So You Think You're a Space Nerd? Quiz

Answer: mass

The bigger the mass, the shorter the life of the star. The mass of a star comes from the amount of matter in the nebula it was formed in. The gas in the nebula is pulled together by gravity to form the star.

Answer: Andromeda

Cartwheel, Cigar, and Comet are actual galaxies, but only visible with a telescope. But if you live in the northern hemisphere on earth, you can see Andromeda galaxy without any special equipment! Andromeda looks like a puffy cirrus cloud in the night sky.

Answer: constellation

Serpens means "the Serpent". The head of it, Serpens Caput, is to the west and the tail, Serpens Cauda, is to the east. In between it is Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. It is the only one of the named constellations that is split into two parts.

Answer: optical astronomy

Optical astronomy, also known as visible light astronomy, was, at first, naked eye observation recorded in images drawn by hand. This type of astronomy was used in the old days when we didn't have access to special gadgets. X-ray astronomy is the study of astronomy at x-ray wavelengths. Gamma ray astronomy is the study of celestial objects of the electric spectrum at its shortest wavelengths. Radio astronomy is the study of radiation at wavelengths bigger than one millimeter.

Answer: yellow dwarf

The sun is classified as G2, a type often (but incorrectly since astronomy does not actually use this classification) referred to as a yellow dwarf star. We see it as yellow from earth because of the atmospheric scattering of blue light.

Answer: 13.75 billion years

The big bang is a widely accepted theory of how the universe was formed. According to recent searches, scientists have said that the big bang happened 13.75 billion years ago. That's about 9.25 billion years before the earth was formed.

Answer: quasar

Quasars are located at the centers of many galaxies, especially those rather distant from Earth. A quasar is the active, radiating center of a galaxy, theorized to surround a massive black hole.

Answer: Vesto Slipher

Although Vesto Slipher was actually the person that discovered the galactic redshift in 1912, Edwin Hubble was incorrectly credited with this discovery because he was the one that popularized this idea. Before this major discovery in 1912, other galaxies were called nebulae and their nature as such was theorized, but not yet finally proven.

Answer: Kuiper Belt

The short-term comets come from the Kuiper Belt while long-term comets come from the Oort Cloud. The asteroid belt, composed of more than a million objects larger than a kilometer in diameter as well as many more smaller ones, orbits the sun in between Jupiter and Mars. Comet Tail Belt doesn't exist.

Answer: globular clusters

Globular clusters orbit a galactic core like a satellite (moon). Open clusters on the other hand are very loose and contain just under 100 stars. Andromeda clusters and stellar clusters don't exist.