Space science trivia questions
What is the Sun?
A: The Sun is the star at the center of the
Solar System.
The sun is a nearly perfect sphere of what?
A: Hot plasma.
The sun has internal convective motion that
generates a what?
A: Magnetic field via a dynamo process.
It is by far the most important source of what?
A: Energy for life on Earth.
Its diameter is about how many times that of
Earth?
A: 109 times.
The suns mass is about 330,000 times that of
Earth, accounting for about how much of the
total mass of the Solar System?
A: 99.86%.
About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists
of what?
A: Hydrogen (~73%);
What is the rest of the mass?
A: It is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller
quantities of heavier elements.
The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V)
based on it’s what?
A: Spectral class.
How long ago did it form?
A: Approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
What formed the sun?
A: The gravitational collapse of matter within a
region of a large molecular cloud.
Most of this matter gathered where?
A: In the center.
The rest flattened into an orbiting disk that
became what?
A: The Solar System.
The central mass became so hot and dense that it
eventually initiated what?
A: Nuclear fusion in its core.
The sun has not changed dramatically for more
than how long?
A: Four billion years.
The sun will remain fairly stable for how much
longer?
A: Another five billion years.
After hydrogen fusion in its core has stopped,
the Sun will undergo severe changes and become a
what?
A: A red giant.
It is calculated that the Sun will become
sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits
of what planets?
A: Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth.
The Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a
what?
A: Deity.
The synodic rotation of Earth and its orbit
around the Sun are the basis of the what?
A: Solar calendar, which is the predominant
calendar in use today.