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Pluto
Contributed by: Lomas
  • 1. Which year was Pluto discovered?
A) 1930
B) 1950
C) 1900
D) 2000
  • 2. Who discovered Pluto?
A) Galileo Galilei
B) Isaac Newton
C) Clyde Tombaugh
D) Albert Einstein
  • 3. What is the average distance of Pluto from the Sun?
A) 3.67 billion miles
B) 100 million miles
C) 20 million miles
D) 1 billion miles
  • 4. What is the official classification of Pluto in the solar system?
A) Gas giant
B) Dwarf planet
C) Asteroid
D) Comet
  • 5. Which spacecraft conducted a flyby of Pluto in 2015?
A) New Horizons
B) Voyager 1
C) Cassini
D) Hubble Space Telescope
  • 6. What is the largest moon of Pluto?
A) Nix
B) Styx
C) Charon
D) Hydra
  • 7. How long does it take for Pluto to orbit the Sun?
A) 248 Earth years
B) 10 Earth years
C) 365 Earth days
D) 100 Earth years
  • 8. Which element is abundant in Pluto's atmosphere?
A) Oxygen
B) Nitrogen
C) Carbon dioxide
D) Helium
  • 9. Where is Pluto located in the solar system?
A) In the Kuiper belt
B) Between Mars and Jupiter
C) Beyond Neptune's orbit
D) In the asteroid belt
  • 10. What is the rank of Pluto by volume among trans-Neptunian objects?
A) Fourth largest
B) Third largest
C) Largest known
D) Second largest
  • 11. Which object is more massive than Pluto?
A) Eris
B) Charon
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
  • 12. What materials primarily make up Pluto?
A) Carbon and hydrogen
B) Silicon and magnesium
C) Ice and rock
D) Iron and nickel
  • 13. How does Pluto's mass compare to the Moon's?
A) Twice the Moon's mass
B) Equal to the Moon's mass
C) Roughly one-sixth of the Moon's mass
D) Half the Moon's mass
  • 14. What is the range of Pluto's orbital distance from the Sun?
A) 20 to 35 astronomical units
B) 30 to 49 astronomical units
C) 40 to 60 astronomical units
D) 25 to 45 astronomical units
  • 15. How long does it take for sunlight to reach Pluto at its orbital distance?
A) 10 hours
B) 3 hours
C) 5.5 hours
D) 7 hours
  • 16. What prevents Pluto from colliding with Neptune despite their orbits crossing?
A) A stable orbital resonance
B) Neptune's orbit around Pluto
C) Pluto's high speed
D) Gravitational pull of the Sun
  • 17. How many known moons does Pluto have?
A) Five
B) Six
C) Three
D) Four
  • 18. Why are Pluto and Charon sometimes considered a binary system?
A) Pluto has no atmosphere.
B) They orbit each other in perfect circles.
C) The barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body, and they are tidally locked.
D) Charon is larger than Pluto.
  • 19. On what date did New Horizons make its flyby of Pluto?
A) June 10, 1997
B) August 25, 2006
C) September 12, 1989
D) July 14, 2015
  • 20. In what year will Pluto complete its first orbit since discovery?
A) 2025
B) 2100
C) 2178
D) 2200
  • 21. Which name was Lowell Observatory's first choice for Pluto, but ultimately rejected?
A) Pluto
B) Cronus
C) Jupiter
D) Minerva
  • 22. What initials did the first two letters of 'Pluto' represent?
A) Falconer Madan's initials
B) Percival Lowell's initials
C) Venetia Burney's initials
D) Herbert Hall Turner's initials
  • 23. Which other name was considered for Pluto due to its initials?
A) Cronus
B) Minerva
C) Jupiter
D) Percival
  • 24. Which Disney character was named after Pluto?
A) Mickey Mouse's canine companion, also named Pluto
B) Pluto the dog itself
C) Donald Duck
D) Goofy
  • 25. Who named the element plutonium after Pluto?
A) Glenn T. Seaborg
B) Ernest W. Brown
C) Walt Disney
D) Ben Sharpsteen
  • 26. What did Ernest W. Brown conclude about Lowell's prediction of Planet X?
A) Lowell had insider information about Pluto
B) The prediction was based on solid evidence
C) Lowell accurately predicted the position and orbit of Pluto
D) It was a coincidence that it matched Pluto's orbit
  • 27. In what year did many bodies begin being discovered orbiting in the same volume as Pluto, leading to questions about its planetary status?
A) 1992
B) 1978
C) 2000
D) 1985
  • 28. Which planetarium displayed a Solar System model with only eight planets in February 2000?
