Elementary General Knowledge on Earth and Space

 let’s put your knowledge to the test with some fun and engaging general knowledge questions about Earth and space.

• What is the largest planet in our solar system?
  • Answer: Jupiter

 

• Which planet is known as the Red Planet?
  • Answer: Mars

 

• How long does it take for Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun?
  • Answer: About 365.25 days

 

• What is the tallest mountain on Earth?
  • Answer: Mount Everest

 

• Which is the longest river in the world?
  • Answer: The Amazon River

• What is the closest star to Earth?
  • Answer: The Sun

 

• How many moons does Jupiter have?
  • Answer: 95 (as of Oct  2023, it could change as more are discovered)

 

• What galaxy is Earth located in?
  • Answer: The Milky Way

 

• What is the largest moon in our solar system?
  • Answer: Ganymede (Jupiter’s moon)

 

• What is a supernova?
  • Answer: The explosion of a dying star

 

• What is the Earth’s atmosphere primarily composed of?
  • Answer: Nitrogen (about 78%)

 

• What is the estimated age of the universe?
  • Answer: About 13.8 billion years

 

• What are the Earth’s three main layers?
  • Answer: Crust, Mantle, Core

 

• What is the Big Bang Theory?
  • Answer: A theory that suggests the universe originated as a single point and expanded over time

 

• What is the distance from Earth to the Sun called?
  • Answer: 1 Astronomical Unit (AU).

 

• What is the Earth’s primary source of energy?
  • Answer: The Sun

 

• What is the deepest ocean in the world?
  • Answer: The Mariana Trench

 

• What percentage of the Earth’s surface is covered by water?
  • Answer: Approximately 71%

 

• What is the name of the Earth’s largest ocean?
  • Answer: Pacific Ocean

 

• How many continents does Earth have?
  • Answer: 7 (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and South America)

 

• What is the speed of light in a vacuum?
  • Answer: Approximately 299,792,458 meters per second

 

• What is the name of the first human to walk on the moon?
  • Answer: Neil Armstrong

 

• What are the four largest planets in our solar system commonly known as?
  • Answer: The Gas Giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune)

 

• What celestial object is known as Earth’s ‘sister planet’?
  • Answer: Venus

 

• Which planet has the longest day in our solar system?
  • Answer: Venus (about 243 Earth days)

 

• Which layer of the Earth is liquid?
  • Answer: Outer Core

 

• How much time does it take for light from the Sun to reach Earth?
  • Answer: About 8 minutes and 20 seconds

 

• What is the phenomenon where the Moon covers the Sun, as viewed from Earth?
  • Answer: Solar Eclipse

 

• What’s the smallest planet in our solar system?
  • Answer: Mercury

 

• What is the coldest planet in our solar system?
  • Answer: Uranus

• What is the main gas responsible for the greenhouse effect on Earth?
  • Answer: Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

 

• Which two countries share the longest international border?
  • Answer: United States and Canada

 

• What is the smallest ocean on Earth?
  • Answer: Arctic Ocean

 

• What is the Earth’s axial tilt?
  • Answer: About 23.5 degrees

 

• How many time zones are there on Earth?
  • Answer: 24

 

• What is the Andromeda galaxy?
  • Answer: The closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and the largest galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies.

 

• What type of celestial object is Halley’s Comet?
  • Answer: A comet that appears approximately every 76 years

 

• What does NASA stand for?
  • Answer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

• What is the most abundant element in the universe?
  • Answer: Hydrogen

 

• Which planet has the most moons in our solar system?
  • Answer: Saturn (as of  Oct 2023, Saturn has 145 known moons)

 

• What is the term for the study of Earth’s atmosphere and weather?
  • Answer: Meteorology

 

• What is the name of the first artificial Earth satellite?
  • Answer: Sputnik 1

 

• What are the Northern and Southern lights also known as?
  • Answer: Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights)

 

