tecoyah

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.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

tecoyah

By the way...I got 10/10

But I'm a geek for space.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

jon_264

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

mirevolver

7 out of 10

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

__________________
Aside from my great plans to become the future dictator of the moon, I have little interest in political discussions.

The Prophet

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.

__________________
"The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others. " - Theodore Roosevelt

SecretMethod70

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.

__________________
Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

d*d

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

Devoid

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.

__________________
We're here to steal your pornography, and sodomize our vast imaginations. - Inignot

tecoyah

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

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Pip

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

SecretMethod70

Yeah, I've heard that....I just reject it We already have a generic term for star...called star 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.

__________________
Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

laconic1

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

Ustwo

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

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Ustwo

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

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

phredgreen

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

__________________
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
- Thomas Paine

splck

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

__________________
nice line eh?

Willravel

10/10 so simple!

Ananas

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.

Slavakion

8/10

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

shakran

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

bundy

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

__________________
Ohayo!!!

spindles

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

__________________
who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

present_future

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

__________________
The only thing I'll ever ask of you... you gotta promise not to stop when I say when.

MSD

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

Stick

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.

StormBerlin

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

__________________
"if anal sex could get a girl pregnant i'd be tits deep in child support" Arcane

Stiltzkin

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

__________________
The most important thing in this world is love.

johnsimon885

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

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

alpha

6/10 ... i'm dissapointed

scott_p_1

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.

Zeraph

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.

Lebell

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

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

The ONLY sponsors we have are YOU!

Please Donate!

Rdr4evr

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

freeload

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

__________________
The future ain't what it used to be.

Jonsgirl

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

__________________
Someday, someone will best me.
But it won't be today, and it won't be you.

Fremen

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.

__________________
Google

narf!

Dismal 7 for meh

irateplatypus

10/10

i'm a fellow space enthusiast.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill