Think you know everything about the cosmos? It’s time to test your space smarts then.
We invite you to test your brain with our space and astronomy trivia questions that will challenge your knowledge of planets, stars, galaxies, famous astronauts, and cosmic phenomena.
Whether you’re a seasoned stargazer or a curious learner, you’re sure to learn something new and exciting about the universe—even if you don’t get all the answers right.
Remember, our trivia articles are best when you have one ‘quizzer’ reading the questions aloud to others. Get ready for a fun (and hopefully educational) trivia quiz on the wonders of space!
Looking to test your knowledge on ALL things science-y? Try our science trivia mega-quiz next!
Space Trivia: Warm-Up Round
True or false: Space is completely silent.
Answer: True.
What is the study of stars, planets, and galaxies called?
Answer: Astronomy.
True or false: The sun is the biggest star in the Universe.
Answer: False. While we’re still discovering new stars, UY Scuti is probably the biggest star ever observed, more than 1700 times the size of the sun.
True or false: The moon is not a planet.
Answer: True. By the 17th century, astronomers (aided by the invention of the telescope) realized that the Moon is not a planet, but a satellite of Earth.
What is the only planet in our solar system not named after a God?
Answer: Earth.
What is the coldest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Neptune has the coldest overall average temperature and Uranus has the coldest temperature recorded.
What natural resource covers most of the Earth?
Answer: Water.
What is the name of the main scientific theory that describes how our universe was created?
Answer: The Big Bang Theory
Space Trivia: All About Planets
What is the largest planet in our solar system?
Answer: Jupiter.
Which planet has the most extensive ring system?
Answer: Saturn.
Which planet is the closest planet to the Sun, and the smallest planet in our solar system – only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon?
Answer: Mercury.
Despite its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet in our solar system— that title belongs to nearby ___, thanks to its dense atmosphere.
Answer: Venus.
On which planet did the Curiosity rover surprise NASA by discovering an Earth-like igneous rock in 2012?
Answer: Mars.
Which planet is known for its Great Red Spot?
Answer: Jupiter.
Which planet has the largest ocean?
Answer: Jupiter.
Jupiter’s four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – were first observed by the astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 using an early version of the telescope. These four moons are known today as what?
Answer: The Galilean satellites
A year on which planet of our solar system equates to 88 Earth days?
Answer: Mercury.
What is the name of Earth’s largest satellite?
Answer: The Moon.
Which planet is known as the “Evening Star” or “Morning Star”?
Answer: Venus.
Which planet has the shortest day, completing one rotation in just about 10 hours?
Answer: Jupiter.
Which planet is tilted on its side, causing extreme seasonal variations?
Answer: Uranus. Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees. This may be the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago. This unique tilt causes Uranus to have the most extreme seasons in the solar system. For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the Sun shines directly over each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a 21-year-long, dark winter.
Space Trivia: All About Stars
What is the closest star to Earth?
Answer: The Sun.
What is the name of the second closest star to Earth?
Answer: Proxima Centauri.
What process initiates the formation of a star from a molecular cloud?
Answer: Gravitational collapse. Star formation happens in interstellar molecular clouds: opaque clumps of very cold gas and dust. The process starts when some of those clumps reach a critical mass, allowing them to collapse under their own gravity.
What is the brightest star in the night sky?
Answer: Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. It’s located in the constellation Canis Major, which means “the Big Dog”. Sirius is bright because it’s a blue-white star that’s 25 times the mass of the Sun and only 8.7 light-years from Earth.
What type of star is our Sun?
Answer: A G-type main-sequence star (G dwarf or yellow dwarf).
What is a supernova?
Answer: A supernova is what happens when a star has reached the end of its life and explodes in a brilliant burst of light.
What are the small, dense remnants of a star called?
Answer: White dwarfs. A white dwarf is usually Earth-size but hundreds of thousands of times more massive. A white dwarf produces no new heat of its own, so it gradually cools over billions of years. Despite the name, white dwarfs can emit visible light that ranges from blue white to red. Scientists sometimes find that white dwarfs are surrounded by dusty disks of material, debris, and even planets – leftovers from the original star’s red giant phase.
What is the official name of the star that we know as the North Star?
Answer: Polaris or Pole Star. It’s located in the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper, and is the brightest star in the constellation.
What is the term for a star that suddenly increases in brightness and then fades?
Answer: A nova.
What is the name of the star cluster that is often referred to as the “Seven Sisters”? (Bonus points if you can name all the stars!)
Answer: The Pleiades. They are located in the constellation Taurus and are about 410 light-years from Earth. Each of the seven prominent stars has its own name: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete. Two further bright stars in the cluster are named after Atlas and Pleione.
What star, known for its dimming events, puzzled scientists and was nicknamed the “alien megastructure” star?
Answer: Tabby’s Star (KIC 8462852).
What star, located in the constellation Orion, experienced significant dimming in 2019-2020, causing speculation about its potential to go supernova?
Answer: Betelgeuse.
Space Trivia: All About Galaxies and the Universe
Let’s start out easy. What is the galaxy that contains our Solar System?
Answer: The Milky Way.
What is the name of the galaxy cluster that includes the Milky Way?
Answer: The Local Group.
The Milky Way is the second-largest galaxy in our cluster (or galactic neighborhood). Which galaxy in the Local Group is larger than the Milky Way?
Answer: The Andromeda Galaxy.
What is the term for a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center, emitting large amounts of energy?
Answer: An active galactic nucleus (AGN).
What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
Answer: A barred spiral galaxy. It’s called a spiral galaxy because if you could view it from the top or bottom, it would look like a spinning pinwheel.
What is the name of the galaxy cluster that is the largest known in the observable universe?
Answer: The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall.
What is the term for the rapid expansion of the universe that occurred right after the Big Bang?
Answer: Cosmic inflation.
What is the approximate age of the universe?
Answer: 13.8 billion years.
What is the term for the theoretical boundary surrounding a black hole beyond which nothing can escape?
Answer: The event horizon.
What is dark matter?
Answer: A type of matter that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, detectable through its gravitational effects.
Space Trivia: Famous Astronauts and Space Missions
In the USA, we refer to our space explorers as “astronauts”, a term that comes from the Greek words for “star” and “sailor”. Russian space explorers are called what?
Answer: Cosmonauts.
Which of these is not the name of a space shuttle flown in this century–Enterprise, Atlantis, or Discovery?
Answer: Enterprise.
What space transportation company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk built Falcon 9, the first rocket completely developed in the 21st century?
Answer: SpaceX.
What year did the Apollo 11 mission land on the Moon?
Answer: 1969.
Who was the first human to walk on the Moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong. On July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.
Where exactly did Neil Armstrong land on the moon?
Answer: The Moon’s Sea of Tranquility.
Who was the first woman in space?
Answer: Valentina Tereshkova. Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, was selected from more than 400 applicants to launch on the Vostok 6 mission on June 16, 1963.
Which mission was the first to fly by Pluto?
Answer: New Horizons.
What was the name of the first artificial Earth satellite?
Answer: Sputnik 1.
Which space shuttle was the first to be launched?
Answer: Columbia. Columbia launched on April 12, 1981, and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 37 times. Columbia carried a crew of two.
Who was the first person to conduct a spacewalk?
Answer: Alexei Leonov.
What was the name of the first space station launched by the United States?
Answer: Skylab.
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