• What is the distance light travels in one year called?
  • Answer: Light-Year

 

• Which country was the first to send a human to space?
  • Answer: The Soviet Union (Yuri Gagarin was the astronaut)

• Which country is known as the Land of the Rising Sun?
  • Answer: Japan

 

• What is the hottest continent on Earth?
  • Answer: Africa

 

• What is the Earth’s largest freshwater lake by volume?
  • Answer: Lake Baikal

 

• What is the Earth’s equatorial circumference?
  • Answer: About 40,075 kilometers (24,901 miles)

 

• What is the name of the deepest part of the world’s oceans?
  • Answer: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench

• What is a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern called?
  • Answer: Constellation

 

• Which planet has the shortest day in our solar system?
  • Answer: Jupiter (about 9.9 Earth hours)

 

• What is the name of the galaxy that is expected to collide with the Milky Way in the future?
  • Answer: Andromeda Galaxy

 

• What is a black hole?
  • Answer: A region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles or even light—can escape.

 

• What’s the name of the telescope launched in 1990 to observe distant galaxies, planets, and other celestial objects?
  • Answer: Hubble Space Telescope

• What is the study of celestial bodies in the universe outside Earth’s atmosphere called?
  • Answer: Astronomy

 

• Which element makes up the majority of the Earth’s core?
  • Answer: Iron

 

• What is the visible surface of the Sun called?
  • Answer: Photosphere

 

• How much stronger is Earth’s gravity compared to the Moon’s?
  • Answer: About 6 times stronger

 

• What is the scientific term for the “North Star”?
  • Answer: Polaris

• What is the largest desert on Earth?
  • Answer: Antarctic Desert

 

• Which river discharges the most water into the ocean?
  • Answer: Amazon River

 

• What’s the Earth’s inner core made of?
  • Answer: Solid Iron and Nickel

 

• Which layer of Earth’s atmosphere contains the ozone layer?
  • Answer: Stratosphere

 

• Which is the driest place on Earth?
  • Answer: Atacama Desert in south America is the driest place on earth .

• What’s the farthest human-made object from Earth?
  • Answer: Voyager 1

 

• What is the name of the dwarf planet discovered in 2006?
  • Answer: Eris

 

• Which planet has winds that can reach up to 1,500 miles per hour?
  • Answer: Neptune

 

• What’s the main component of Saturn’s rings?
  • Answer: Ice Particles

 

• Which planet is known for its Great Dark Spot?
  • Answer: Neptune

• What do you call the alignment of three celestial bodies?
  • Answer: Syzygy

 

• What is the name of the second largest moon in our solar system?
  • Answer: Titan (Saturn’s moon)

 

• How old is the Earth estimated to be?
  • Answer: About 4.5 billion years

 

• What is the name of the boundary that separates Earth’s two most significant biogeographic realms?
  • Answer: Wallace Line

 

• What is the name of the telescope scheduled to be the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope?
  • Answer: James Webb Space Telescope (as of my last update in September 2021)

 

• What is the largest island in the world?
  • Answer: Greenland

 

• What is the term for the Earth’s outermost shell?
  • Answer: Lithosphere

 

• What percentage of the Earth’s water is fresh water?
  • Answer: About 2.5%

 

• Which volcano is known for its destructive eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying of Pompeii?
  • Answer: Mount Vesuvius

 

• What is the natural phenomenon that causes the ground to shake?
  • Answer: Earthquake

• Which planet is tilted on its side?
  • Answer: Uranus

 

• What is the most common type of star in the universe?
  • Answer: Red Dwarf Stars

 

• What is the measure of the total amount of matter in an object called?
  • Answer: Mass

 

• What is the largest known asteroid in our solar system?
  • Answer: Ceres

 

• Which two planets in our solar system don’t have moons?
  • Answer: Mercury and Venus

 

• What is the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle called?
  • Answer: Mohorovičić Discontinuity (or Moho)

 

