50 Solar System Trivia Questions for Kids

1. What covers Mercury with round pits, a little like the Moon?

2. Which metal makes up much of Mercury's huge core?

3. What happens to Mercury's temperature during its long night?

4. On Venus, in which direction would the Sun rise?

5. Which gas makes up most of Venus's thick atmosphere?

6. What process traps so much heat in Venus's atmosphere?

7. What rusty material gives Mars its reddish color?

8. Which Martian canyon system would make Earth's Grand Canyon look small?

9. What are Phobos and Deimos, the little worlds near Mars?

10. What kind of storm can spread dust around much of Mars?

11. Which two gases make up most of Jupiter?

12. What solid ground would you find at Jupiter's cloud tops?

13. What makes the colorful bands seen around Jupiter?

14. Which description fits Saturn's rings?

15. Which frozen material makes up most of Saturn's bright main rings?

16. Which shape appears in Saturn's famous north-pole wind pattern?

17. How does Saturn's average density compare with water?

18. Which gas helps give Uranus its blue-green color?

19. Uranus and Neptune belong to which pair of giant planets?

20. What is the name of Neptune's largest moon?

21. Which school subject helped astronomers predict where Neptune would be found?

22. About how many Earth years make one year on Neptune?

23. Which of these Saturn moons sprays jets of water vapor and ice into space?

24. What once flowed across the Moon to make its dark, smooth plains?

25. What coats much of the Moon's surface?

26. Why can footprints remain on the Moon without being washed away by rain?

27. At first quarter, how much of the Moon's face looks sunlit from Earth?

28. If the Moon is waxing, what happens to its bright-looking part?

29. What name describes a thin curved sliver of the Moon?

30. Roughly how long does the Moon take to repeat its whole phase cycle?

31. What is the Moon's atmosphere like?

32. What is the hot, electrically charged material of the Sun called?

33. What happens to hydrogen in the Sun's core to release energy?

34. Where inside the Sun is its hottest region?

35. What is the Sun's visible surface layer called?

36. What is the Sun's outer atmosphere called, like a crown around it?

37. What is the solar wind made of?

38. What did the Sun form from?

39. About how old is the Sun?

40. What makes up most of the four inner planets?

41. Which dwarf planet lives in the main asteroid belt?

42. Which moon is Pluto's largest companion?

43. The inner edge of the Kuiper Belt begins just beyond the orbit of which planet?

44. What two ingredients make up much of a comet?

45. What is the fuzzy cloud around an active comet's center called?

46. What is the solid central part of a comet called?

47. What usually happens to a comet's activity as it gets nearer the Sun?

48. What are most small asteroids shaped like?

49. What do we call a grain-sized bit of rock in space, before it enters Earth's air?

50. What can cause a yearly meteor shower as Earth travels around the Sun?