1) There are many theories about the birth of our solar system.

Which theory involves a passing star

pulling dust and debris from the forming sun?

The Tidal Theory (or Chamberlain-Moulton Theory) suggests that a passing star pulled dust and debris
from the forming Sun, leaving a string of debris that eventually formed the planets.

2) The planets make up what percentage of the mass in our solar system?

The planets make up only 0.135% of the mass in our solar system. The Sun dominates, accounting for
99.86% of the entire solar system's mass. Other factors include satellites (0.00004%) and comets
(0.00003%).

3) What are the only two planets in our solar system without moons?

Mercury & Venus are the only planets in our solar system without moons. Saturn has the most moons,
with more than sixty.

4) What is the name of Pluto's largest moon?

Discovered by James Christy in 1978, Charon has a diameter of 1,172 kilometers (728 miles) and is just
under half the size of Pluto. Due to this very small difference in size, some scientists consider Pluto and
Charon to be a double (dwarf) planet.

5) The three main parts of a comet are the nucleus, the tail, and the _____?

The coma consists of gases and dust around the nucleus.

6) What year boasted the first woman in space?

In 1963 Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was selected from more than four hundred applicants and
five finalists to pilot Vostok 6. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in her three days in space.

7) What is the term for the condition when three celestial bodies are arranged in a straight line?

Syzygy is the condition when three celestial bodies are arranged in a straight line--as, for example, when
the Sun, Moon, and Earth are aligned during solar and lunar eclipses.

8) What manned U.S. space program eventually put 12 men on the Moon?
The first Apollo mission to circle the Moon was Apollo 8, and the first to land was Apollo 11. Apollo 13
never landed because of an accident en route that required the spacecraft to return to Earth after
swinging around the far side of the Moon. The last Apollo mission to land on the Moon was Apollo 17.

9) From 1978 to 1999, which planet was farthest from the Sun?

Becauseo of Pluto's irregular orbit, Neptune was actually the farthest planet from the Sun between 1978
and 1999.

10) What color is the sunset on Mars?

Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere
more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors.

11) What does space smell like?

The final frontier smells a lot like a Nascar race--a bouquet of hot metal, diesel fumes and barbecue.

12) How old is the Universe?

Measurements made by NASA's WMAP spacecraft have shown that the universe is 13.7 billion years old,
plus or minus about 130,000 years.

13) Which planet has a hexagonal-shaped storm?

Saturn's northern hemisphere has a raging six-sided storm nicknamed "the hexagon." Why exactly it's
that shape is a mystery. But what is known is that this hexagon, which shares several features in
common with hurricanes, has been there for at least decades -- if not hundreds of years.

14) Which planet has the largest ocean?

Computer models show that not only is Jupiter's ocean (made of liquid hydrogen) the largest in the solar
system, but that it is about 25,000 miles (40,000 km) deep -- roughly as deep as the Earth is around!

15) How many Earths could fit inside the sun?

About a million duplicates of Earth could comfortably fit inside the sun.

16) How far from Earth is the closest star other than the sun?
Faint Proxima Centauri claims the honor of being our nearest stellar neighbor at only 4.24 light years
away.

17) Which planet radiates more heat than it gets from the sun?

Jupiter radiates about 1.6 times as much heat, in the form of infrared energy, as it receives from the sun,
whereas Saturn and Neptune radiate 2.3 and 2.6 times the heat they get from the sun. This indicates
that all three planets have some internal source of energy.

18) How hot is the sun's core?

At the core of the sun, gravitational attraction produces immense pressure and temperature, which can
reach more than 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).

19) Every second, the sun releases energy equivalent to how many nuclear bombs?

A one megaton nuclear bomb -- the equivalent of a million tons of TNT -- detonates with an energy of
about 4 x 10^22 ergs. That means the amount of energy emitted by the Sun (4x10^33 / 4 x 10^22)
equals 100 billion one-megaton nuclear bombs exploding every second.

20) There are no _____ stars.

Stars emit a spectrum of colors, including green, but the human eye-brain connection mixes the colors
together in a manner that produces: from lower to higher temperatures, red, orange, yellow, white and
blue. So as far as the human eye can tell, there are no green stars.

21) Which of the following was discovered in 2002?

Roughly half the size of Pluto, Quaoar is classified as a "Kuiper Belt object".

22) What accounts for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe?

The majority of dark matter is thought to be non-baryonic in nature, possibly being composed of some
as-yet undiscovered subatomic particles.

23) Which planet has a two-tone moon?

Saturn's moon Iapetus is a study in contrasts, with a very dark hemisphere and a very light hemisphere.
It's unlike anything else in the solar system. Some scientists believe that particles from Phoebe (a darker
moon) may be falling on its surface. Others speculate that the coloration is due to volcanic eruptions of
hydrocarbons, which would create dark patches.

24) What is a Martian day called?

The term sol is used by planetary scientists to refer to the duration of a solar day on Mars. The term was
adopted during the Viking project in order to avoid confusion with an Earth day.

25) What kind of star is our sun?

At the end of its life, a yellow dwarf star becomes a red giant and white dwarf. Our Sun is a typical
yellow dwarf.

The largest moon in the Solar System – Jupiter's Ganymede – is even bigger than planet Mercury.

After helium and hydrogen, the most common element on the Sun is oxygen.

Nebula is the coldest known place in the universe.

The Moon is moving away from the Earth 3.8 cm every year.

The entire surface area of Pluto is smaller than Russia.

There are three golf balls on the Moon (left by Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard in 1971.)

With the strongest winds, Neptune is the windiest planet in the Solar System.

The largest known star – Westerlund 1-26 – is 2000 times bigger than the Sun.

95% of all matter in the universe is invisible, and is called the Dark Matter.
The Sun is growing: In 5 billion years it will be 250 times bigger and close enough to swallow up the
Earth.

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to us after the Sun.

The star Epsilon Aurigae dims every 27 years due to a mysterious dark object eclipsing it periodically.

The 'Great Red Spot' - a storm on Jupiter that has been going on for 300 years - is so big that dozens of
Earths would fit into it.

A supermassive blackhole is believed to be present in the centre of nearly every galaxy, including our
own Milky Way.

On Mercury during the day, the Sun rises, stops, about-turns and eventually sets where it rose.

Planets move within the Solar System, which moves within Milky Way Galaxy, which moves within The
Local Group of Galaxies, which moves towards Virgo Cluster.

Venus and Uranus are the only planets that rotate clockwise (retrograde rotation.)

All 27 of Uranus moons are named after William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope characters.

With 63 moons, Jupiter has the largest number of moons.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are made up of just gas with no solid surface to land on.