Q 01/05

The few thousand stars visible to the naked eye all lie within which galaxy?

A) The Milky Way

B) The Andromeda Galaxy

C) The Sombrero Galaxy

D) The Pinwheel Galaxy

Answer · why

A) The Milky Way

The Milky Way. Stars in other galaxies are far too distant to pick out one by one, so even on the darkest night the eye catches only a few thousand of...

Q 02/05

The Big Bang made hydrogen, helium and a trace of which element, leaving stars to forge nearly all the rest?

A) Carbon

B) Lithium

C) Neon

D) Nitrogen

Answer · why

B) Lithium

Lithium. The Big Bang's burst of fusion was over within minutes as the universe cooled, long enough to build only the very lightest nuclei, so heavier...

Q 03/05

Which English word for a catastrophe comes from the Italian for "ill-starred"?

A) Disaster

B) Calamity

C) Fiasco

D) Tragedy

Answer · why

A) Disaster

Disaster. It joins dis- to astro, "star", because astrologers once blamed a sudden misfortune on an unfavourable position of the planets.

Q 04/05

Ancient Egyptians watched for the dawn return of which star because it heralded the Nile's annual flood?

A) Canopus

B) Sirius

C) Vega

D) Arcturus

Answer · why

B) Sirius

Sirius. Its first dawn appearance came like clockwork just before the flood each summer, so Egyptians worshipped the star as Sopdet, the goddess who b...

Q 05/05

Which astronomers were the first to record a supernova, in 185 AD?

A) Mayan

B) Chinese

C) Arab

D) Greek

Answer · why

B) Chinese

Chinese. Their astronomers logged a "guest star" that lingered for about eight months, and four space telescopes have since matched it to RCW 86, a gl...