Test your space I.Q.
 

Fun and Informative....interesting results as well.

Questions listed below...answers in link.


Fact vs. Fiction: 10 Questions to Test Your Space IQ

By SPACE.com Staff

posted: 23 November, 2004
6:30 a.m. ET

Science speeds along so fast that it can be hard sometimes to know exactly what's known. So now and then its helpful to pause and ponder the state of things.

The following 10 statements straddle the line between fact and fiction in space science. If you haven't been paying very close attention, the truthfulness of some might be hard to gauge.

Jot down which side of the fact-fiction line you think each falls, then see the answers below. The challenge, of course, is to score a perfect 10.

1. We have strong evidence that our solar system is not the only one; we know there are many other Suns with planets orbiting them.

2. Some organisms can survive in space for years -- without any kind of protective enclosure.

3. Organisms have been found thriving in scalding water with temperatures as high as 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. We now have evidence that some form of life exists beyond Earth, at least in primitive form.

5. We currently have the technology necessary to send astronauts to another star system within a reasonable time span. The only problem is that such a mission would be overwhelmingly expensive.

6. All of the gas giant planets in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have rings.

7. In the "Star Wars" films, the Imperial TIE Fighters are propelled by ion engines (TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine). While these spacecraft are fictional, real ion engines power some of today's spacecraft.

8. There is no gravity in deep space.

9. The basic premise of teleportation -- made famous in TV's "Star Trek" -- is theoretically sound. In fact, scientists have already "teleported" the quantum state of individual atoms from one location to another.

10. Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in the "Star Wars" films, has two Suns -- what astronomers would call a binary star system. Scientists have discovered recently that planets really can form within such systems.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...on_041123.html


Good Luck.

By the way...I got 10/10

But I'm a geek for space.

I only got 5 out of 10 so I must be half a geek for space.

7 out of 10

Been a while since I paid much attention to that stuff.

Missed two - teleportation and ion propulsion. Neat test, though - thanks tecoyah!

Science does advance in leaps and bounds. Once we are out of school, if we don't follow it every day, scientific knowledge does grow beyond the average persons understanding. Hell, even if one does try to keep up, it can grow faster than our ability to understand or even imagine.

I got a 10 of 10, but I have a bit of a gripe. I do not believe "sun" is the proper term to be used for any star outside of our solar system.

Interesting questions though - I did have to think about a few of them since I haven't kept up as much on the info as I used to.

6/10 the organisms bit lost me two points and I always thought all the science related to starwars was comlplete rubbish - and i always thought the teleport thing required far too much energy

I got all of them, but I'm a big science nerd. The Sun question threw me off, though. It's typically a term reserved only for our solar system's star. Good quiz, though. :)

Yeah...the sun thing is dabatable.
I think the concensus is:
Sun= generic term for star...regardless of location
Sol= our Sun

10/10 which is pretty neat since I haven't been paying much attention to science the last five years or so.

Yeah, I've heard that....I just reject it :lol: We already have a generic term for star...called star :thumbsup: I *suppose* one could argue that "sun" is the generic term for any star with planets. Either way, IMO, the question was worded poorly.

About the teleportation, it does take far too much energy to teleport anything of substance. Being able to teleport something as small as an atom does not easily translate into teleporting a human at all. Sadly, we will not see teleportation in my lifetime :( In fact, you know, I should just start planning for a disappointing life now: no teleportation, and at the rate we're going I won't even get to go to the moon.

6/10. I missed 2,6,7,10. I didn't realize "Star Wars" wasn't a total load of bs.

10/10 but I've always been a space geek myself.

If you were IN another solar system, would you say 'the star is rising' or 'the sun' :D

9 of 10, the whole life on another planet thing threw me. s'okay though, we'll find it sooner than later.

10/10....nice to know all the reading I do isn't going to waste..

10/10 so simple!

8/10. I try to keep abreast of most space-related news. The 2 questions I missed just sounded so fictitious, but turned out to be fact. Guess I'll have to do a bit more reading.

8/10

Missed ion engines and rings on planets. I could have sworn Jupiter had no rings.

Stop the presses, Ustwo and I agree! ;)

a star is a burning ball of gas in space

a sun is a star with planets

Sol is the sun with the planet earth. Sol is the name of the sun in the Sol System, just as Andromeda is the name of the sun in the Andromeda system.

We don't say "Sol rise" because we don't use its proper name. We say "sun rise" because it is a sun that is rising (yes I know it's not really rising ;) ).






10/10 for me. Guess I am a nerd ;)

9/10.
i knew nothing of ION propulsion... but now i do thanks to this thread.
thanks.

9/10 - missed the same question as bundy - it just sounded too good to be true :)

8/10 The one about the organisms surviving in deep space got me.

I'm, a nerd. I got them all, although I had to think for a while on a few.

8/10. Got the planet rings wrong and didn't have a clue about binary systems. I know better now.
I've added that site to my favourites. Thanks Tecoyah.

9/10. But I totally guessed. I don't know anything about space.

I got 9/10. I don't believe the teleportation thing. One experiment doesn't prove jack shit.

Hold on a minute now...I'm a nerd and all, but I missed some! The organisms surviving in space without any kind of protection thing beat me fair and square (I thout I heard about amino acids or some basic organic molecules from space, but didn't know any legitimate organisms had survived. Bring on the "is bacteria an organism" debate!)

...and I thought 10 was a trick question. They didn't know planets could form around binary stars before? Doesn't seem that far fetched. But anyway! On to my problem.

I'd like to say that I was having trouble interpreting this one to begin with, but "no gravity in deep space" I answered true to. Clearly, the gravitational field I create exists everywhere, though its magnitude approaches 0 very quickly. "deep space" I took to mean very (read: infinitely) far away from anything massive, so gravitational force on a test mass there would = 0, and I called that "no gravity." But apparently orbit around the earth is deep space now, go figure :p

...yeah, so I went on and on about it, I'm bored, sue me :)

6/10 ... i'm dissapointed

9/10, looks like those astronomy classes I skipped first and second year payed off. I must have missed the class about bacteria suriving in space for 3 years.

10/10.

Actually Johnsimon even in deep space galaxies can affect other galaxies with their combined gravity. Then there are clusters of galaxies that can affect other clusters. Gravity isn't very strong when compared to nuclear forces but it can really add up.

10/10, but I live for this kind of stuff :D

10/10, but a couple of them were lucky guesses.

10/10 - Guess reading all those books when i was young paid off :)

9/10.
When did ion engines happen???

1. fa +
2. fa +
3. fa +
4. fi +
5. fi +
6. fi -
7. fa +
8. fi +
9. fi -
10. fi -

7/10
I got the planet rings, teleportation and the binary suns statements wrong.
I knew about the other planets' rings but I didn't know Jupiter had them.
I read about the teleporting of atoms in Popular Science. I wasn't focussing on the right part of the statement.
And, I just plain guessed on the binary suns. ;)

Dismal 7 for meh

10/10

i'm a fellow space enthusiast.