Space Trivia
2025
December 19
NASA's Perseverance rover recently captured the eerie sound of sparks and mini-sonic booms occurring inside what common Martian weather event?
A) Solar flares
B) Polar blizzards
C) CO2 geysers
D) Dust devils
September 26
In the early 1990s, a JPL mission created the first complete topographic map of any planet in our solar system. Which planet?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Mars
September 18
Of the 6,000 exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system) discovered so far, which is the most common type?
A) Neptune-like
B) Super Earth
C) Terrestrial
D) Pulsar planets
August 1
Three eye-catching posters featuring the larger 230-foot (70-meter) antennas located at the three Deep Space Network complexes around the world.
Which Deep Space Network facility celebrated its 60th anniversary in March 2025?
A) Madrid, Spain
B) Barstow, California
C) Canberra, Australia
D) Johannesburg, South Africa
May 15
This illustration shows the preliminary design for NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx), which will map the entire sky in near-infrared light. The mission could launch as early as 2024.
Besides the formation and evolution of galaxies, what is one of the major scientific questions SPHEREx aims to investigate?
A) The magnetic field of Mercury
B) The origins of water in our galaxy
C) The potential for mining asteroids
D) The precise orbit of Neptune
Communities in coastal areas such as Florida, shown in this 1992 NASA image, are vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise, including high-tide flooding. A new agency-led analysis found a higher-than-expected rate of sea level rise in 2024, which was also the hottest year on record.
According to a NASA-led analysis, what was identified as the primary cause for the higher-than-expected sea level rise in 2024?
A) Increased melting of Arctic sea ice
B) A large increase in rainfall over the oceans
C) Unusual ocean warming leading to thermal expansion
D) Major underwater volcanic eruptions
April 17
What specific items is the Perseverance rover carrying to test their durability on Mars for future human missions?
A) Samples of potential food sources
B) Different types of communication antennas
C) Swatches of spacesuit materials
D) Miniaturized water purification systems
April 11
A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater.
As of today, April 11, 2025, about how long has the Mars Science Laboratory mission's Curiosity rover been on Mars?
A) 6.4 years
B) 8.5 years
C) 10.2 years
D) 12.7 years
March 20
How long did NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover take to climb to the top of Jezero Crater’s rim?
A) 3 years
B) 1 year
C) 3.5 months
D) 20 days
February 14
A recent NASA-funded study provided evidence that gullies on asteroid Vesta may have been created by which of the following geologic processes?
A) Wind erosion
B) Earthquakes
C) Volcanic eruptions
D) Sudden, brief flows of water
February 6
After it launches in early 2024, NISAR will scan nearly all of the planet’s land and ice twice every 12 days. In orbit, the satellite will extend its solar panels and nearly 40-foot (12-meter) radar antenna reflector, which resembles a snare drum and will unfold at the end of a 30-foot (9-meter) boom extending from the spacecraft.
NASA’s forthcoming NISAR mission, an Earth-observing satellite, will provide data on all of the following except:
A.) How much glaciers are retreating
B.) Global wind speeds
C.) Land deformation from volcanoes
D.) Forest loss
January 24
NASA’s Juno mission captured this infrared view of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io on July 5, 2022, when the spacecraft was about 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) away. This infrared image was derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard Juno. In this image, the brighter the color the higher the temperature recorded by JIRAM. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM Full Image Details
Scientists estimate that Jupiter’s moon Io is home to how many active volcanoes?
A.) 2
B.) 13
C.) 52
D.) More than 100
January 17
When it’s winter on Earth, which season is commencing on Mars?
A.) Winter also
B.) Spring
C.) Summer
D.) Fall
January 9
After touching down in November 2018, NASA’s retired InSight Mars lander was the first to detect what on Mars?
A) Solid water ice
B) Methane gas
C) Marsquakes
D) An ancient ocean
2024
September 27
Set to launch on Oct. 10, Europa Clipper carries a microchip featuring waveforms of people saying what word in over 100 spoken languages?
A) "Water"
B) "Ocean"
C) "Hello"
D) "Moon"
August 16
After the sky crane jetpack lowered NASA's Mars Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, what did the jetpack do next?
A) Returned to Earth
B) Crash-landed on Mars
C) Landed using airbags
D) Went into orbit
June 27
The WL 20 group of stars is located in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region, imaged here by NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, the region is about 407 light-years from Earth.
