Q 01/05

At its peak, a single supernova can briefly give off as much light as what?

A) A hundred Suns

B) A red giant star

C) A whole galaxy

D) A star cluster

Answer · why

C) A whole galaxy

A whole galaxy: for a few weeks one exploding star can match the light of the billions of stars around it, before fading over the following months.

Q 02/05

When a massive star's core collapses in a supernova, what can it leave behind?

A) White dwarf or brown dwarf

B) Quasar or blazar

C) Red giant or carbon star

D) Neutron star or black hole

Answer · why

D) Neutron star or black hole

Neutron star or black hole: which one forms depends on how much mass the collapsing core holds, and some blasts leave nothing but a spreading cloud of...

Q 03/05

Supernovae should light up the Milky Way about twice a century, so why has none been seen for 400 years?

A) Sunlight masks them

B) They emit only X-rays

C) Dust hides them

D) They fade within seconds

Answer · why

C) Dust hides them

Dust hides them: most of the Milky Way's stars sit behind thick clouds in the galaxy's disc, which block visible light, so blasts on the far side neve...

Q 04/05

The last supernova seen inside the Milky Way, in 1604, bears the name of which astronomer?

A) Galileo Galilei

B) Johannes Kepler

C) Christiaan Huygens

D) Giovanni Cassini

Answer · why

B) Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler: he was one of many who watched the blast of 1604, and his detailed account attached his name to it; none has been seen in our galaxy ...

Q 05/05

In which satellite galaxy of the Milky Way did SN 1987A explode?

A) The Large Magellanic Cloud

B) The Sagittarius Dwarf

C) The Small Magellanic Cloud

D) The Andromeda Galaxy

Answer · why

A) The Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud: the 1987 blast there was the nearest supernova in centuries, so astronomers have been able to watch a star's death and its...