A Truly Universal Quiz!

Answer: Vega

American astronomer Henry Draper photographed Vega's spectrum in 1872. The images he took of Vega and other stars would lay the foundations for his "Henry Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra".

Answer: Ionized hydrogen

Ionized hydrogen is also referred to as H-II and these gas clouds are often found in the spiral arms of galaxies. Star formation is common in H-II regions with the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens being a prime example.

Answer: Venus

Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon and can best be seen at dawn before the sun rises or in the twilight after sunset in the evening. The planet is almost the Earth's twin in size but supports an inhospitable carbon dioxide rich atmosphere.

Answer: Its shape bears a striking resemblance to the North American continent

NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, in the constellation Cygnus indeed does bear a striking resemblance to the shape of the North American continent. Best seen in photographs or low-power wide-field telescopes its features include the east coast, the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Peninsula as well as Mexico.

Answer: R Coronae Borealis stars

The prototype of this class of variable is R Coronae Borealis, a star that normally shines at the cusp of naked eye visibility (around magnitude 6). Periodically, the star sheds a cloud of carbon dust which dims the light of the star considerably by up to 9 magnitudes rendering the star invisible to all but the most powerful telescopes.

As the carbon cloud dissipates into the interstellar medium the star slowly regains its normal brightness.

Answer: Cosmic microwave background radiation

The cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered quite by accident by Penzias and Wilson. A constant "noise" of radiation that they couldn't account for was found to be emanating with equal intensity from all directions. The radiation is a product of the Big Bang and was predicted to exist as early as 1947.

Answer: False

American astronomer Edwin Hubble classified galaxies according to their shape in 1925 in a system still used today with only minor adjustments. Elliptical galaxies are classified E0-E7 according to their elongation with E0 appearing perfectly circular. Spiral galaxies are classified as Sa, Sb or Sc with Sa galaxies having tightly wound spiral arms and Sc galaxies exhibiting a loosely wound spiral structure. Barred spiral galaxies follow a similar pattern with classifications of SBa, SBb and SBc but also have a central "bar" running across the face of the galaxy.

The galaxy in our question is thus a tightly wound barred spiral galaxy!

Answer: Mars

Phobos and Deimos are the sons of the Greek god of war Ares and personify fear and terror. It is only fitting that the two moons of Mars (the Roman name for Ares) were named for these two deities. Both moons are likely asteroids captured by Mars' gravitational field and are only 27km (Phobos) and 15km (Deimos) in diameter.

Answer: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Russell independently devised a diagram on which stars can be plotted according to their surface temperature and luminosity. The distribution of stars into groups such as giant stars, main sequence stars and white dwarfs is readily evident on an HR Diagram.

Answer: Its distance from Earth

A star's apparent magnitude is its brightness as seen from Earth while a star's true luminosity is expressed as the brightness it would have if it would be exactly 10 parsecs (some 32.6 light years) away and this is called the absolute magnitude of a star. In other words, if a star's apparent and absolute magnitudes are the same, the star must be exactly 10 parsecs distant!