Scientists recently got a big surprise when NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed that the long-studied star WL 20, located in the Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations, was actually:
A) Twins (two stars)
B) A supernova
C) A planet
D) A black hole
June 7, 2024
Cassini-Huygens was unique in that it was the first mission to do what?
A) Orbit Saturn
B) Land a probe in the outer solar system
C) Sample an extraterrestrial ocean
D) All of the above
June 1, 2024
JPL was founded in 1936 on which cultural holiday?
A) Valentine’s Day
B) St. Patrick’s Day
C) Cinco de Mayo
D) Halloween
May 25, 2024
An artist's rendering of NASA's twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft flying over Mars with Earth in the distance.
NASA’s first interplanetary CubeSats – a pair of briefcase-size spacecraft called Mars Cube One, or MarCO, which flew by Mars in 2018 – were named after which two Pixar characters?
A) Sully and Mike
B) WALL-E and EVE
C) Buzz Lightyear and Woody
D) Dory and Nemo
May 1, 2024
In 2006, the Stardust spacecraft was the first to do what?
A) Return cometary and interstellar material
B) Send an impactor to slam into a comet
C) Make the closest flyby ever to a comet
D) Peer beneath the surface of a comet
April 26
Artist concept of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft
NASA’s Voyager 1 mission is the first to do all of the following, except:
A) Cross the heliosphere, the boundary where the influences outside our solar system are stronger than those from our Sun
B) Venture into interstellar space
C) Visit Pluto
D) Image active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io
April 4
The Deep Space Network consists of three antenna facilities around the world. Which of these is NOT a DSN location?
A) Goldstone, United States
B) Madrid, Spain
C) Cape Town, South Africa
D) Canberra, Australia
March 29
In addition to 2.6 million names, a poem written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, and an etching of the Drake Equation, a commemorative plate mounted on Europa Clipper will also carry what?
A) Recordings of the word "water" in 103 languages
B) Artwork of radio frequencies for interstellar communication
C) A portrait of Ron Greeley, a founder of planetary science
D) All of the above
March 22
Which Mars mission played a crucial role in the storyline of the 2015 motion picture "The Martian"?
A) Mars Pathfinder
B) Mars Exploration Rovers
C) InSight
D) Mars Science Laboratory
March 8
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam.
February 23
In 1962, Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet. What planet was this?
A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) Venus
D) Jupiter
February 16
This sealed titanium sample tube contains Perseverance’s first cored sample of Mars rock. The rover’s Sampling and Caching System Camera (known as CacheCam) captured this image.
As of February 16, 2024, how many Mars rock samples has NASA’s Perseverance rover collected?
A) 8
B) 13
C) 18
D) 23
February 8
The Magellan spacecraft is depicted in orbit around Venus in this artist's concept.
On Oct. 12, 1994, Magellan became the first spacecraft to do what?
A) Intentionally crash into a planet
B) Orbit Venus 200 times
C) Map Venus' infrared emissions
D) Capture images of volcanoes on another planet
January 26
A computer screen in the mission support area shows Taters the cat in a still from the first high-definition streaming video to be sent via laser from deep space, as well as the incoming data stream delivering the frames from the video. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full Image Details
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment recently beamed an ultra-high definition streaming video on Dec. 11 from a record-setting 19 million miles away. The star of the video was:
A) A jar of lucky JPL peanuts
B) A chihuahua named Mr. Dee Sock
C) A dancing JPL deer
D) A cat named Taters
2023
December 29
Which molecule, considered a key ingredient for life, was recently discovered at Saturn’s moon Enceladus?
A) Hydrogen cyanide
B) Potassium cyanide
C) Nitric acid
D) Cyanic acid
December 22
EMIT, a NASA mission launched to the International Space Station in 2022, mapped hematite, goethite, and kaolinite in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The three minerals are among 10 key substances the mission studied that are thought to influence climate change.
NASA’s EMIT mission, flying aboard the International Space Station, recently produced the first global maps in arid regions of what?
A) Pollen concentrations
B) Underground water supplies
C) Surface minerals
D) Camel populations
December 8
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment recently beamed data via laser from far beyond the Moon for the first time. About how far did the data travel?
A) 2 million miles
B) 5 million miles
C) 8 million miles
D) 10 million miles
December 1
The Euclid spacecraft, shown in this artist's impression, is scheduled is scheduled to begin regular science operations in early 2024.
What is the primary mission of Euclid, the new spaceborne observatory, led by ESA (European Space Agency) with NASA contributions?
A) Find new exoplanets
B) Investigate dark matter
C) Investigate dark energy
D) Both B and C
November 17
What did NASA’s Juno mission recently observe on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede?
A) Fresh craters
B) Mineral salts and organic compounds
C) Flowing water
D) Erupting geysers
November 10
Besides Earth, which is the only world in our solar system known to have liquid lakes and seas on the surface?
A) Titan
B) Callisto
C) Enceladus
D) Europa
November 2
NASA’s Europa Clipper, depicted in this illustration, will carry a broad suite of instruments into orbit around Jupiter and conduct multiple close flybys of Europa to gather information on its atmosphere, surface, and interior.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft is set to launch in October 2024. Approximately how far is Europa from Earth?
A) 111 million miles
B) 222 million miles
C) 333 million miles
D) 444 million miles
October 19
MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) was launched aboard NASA's Perseverance rover to test a technology for extracting oxygen from the Red Planet's carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. Audio of MOXIE's air compressor at work on Mars was captured by the microphone on Perseverance's SuperCam instrument on May 27, 2021, the 96th day of the rover's mission.
This past August, the MOXIE instrument on NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover completed its mission. It was the first instrument ever to do what on Mars?
A) Collect rock samples
C) Generate oxygen
B) Search for life
D) Cook a hot dog
October 13
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will take a spiral path to the asteroid Psyche, as depicted in this graphic, which is labeled with key milestones of the prime mission. The test periods for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration are indicated with red dots.
Which planet’s gravity will assist NASA’s Psyche mission in its trajectory toward a rendezvous with an asteroid?
A) Venus
B) Mars
C) Jupiter
D) Saturn
October 5
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer sits in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, shortly after being integrated with its second and final science instrument, the Lunar Thermal Mapper. Green tape on the spacecraft will be removed before launch.
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer will work to help researchers understand the nature of what on the Moon's surface?
A) Water
B) Gravity
C) Air
D) Sunlight
September 29
NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter is preparing for its 61st powered flight on the Red Planet. Since reaching Mars, how much time has Ingenuity spent in flight?
A) 15 minutes
B) 48 minutes
C) One hour and 48 minutes
D) Three hours and 26 minutes
September 15
A development rover that is part of NASA's CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) technology demonstration drives over a rock during its first autonomous drive around the Mars Yard at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in June 2023.
NASA wants to send a trio of these miniature rovers to explore off-world. Where are they going?
A) Mars Moon, Phobos
B) Earth's Moon
C) Near-Earth Asteroid
D) Saturn's Moon, Titan
September 7
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this image of "Bettys Rock" on June 20, 2022. The rock is named after Bettys Rock in what national park?
A) Joshua Tree
B) Shenandoah
C) Badlands
D) Grand Teton
August 10
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured these "sun rays", also known as crepuscular rays, shining through clouds at sunset. "Crepuscular" is taken from the Latin word for:
A) Twilight
B) Dawn
C) Evening
D) Glowing
August 1
Hellespontus Montes is a mountain range on Mars that has formed a unique local landscape. Scientists believe it is due to:
A) Water
B) Glaciers
C) Lava
D) Wind
Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing NASA’s Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5. Psyche will visit:
A.) A metal-rich asteroid
B.) A long-period comet
C.) The moons of Mars
D.) The moons of Jupiter
July 13
On June 22, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured an image of a rock in Jezero Crater shaped like which of the following food items?
A. A pizza
B. A doughnut
C. An artichoke
D. A banana
July 1
NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Which essential element, necessary for life, was recently discovered on Saturn's moon, Enceladus?
A. Boron
B. Sulfur
C. Titanium
D. Phosphorus
June 9, 2023
A jet of particles pierces a star as it collapses into a black hole during a typical gamma-ray burst, as depicted in this artist’s concept. The jet created by gamma-ray burst 221009A had some unique features.
This week, observations by NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray telescope gave astronomers new clues about the brightest and most energetic gamma-ray burst ever detected. Gamma ray bursts occur when:
A. A pair of black holes collide
B. The core of a massive star collapses
C. A planet falls into a massive star
D. A planet is vaporized by a super-laser from the Death Star
May 26, 2023
NASA’s Juno mission captured this infrared view of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io on July 5, 2022, when the spacecraft was about 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) away. This infrared image was derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard Juno. In this image, the brighter the color the higher the temperature recorded by JIRAM. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM Full Image Details
What is the most volcanically active body in the solar system?
A. Earth
B. Venus
C. Jupiter's moon Io
D. Saturn's moon Enceladus