Famous Astronomers Quiz

1. 1. Who was the Greek mathematician, astronomer, and geographer who used the sun to measure the size of the round Earth?

• A. Claudius Ptolemy

• B. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi

• C. Eratosthenes of Cyrene

• D. Nicolaus Copernicus

2. 2. Which astronomer proposed a model of the solar system in which the sun, stars, and other planets revolved around Earth, known as the Ptolemaic system?

• A. Johannes Kepler

• B. Galileo Galilei

• C. Claudius Ptolemy

• D. Isaac Newton

3. 3. Who made the first known observation of a group of stars outside of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy?

• A. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi

• B. Eratosthenes of Cyrene

• C. Nicolaus Copernicus

• D. Johannes Kepler

4. 4. Which astronomer proposed a model of the solar system with the Earth revolving around the sun?

• A. Isaac Newton

• B. Nicolaus Copernicus

• C. Johannes Kepler

• D. Galileo Galilei

5. 5. Who determined that planets traveled around the sun not in circles, but in ellipses, and calculated three laws involving the motions of planets?

• A. Galileo Galilei

• B. Nicolaus Copernicus

• C. Johannes Kepler

• D. Claudius Ptolemy

6. 6. Which astronomer is often credited with the creation of the optical telescope and discovered the four primary moons of Jupiter?

• A. Giovanni Cassini

• B. Christiaan Huygens

• C. Galileo Galilei

• D. Isaac Newton

7. 7. Who proposed the earliest theory about the nature of light and made the first observations of Saturn's rings and its largest moon, Titan?

• A. Johannes Kepler

• B. Christiaan Huygens

• C. Isaac Newton

• D. Claudius Ptolemy

8. 8. Which astronomer is most famous for his work on forces, specifically gravity, and calculated three laws describing the motion of forces between objects?

• A. Isaac Newton

• B. Charles Messier

• C. Edmond Halley

• D. William Herschel

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9. 9. Who discovered a relationship between the period of a star's brightness cycle to its absolute magnitude, making it possible to calculate their distance from Earth?

• A. Henrietta Swann Leavitt

• B. Annie Jump Cannon

• C. William and Caroline Herschel

• D. Charles Messier

10. 10. Who cataloged over 2,500 deep sky objects and discovered Uranus and its two brightest moons, as well as two of Saturn's moons?

• A. Charles Messier

• B. William and Caroline Herschel

• C. Henrietta Swann Leavitt

• D. Isaac Newton