Quiz - Surprises of the Solar System

If you came to “Surprises of the Solar System” at the HAS Public Night on 6 May 2026, you heard a lot of unusual and fascinating facts about our Solar System. Even though the talk covered a lot of ground, you may be surprised by how much you remember. But whether or not you were there, try the quiz below - it’s a fun way to test your knowledge of more unusual Solar System facts.

If you have already done the quiz and want to check the answers, click here.

For some fun facts from the talk, click here.

Q1. Our Sun is a star. What colour is it?
Do not look directly at it to find out!

Q2. Our Solar System gets its name from the fact that another name for the Sun is…?

Q3. It’s not easy to calculate the exact number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, but modern estimates are:
  a. 2 to 4 million
  b. 200 to 400 million
  c. 2 to 4 billion
  d. 200 to 400 billion

Q4. We learned about two large natural objects in the Solar System that have sodium tails. What were they?
Hint: Neither was a comet, meteor, or asteroid.

Q5. There are eight planets in our Solar System, and five confirmed dwarf planets – Pluto being one of them. There are also another six candidate dwarf planets, meaning we still need to determine if they are spherical or not. Can you name one (or more) of those other dwarf planets or candidates? Hint: The confirmed dwarf planets: Ce_ _ _, Ma_ _ma_ _ , Er_ _ _, and Ha_ _ _ _.
The candidates: Go_ _g_ _ _, Or_ _ _, Ix_ _ _, Sed_ _, Sal_ _ _ _, and Qu_ _ _ _.

Q6. For every 3 orbits Neptune completes around the Sun, how many does Pluto complete?
Hint it is an exact number, less than 3.

Q7. For every 3 orbits Neptune completes around the Sun, many other objects also make the same number of orbits as Pluto does! Because of this, what general name do they have?
Hint: Pl_ _ _ _ _s (but it's not Plutoids)

Q8. There are about 100 objects that orbit the Sun once for every two orbits of Neptune (a 1:2 resonance). What are these called?
Hint: T_ _ _ _ _ _s.

Q9. Which was the only planet discovered from the USA?
Hint: It's a bit unfortunate for them now.

Q10. As of May 2026, Jupiter has 115 identified moons. But 292 moons have been found so far around another planet in our Solar System! Which planet is that?

Q11. The four largest planets have rings. Are there any other objects with rings?
  a. no
  b. 2 others
  c. 3 others
  d. 4 others

Q12. True or False: Comets typically have more than one tail.

Q13. There is an asteroid “2002VE68” that orbits the Sun in the same year as Venus – it is closer to the Sun than Venus for part of its orbit, and further away for the other part of its orbit. It is said that someone wrote its name down “2002VE”, but could not read his own writing later. So instead of 2002VE, he thought it was called what?

Q14. The asteroid in the previous question almost looks like it orbits Venus from the point of view of Venus. This is really an illusion since it doesnt actually orbit Venus, so the object is known as a:
  a. quasimoon
  b. weird moon
  c. ghost moon.

Q15. The temperature near the surface of Venus is about 460 celsius, with an air pressure of over 90 times that of Earth. But up in the clouds, between about 55 km and 80 km above the surface, what do we know to be true?
  a. The temperature is a bit cooler - between 30 and 70 degrees celsius
  b. The air pressure there is about the same as that on Earth’s surface
  c. Both of the above.