Space Trivia Questions
Planets, moons, missions and the physics that holds it together. 14 questions with answers, and a game you can play now.
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Space trivia splits cleanly into two halves that reward different people. One half is the solar system: which planet is which, how many moons, why Venus is hotter than Mercury. The other is exploration, which is really twentieth-century history wearing a spacesuit, and rewards anyone who remembers the names attached to the firsts.
The questions here avoid anything a new telescope could overturn. Moon counts and record distances move; orbital order, launch dates and the reason the sky looks the way it does do not.
All 14 space trivia questions with answers
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Answer: MercuryEasyIt has no real atmosphere, so its surface swings between extreme heat and cold.Why?
Which force keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun?
Answer: GravityEasyIts strength falls off with the square of the distance between two bodies.Why?
Which planet is the largest in our solar system?
Answer: JupiterEasyMore than 1,300 Earths would fit inside it.
Our solar system belongs to which galaxy?
Answer: The Milky WayEasyThe hazy band across the night sky is its disc, seen edge-on from inside.
Which planet is famous for its bright ring system?
Answer: SaturnEasyThe rings are mostly water ice, with pieces ranging from dust grains to house-sized chunks.
A rock from space that survives to reach Earth's surface is called what?
Answer: MeteoriteEasyWhile still burning through the atmosphere it is a meteor; only the landed piece is a meteorite.
Roughly how long does sunlight take to reach Earth?
Answer: About 8 minutesMediumThe Sun is about 150 million kilometres away and light covers 300,000 kilometres each second.
Which planet spins almost on its side, with its axis tilted about 98 degrees?
Answer: UranusMediumEach pole gets around 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
Why does the Moon shine at night?
Answer: It reflects sunlightMediumThe surface reflects only about 12 percent of the light that hits it, roughly like worn asphalt.
Which is the hottest planet in the solar system?
Answer: VenusMediumIts thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat, making it hotter than Mercury despite being further from the Sun.
Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most planets. What is this called?
Answer: Retrograde rotationHardIts spin is so slow that a day on Venus lasts longer than its year.
After the Sun, which star is closest to Earth?
Answer: Proxima CentauriHardIt lies about 4.2 light years away, a red dwarf too faint to see with the naked eye.
Which object is so dense that not even light can escape its gravity?
Answer: Black holeHardThe boundary beyond which nothing returns is called the event horizon.
The point in a planet's orbit closest to the Sun is called what?
Answer: PerihelionHardEarth reaches it in early January, not in northern summer, which surprises many people.
Answer key
- Mercury
- Gravity
- Jupiter
- The Milky Way
- Saturn
- Meteorite
- About 8 minutes
- Uranus
- It reflects sunlight
- Venus
- Retrograde rotation
- Proxima Centauri
- Black hole
- Perihelion
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full space trivia questions list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
The wider round
These come from the science set, which has 100 questions across 6 themes, plus tiebreakers and host notes. Science trivia