...