Q 01/05

The zone around a star where a planet could hold liquid water is nicknamed after which fairy-tale character?

A) Cinderella

B) Goldilocks

C) Rapunzel

D) Snow White

Answer · why

B) Goldilocks

Goldilocks lends the zone its nickname because conditions there are 'just right', and astronomers use it to pick out exoplanets that might host life.

Q 02/05

How long does sunlight take to travel from the Sun to Earth?

A) About 8 seconds

B) About 8 minutes

C) About 8 hours

D) About 8 days

Answer · why

B) About 8 minutes

About 8 minutes for the trip here, yet that energy first spent many thousands of years working its way out from the Sun's core.

Q 03/05

Which mission carried the first astronauts around the Moon, photographing Earthrise on Christmas Eve 1968?

A) Apollo 7

B) Apollo 8

C) Apollo 12

D) Apollo 15

Answer · why

B) Apollo 8

Apollo 8 was meant to test the lunar module in Earth orbit, but the module ran late, so NASA sent the crew around the Moon instead.

Q 04/05

Who was the first human to walk on the Moon?

A) Neil Armstrong

B) Buzz Aldrin

C) Michael Collins

D) John Glenn

Answer · why

A) Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong said he meant 'one small step for a man', but analysts have disagreed over whether he spoke the 'a' and it was lost in transmission.

Q 05/05

Which NASA space telescope was launched in 1990?

A) Hubble Space Telescope

B) James Webb Space Telescope

C) Kepler Space Telescope

D) Spitzer Space Telescope

Answer · why

A) Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope's main mirror had a tiny flaw, so its first images were fuzzy until astronauts fitted corrective optics in 1993.