Solar System Quiz

The planet Mercury is named after:

• the ancient Roman god of commerce

• the ancient Greek god of agriculture

• in honor of the astronomer who discovered it

• there are no correct answers

• the ancient Roman god of fire

Mercury refers to:

• to the planets of the earth group

• to the gas giants

• to the asteroid belt

• to the dwarf planets

• to the planet soft he solar group

The period of Mercury's complete revolution around the Sun is:

• 88 Earth's days

• 57 Earth's days

• 156 Earth's days

• 975 Earth's days

• 95 Earth's days

The average distance of the Earth from the Sun is called

• the astronomical unit

• the parsec.

• the light year

• the ecliptic year

• synodic year

Where are most of the stars?

• In the Milky Way

• Near Vega

• Near Sirius

• Vega

• Sirius

The name of the NASA space craft launched on November 3, 1973 to study Mercury:

• Mariner-10

• Voyager 1

• Voyager 2

• New horizons

• there are no correct answers

This maneuver, inspired by the orbital mechanics calculations of the Italian scientist….

• Giuseppe Colombo

• Galileo Galilei

• N. Copernicus

• Einstein

• Archimedes

A comet is ….

• a celestial body that looks like a hazy glowing spot and a light strip in the shape of a tail.

• the only ones after the chain of discoveries of the last four decades

• there are five planetary rings systems that we know about so far in our solar system

• swarms of objects orbiting a central planet with vertical motions

• eventually crashed through our atmosphere and burned up

According to one hypothesis, Mercury in the past was:

• a satellite of Venus

• a satellite of Mars

• a satellite of Pluto

• a wandering planet in the solar system

• a satellite of Earth

What does the Milky Way look like from the constellation Cygnus to the constellation Centauri?

• Bifurcated

• Flat

• Convex

• Spiral

• Galactic diagonal