Space trivia questions and answers
30 space trivia questions with the answers and a fact for each: the planets and their moons, the Sun, stars and galaxies, astronauts, missions and the agencies that fly them. Read them as an astronomy quiz for yourself, use them for a pub quiz round, or press the button and play a Space round live with everyone answering on their own phone.
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The 30 space quiz questions
- 1
Which American astronaut was the first to orbit the Earth, in 1962?
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AJohn Glenn
Glenn went back to space in 1998 aboard the shuttle Discovery at the age of 77, then the oldest person ever to fly.
- 2
Mars appears red because its surface is rich in what?
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BIron oxide, or rust
The dust is essentially rust. Sunsets on Mars, oddly, look blue, because of the way that dust scatters light.
- 3
What is the name of Jupiter's largest moon, which is bigger than the planet Mercury?
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BGanymede
It's the biggest moon in the solar system and the only one with its own magnetic field. Galileo spotted it in 1610 with a home-made telescope.
- 4
Which planet is known as the Red Planet?
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BMars
The colour comes from iron oxide — rust — in the dust that covers its surface.
- 5
Which company became the first private firm to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, in 2020?
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CSpaceX
Its Crew Dragon capsule was also the first crewed launch into orbit from American soil since the space shuttle retired in 2011.
- 6
How many planets in our solar system have rings?
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CFour
Saturn's are just the showiest — Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune have faint ones too.
- 7
Which planet spins on its side?
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BUranus
Tilted about 98 degrees — most likely from an ancient collision.
- 8The Sun
The Sun's outer atmosphere, seen as a halo during a total eclipse, is called the…?
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ACorona
The corona is millions of degrees — far hotter than the Sun's surface — and scientists still argue about why.
- 9Astronauts
Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in which year?
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C1961
His single orbit took 108 minutes, and he parachuted from his Vostok capsule before it hit the ground.
- 10
What was the name of the Russian space station that orbited Earth from 1986 to 2001?
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CMir
The name means 'peace' or 'world'. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days aboard in one go — still the longest single spaceflight ever.
- 11Astronauts
Yang Liwei became the first person launched into space by which country, in 2003?
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BChina
That made China only the third country to launch people on its own rocket, after the Soviet Union and the USA.
- 12
A light year is a unit of what?
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BDistance
It's how far light travels in a year — about 9.5 trillion km. The nearest star beyond the Sun is over four of them away.
- 13Agencies
ISRO, which put a probe into orbit around Mars in 2014, is the space agency of which country?
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BIndia
India's Mangalyaan probe reached Mars at the first attempt — and cost less to build than the film Gravity.
- 14
Which Apollo mission made the first crewed landing on the Moon, in July 1969?
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DApollo 11
Apollo 17, in December 1972, was the last time anyone walked on the Moon. Only 12 people have ever done it.
- 15Missions
The first animal to orbit Earth, aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957, was a dog called…?
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ALaika
Belka and Strelka followed in 1960 and came home safely; one of Strelka's puppies was later given to the Kennedys.
- 16
Which planet has the most known moons?
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BSaturn
Saturn leads with well over 200 confirmed moons.
- 17
What do we call a piece of space rock burning up as it streaks through Earth's atmosphere?
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BA meteor
Most 'shooting stars' are no bigger than a grain of sand. If a piece survives to reach the ground, it's called a meteorite.
- 18
What is the name of the space telescope launched in December 2021 as the successor to Hubble?
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BJames Webb
It orbits about 1.5 million km from Earth, and its gold-coated mirror is 6.5 metres across — so big it had to unfold in space.
- 19
Which planet takes about 165 Earth years to orbit the Sun?
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CNeptune
Discovered in 1846, Neptune only completed its first full orbit since then in 2011.
- 20
The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of which two planets?
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BMars and Jupiter
Despite the films, the asteroids are so spread out that probes fly through without a worry. Its largest object, Ceres, counts as a dwarf planet.
- 21Stars
After the Sun, which is the closest star to Earth?
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CProxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light-years away — a journey of tens of thousands of years for our fastest probes.
- 22
What name is given to a natural object that orbits a planet, such as Titan or Phobos?
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BMoon
Earth has one, Mars has two, and Jupiter and Saturn have more than 90 each — with new ones still being spotted every few years.
- 23
Which is the smallest planet in our solar system?
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CMercury
Mercury is not much bigger than our Moon. Despite being closest to the Sun, it isn't the hottest planet — that's Venus, thanks to its thick atmosphere.
- 24
Roughly how long does sunlight take to reach Earth?
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B8 minutes
About 8 minutes 20 seconds to cover 150 million km.
- 25Astronauts
How many people walked on the Moon during the Apollo programme?
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A12
Twenty-four astronauts flew to the Moon, but half of them never set foot on it — including Apollo 13's unlucky crew.
- 26Galaxies
The Milky Way's nearest large galactic neighbour is…?
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CAndromeda
Andromeda is heading our way at about 110 km per second, and the two galaxies may merge in a few billion years.
- 27Missions
'Houston, we've had a problem' was radioed home from which Apollo mission?
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CApollo 13
The crew survived by using the lunar module Aquarius as a lifeboat, splashing down safely after nearly six days in space.
- 28
What is a rock from space called once it has landed on Earth's surface?
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AMeteorite
A meteor is the streak of light as it burns through the air; only the piece that reaches the ground is a meteorite.
- 29
Europa, a moon thought to hide a vast ocean beneath its icy crust, orbits which planet?
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DJupiter
Europa may hold twice as much liquid water as all of Earth's oceans. NASA's Europa Clipper set off to investigate in 2024.
- 30
Which planet has a day that lasts longer than its year?
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AVenus
Venus takes 243 Earth days to spin round once but only 225 to orbit the Sun — and it spins backwards compared with most planets.
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Space quiz FAQ
Can I use these space trivia questions for my own quiz night?
That is what the page is for. Read them out at a pub quiz, paste them into a work quiz or a family quiz night, and keep the answers hidden until the table has committed. If you would rather not keep score by hand, the button on this page runs a Space round on everyone's phones.
Are the answers on the page?
Yes. Every question has a "Show the answer" toggle with the right option and a one-line fact, so you can quiz yourself first or read straight through with the answers open.
How do I play a Space quiz round live?
Press "Play a Space round". It opens the host page with the Space category already picked. The room shows a join code, everyone else opens huddlequiz.com/join on their phone and types it, and ten questions later there is a winner on the board. No accounts and nothing to install.
Will the live game ask the same questions?
Some of them. The game draws at random from a bigger Space pool, of which this page is a sample, so a live round mixes questions you have read here with ones you have not.
How hard are they?
Mixed. They are written for adults and teenagers at pub-quiz level, so a table of four should get most of them between them and argue about the rest.