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