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