Elemental Solar System Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sun

Being a rather obvious celestial body, the sun does not have the same Greek/Latin naming roots that other bodies have. The word "sun" in English has Germanic origins. In Latin it is "sol," and Latin-based languages retain this (eg. French's "soleil"). The Greek word for "sun" is "helios."

Answer: Moon

The Moon is the second most obvious celestial body, and the English word again has Germanic origins. The Latin word is "luna." Everything else in this quiz will be Greek and Roman.

Answer: Saturn

Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture, and the father of Jupiter. In English, the day of the week Saturday ("Saturn's day") is named after the same character.

When the Romans adopted the seven-day week (they did not invent it), they named each of the days after one of the seven planets they could see: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. We still have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, but the other four were replaced by Norse figures when the Germanic people adopted the Roman week, which is where the English names come from.

Answer: Uranus

Uranium was named after the newly discovered planet, Uranus. Neptunium and Plutonium have similar naming origins.

Answer: Neptune

Despite Neptunium being named after the planet, its symbol (Np) was not usable for this question. Uranium was discovered about ten years after Uranus was found. Neptunium was discovered about a hundred years after Neptune had been found.

Answer: Phobos

Most planets are named after Roman gods, but most of the moons have Greek names. Mars' moons, Deimos and Phobos, were the twin children of Ares. Phobos was the god of fear and Deimos was the god of dread.

Answer: Vesta

Vesta was the Roman goddess of the home and family. Vesta is the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, after Ceres. Unlike Ceres, Vesta does not have enough mass to pull itself into a sphere, so it is not considered a dwarf planet (making it the largest asteroid, in the asteroid belt). There is less mass in the entire asteroid belt than in Pluto.

Answer: Ceres

Ceres was the Roman goddess of agriculture, and the sister of Vesta. Ceres was the fist asteroid belt object discovered, in 1801. At first it was classified as a planet, but was then reclassified as an asteroid when there were too many objects in the asteroid belt. Most recently, it has been given the designation "dwarf planet" (same time as Pluto) because it has enough mass to pull itself into a sphere. Ceres is about the same size as Pluto's moon, Charon.

Answer: Io

Jupiter's moons are largely named after Zeus' lovers (Zeus being the original Greek version of the Roman god Jupiter). Io was a mortal woman known for catching Zeus' eye and being turned into a cow.

Answer: Titan

Saturn's moons were named after titans and giants. They started with Greek names, but found too many moons. Now there is the Norse group, Celtic group, and Inuit group of moons.