A) Hayden Planetarium
B) California Academy of Sciences
C) Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
D) American Museum of Natural History
  • 29. Who suggested that Pluto be given the minor planet number 10000 while retaining its status as a planet in 1998?
A) Brian G. Marsden
B) Michael E. Brown
C) Neil deGrasse Tyson
D) Carl Sagan
  • 30. Which university is associated with the Minor Planet Center where Brian G. Marsden worked?
A) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B) Stanford University
C) Harvard University
D) University of California, Berkeley
  • 31. What was the public reaction to the prospect of Pluto's 'demotion'?
A) Widespread support
B) Scientific debate only
C) Public outcry
D) General indifference
  • 32. Who led the astronomers at Caltech that undertook a wide survey of the skies in the early 2000s?
A) Neil deGrasse Tyson
B) Carl Sagan
C) Brian G. Marsden
D) Michael E. Brown
  • 33. What term is used to describe the objects discovered by Michael E. Brown's team that are located beyond Neptune?
A) Comets
B) Trans-Neptunian objects
C) Asteroids
D) Meteoroids
  • 34. In which year did the debate over the definition of a planet reach its peak at the IAU meeting?
A) 2006
B) 1985
C) 2012
D) 1999
  • 35. Which organization included Pluto, Eris, and Dysnomia in the Minor Planet Catalogue?
A) ESA
B) IAU
C) JPL
D) NASA
  • 36. Who was the principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto?
A) Julio Ángel Fernández
B) Marc W. Buie
C) Gonzalo Tancredi
D) Alan Stern
  • 37. What term did the IAU propose in 2008 for Pluto and similar objects?
A) Plutoid
B) Dwarf planet
C) Sub-planet
D) Minor planet
  • 38. Which state passed a law naming Pluto as the official state planet in April 2024?
A) Arizona
B) New Mexico
C) California
D) Illinois
  • 39. What was voted as the word of the year by the American Dialect Society in 2006 related to Pluto?
A) Dwarfed
B) Plutoed
C) Demoted
D) Downgraded
  • 40. Which state passed a resolution declaring Pluto will always be considered a planet in their skies?
A) Illinois
B) Arizona
C) New Mexico
D) California
  • 41. What is the inclination of Pluto's orbit relative to the ecliptic?
A) Over 17 degrees
B) Exactly 90 degrees
C) Less than 5 degrees
D) Zero degrees
  • 42. How many astronomical units (AU) north of Neptune's orbit does Pluto pass?
A) About 57 AU
B) About 11 AU
C) About 8 AU
D) About 17 AU
  • 43. What angle does Pluto's argument of perihelion librate around?
A) 180°
B) 45°
C) 60°
D) 90°
  • 44. Which mechanism relates the eccentricity of an orbit to its inclination to a larger perturbing body?
A) Newton's law
B) Kozai mechanism
C) Kepler's laws
D) Heliocentric theory
  • 45. What is the amplitude of libration for Pluto's argument of perihelion relative to Neptune?
A) 180°
B) 52°
C) 38°
D) 90°
  • 46. What is the minimum angular separation between Pluto's perihelion and Neptune's orbit?
A) 38°
B) 90°
C) 180°
D) 52°
  • 47. What term describes the resonance where Pluto's perihelion lies exactly at 90° when the longitudes of ascending nodes are aligned?
A) Kozai mechanism
B) 1:1 superresonance
C) Jovian planetary alignment
D) 2:3 mean-motion resonance
  • 48. What is Pluto's rotation period in Earth days?
A) 24
B) 3
C) 6.387
D) 12
  • 49. At what axial tilt does Pluto rotate on its side?
A) 90°
B) 120°
C) 180°
D) 45°
  • 50. What is the temperature at Pluto's equator that causes nitrogen to freeze?
A) -100 °C
B) -10 °C
C) -240 °C
D) -50 °C
  • 51. What percentage of Pluto's surface plains is composed of nitrogen ice?
A) 25%
B) More than 98%
C) 50%
D) 75%
  • 52. Where on Pluto are carbon monoxide and nitrogen most abundant?
A) Near the equator
B) At the poles
C) Anti-Charon face
D) Around 300° east
  • 53. Which geographical feature on Pluto is a 1,000 km-wide basin of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide?
A) Sputnik Planitia
B) Belton Regio
C) Tombaugh Regio
D) Brass Knuckles
  • 54. What geological process is indicated by the glacial flows into and out of Sputnik Planitia?