• What is the name of the telescope that is installed on the International Space Station?
  • Answer: NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer)

 

• Which gas giant has the most extensive ring system?
  • Answer: Saturn

 

• How many Earths could fit inside the Sun?
  • Answer: About 1.3 million

 

• What is the brightest star in the night sky?
  • Answer: Sirius

 

• Which country has the most natural lakes?
  • Answer: Canada

• What is the hypothetical boundary around a black hole beyond which nothing can escape?
  • Answer: Event Horizon

• What is the scientific term for the study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe?
  • Answer: Cosmology

 

• What are the building blocks of proteins essential for life on Earth?
  • Answer: Amino Acids

 

• What is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way?
  • Answer: Andromeda Galaxy

 

• Which continent is home to the world’s largest non-polar desert?
  • Answer: Africa (The Sahara Desert)

• What is the name of NASA’s most famous rover, which landed on Mars in 2012?
  • Answer: Curiosity Rover

• What is the Earth’s average orbital speed around the sun?
  • Answer: About 29.8 km/s (18.5 miles/s)

 

• Which planet is known as the “Evening Star” when it’s visible?
  • Answer: Venus

 

• What is the approximate age of the universe, according to current scientific estimates?
• – Answer: About 13.8 billion years

• What is the only sea without any coasts?
• – Answer: Sargasso Sea

• What is the smallest planet in our solar system?
• – Answer: Mercury

• What is the name of the scale used to measure the brightness of celestial objects? –
• Answer: Magnitude Scale

 

• Which layer of Earth is liquid? –
• Answer: Outer Core

 

• What is the most abundant mineral on Earth’s continental crust? –
• Answer: Feldspar

 

• What is the highest waterfall in the world? –
• Answer: Angel Falls

• What is the most abundant element in the universe? –
• Answer: Hydrogen

• What is the term for the occasional, geologically instantaneous reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field? –
• Answer: Geomagnetic Reversal

 

• What celestial object is commonly known as the “Sister Planet” to Earth? –
• Answer: Venus

 

• What is the term for the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun during a solar or lunar eclipse? –
• Answer: Syzygy

 

• What is the largest species of shark? –
• Answer: The Whale Shark

• What is the closest star system to the Sun? –
• Answer: Alpha Centauri

• What’s the term for the supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras? –
• Answer: Pangaea

 

• What is the theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which we cannot receive any information? –
• Answer: Event Horizon

 

• What’s the name of the current geological epoch characterized by the significant impact of human activity on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems? –
  Answer: Anthropocene

 

• What is the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere? –
• Answer: Nitrogen

• What is the term for a galaxy that has a spiral shape? –
• Answer: Spiral Galaxy

 

• What is the term for the point on Earth’s surface directly above the focus of an earthquake? –
• Answer: Epicenter

 

• What is the theory that describes the origin of the universe? –
• Answer: Big Bang Theory

 

• What is the name given to the hypothetical fifth fundamental force in physics, alongside gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces? –
• Answer: Quintessence (Though not proven, it’s a term sometimes used to describe a possible fifth force.)

 

• What is the driest place on Earth? –
• Answer: Atacama Desert

• What is the name of Saturn’s largest moon? –
• Answer: Titan

• What is the coldest planet in our solar system? –
• Answer: Uranus

 

• What is the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy? –
• Answer: Sagittarius A*

 

• What term describes the shift in frequency or wavelength of a wave in relation to an observer? –
• Answer: Doppler Effect

 

• What is the longest river in the world? –
• Answer: The Nile River (though some argue it’s the Amazon River, depending on measurement criteria)

• Which planet has the longest day of any planet in our solar system? –
• Answer: Venus

• What term refers to the study of Earth’s atmosphere and weather? –
• Answer: Meteorology

 

• Which law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction? –
• Answer: Newton’s Third Law of Motion

 

• What is the term for the study of the origin, structure, and future of the universe? –

Answer: Cosmology

 

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