A) Impact cratering
B) Glaciological interactions
C) Volcanic activity
D) Tectonic shifts
  • 55. What is the size range of methane particles forming dunes in Sputnik Planitia?
A) 200–300 μm
B) 500–600 μm
C) 400–500 μm
D) 100–150 μm
  • 56. What is the name of the large bright area on Pluto opposite Charon?
A) Sputnik Planitia
B) Tombaugh Regio or 'Heart'
C) Brass Knuckles
D) Belton Regio or 'Whale'
  • 57. What is the name of the large dark area on Pluto's trailing hemisphere?
A) Belton Regio or 'Whale'
B) Tombaugh Regio or 'Heart'
C) Brass Knuckles
D) Sputnik Planitia
  • 58. What is the direction of winds that form dunes in Sputnik Planitia?
A) From the center towards surrounding mountains
B) Towards the center from surrounding mountains
C) In a circular pattern around Sputnik Planitia
D) Randomly without direction
  • 59. What is the estimated diameter of Pluto's core?
A) 2376.6 km
B) 1700 km
C) 2000 km
D) 1500 km
  • 60. How much of Pluto's diameter does its core occupy?
A) 70%
B) 30%
C) 90%
D) 50%
  • 61. What might the subsurface ocean at Pluto's core-mantle boundary be composed of?
A) Ethane
B) Liquid water
C) Ammonia
D) Methane
  • 62. What was the 'best guess' for Pluto's diameter in March 2014?
A) 2,370 km
B) 2,360 km
C) 2,376.6 km
D) 2,368 km
  • 63. What instrument from the New Horizons mission helped determine Pluto's diameter?
A) Alice UV Spectrometer
B) Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter
C) Ralph Telescope
D) Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
  • 64. What unexpected phenomenon was observed about Pluto's atmosphere in July 2019?
A) It completely disappeared.
B) It became denser than Mars' atmosphere.
C) The presence of oxygen was confirmed.
D) Its atmospheric pressure had fallen by 20%
  • 65. What effect does the sublimation of Pluto's atmosphere have on its surface?
A) Cools the surface
B) Has no significant effect
C) Causes volcanic activity
D) Heats up the surface
  • 66. When was Charon first identified?
A) 1978
B) 2005
C) 2012
D) 2011
  • 67. What is the orbital period ratio between Styx, Nix, and Hydra?
A) 18:22:33
B) 1:2:3
C) 6:9:12
D) 3:4:5
  • 68. What type of co-orbital configuration is 15810 Arawn considered to be with respect to Pluto?
A) Satellite
B) Rogue
C) Quasi-satellite
D) Trojan
  • 69. Which planet primarily controls the orbit of Arawn?
A) Pluto
B) Neptune
C) Uranus
D) Saturn
  • 70. What population is Eris considered to be a member of, rather than the Kuiper belt?
A) Oort cloud
B) Trojan asteroids
C) Scattered disc
D) Asteroid belt
  • 71. At perihelion, how bright does Pluto's visual apparent magnitude become?
A) 12.8
B) 14.5
C) 13.65
D) 15.1
  • 72. What is the maximum angular diameter of Pluto as seen from Earth?
A) 0.05 inches
B) 0.22 inches
C) 0.30 inches
D) 0.11 inches
  • 73. What was the resolution capability of Hubble Space Telescope images for Pluto?
A) Thousands of kilometers across
B) A few meters across
C) Several hundred kilometers across
D) Tens of kilometers across
  • 74. Which planet's gravity assist did New Horizons use in early 2007?
A) Mars
B) Jupiter
C) Venus
D) Saturn
  • 75. When was the last bit of data from New Horizons' Pluto encounter received?
A) December 31, 2016, at 11:59 pm ET
B) January 1, 2017, at 06:00 am ET
C) July 14, 2015, at 12:00 pm ET
D) October 25, 2016, at 05:48 pm ET
  • 76. What technology is described in a conceptual study for a future Pluto orbiter and lander?
A) Wind turbine energy system
B) Nuclear fission-based reactor
C) Fusion-enabled based on the Princeton field-reversed configuration reactor
D) Solar-powered with traditional solar panels
  • 77. Which hemisphere of Pluto was fully imaged by New Horizons?
A) Southern hemisphere
B) Eastern hemisphere
C) Northern hemisphere
D) Western hemisphere
  • 78. What method did New Horizons use to detect albedo variations in Pluto's higher southern latitudes?
A) Ultraviolet imaging
B) Charon-shine
C) Direct sunlight reflection
D) Infrared scanning
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