Our Solar System: Results and Prize packs

Day 3,068, 12:55 • Published in Norway Norway • by Jasper Zuidema

Hey Everyone!

The Results ended up being pretty interesting, so I’ve included the average percentage of those who answered the question correctly. How well did you know the answer? Well I’ve included a bit of details on each one so you can see what the correct answer was. You will find out who won the prices at the bottom of this article. Good job to everyone who participated, I’m very surprised at the amount of people who did! I thought I would only get a few people, but I ended up getting so many I ended up analyzing the data and marking off who got what correct as the answers came in so I wouldn’t have to sit and do it for hours on end.

1- I am hot and barren and have no atmosphere yet ice is hidden in my craters, who am I?
Answered Correctly: 47.1%

Despite the fact that Mercury orbits the closest to the sun of all the planets, is baked by 430C average, and has no atmosphere to speak of, ice has been found by orbiters in craters at the polar regions of the planet. The reason for this is because of the way Mercury tilts on its axis, the polar regions don’t receive much sun light and since there is no atmosphere to distribute the heat, ice from comets/meteors can collect inside the dark craters, on which inside some of them the sun never shines.
2- I was once thought to be a tropical paradise, but upon closer inspection was found to be hellish
Answered Correctly: 49.5%

It is thought that at the beginning of its formation Venus was a lot like Earth, there is evidence that it had liquid water on its surface at one point, perhaps even oceans. Before space probes could visit the planet, looking through a telescope on Earth it looked like Venus was a warm tropical world, with thick clouds obscuring the surface. Only when Mariner 2 flew by Venus for the first time was it discovered how horribly hot this planet was, with an average surface temperature of 462C, its enough to melt lead. Its thick 95% carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat making it the hottest planet in the solar system. Any water that was there in the past was thought to have evaporated over time and caused a run away greenhouse effect heating up Venus. Volcanoes now dominate the surface, pumping tons of CO2 and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, replenishing what is lost into space, as Venus has no magnetosphere to protect its atmosphere from being stripped away.
3- My dust storms are unequaled by any planet
Answered Correctly: 55.9%


Although Mars has a small atmosphere it is enough to support weather. When wind speeds kick up on the planet, the fine Iron Oxide dust gets picked up and thrown into the atmosphere, in fact dust storms can get so bad that they envelope the entire planet.
4- This planets Ring Systems are the most impressive of all the Gas Giants
Answered Correctly: 70.6%


All the Gas giants in our solar system have Rings, some harder to see than others, but none are as impressive as those of Saturn, composed mainly of ice rocks, they orbit the planet.
5- I was the 9th planet until being demoted to "Dwarf"
Answered Correctly: 85.7%

Generally Pluto was regarded as the 9th planet in our solar system when it was discovered. However it was always the odd duck. When Eris was found beyond Pluto, the whole question of what Pluto and Eris was came up for debate. Discussions took place to identify what a planet exactly was. Finally on August 24th 2006, Pluto was officially demoted to “Dwarf Planet” for failing to meet the Planet criteria, meaning we only have 8 official planets now.
6- This Dwarf planet orbits the farthest away from the Sun of any object known
Answered Correctly: 20.6%


The object that orbits the farthest away from the sun of any object known is Sedna. It has a very strange orbit around the sun that has not been fully explained yet leading to a couple of theories. One is thought by some that a Planet X about the size of Neptune may orbit beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt region. Another states that long ago another star got within a few light years of our solar system and disturbed the objects causing them to go into a wider orbit.
7- Unlike any other planet, this one rolls on its side
Answered Correctly: 64.7%


Uranus is very unique among the planets, since it is the only one among the planets that rolls on its side, much like a soccer ball rolling on the ground. It is thought that long ago a giant object hit the planet that caused it to change the way that it rotates.
8- Known as “The Blue Marble”
Answered Correctly: 44.1%


On December 7, 1972, the crew of the Apollo 17 took a famous picture of the Earth, nicknamed the “The Blue Marble” because of the bluish hue that Earth emits into outer space from its atmosphere, and the colour of the oceans that dominate the planet. Since then it has become one of the most widely distributed photos of the planet.
9- This planet contains the solar systems tallest mountain
Answered Correctly: 58.8%

Mars contains the solar systems tallest mountain, nick named Olympus Mons which is a shield Volcano. It sticks out on the planet much like a pimple really, it is massive in size, it could cover an area slightly smaller than the size of France. Compared side by side to Mount Everest on Earth, Olympus Mons stands two and a half times as tall.
10- Known as the "Space Vacuum cleaner" this planet clears out space junk
Answered Correctly: 52.9%


We may owe Earths very diverse biosphere and its existence thanks to Jupiter. Because of the planets shear size, its gravity pulls in comets/meteors hurdling towards the inner solar system that could otherwise hit Earth. The planet either pulls them into itself to be destroyed, or ejects them from our solar system all together.
11- The Iron oxide gives this planet a redish glow
Answered Correctly: 73.5%


This question was pretty straight forward. The planet is no other than Mars. Its surface is covered with Iron Oxide, or simply put rust powder. Because of its red colour, Mars emits a reddish glow and has been nicknamed “The Red Planet” . The ancient Romans named Mars after their god of war, because of its reddish appearance.
12- Wind Speeds on this planet are the fastest in the solar system
Answered Correctly: 41.2%


The wind speeds on the planet Neptune are unlike anything seen on Earth, some 10-15 times faster, speeds on this planet can reach up to 2,400KM per hour. If wind speeds like that hit Earth, almost everything could be totally eradicated.
13- This Planet contains "The Great Red spot"
Answered Correctly: 85.3%


Jupiter contains the “Great Red Spot” which is located south of its equator. It’s a violent storm system that has been raging for possibly hundreds of years. It is so large that 3 Earths could fit inside of it. Jupiter is not the only planet though to host a spot, Neptune also has one called the “Great Dark Spot”
14- I am located between Mars and Jupiter
Answered Correctly: 55.9%


The region between Mars and Jupiter is know as the asteroid belt, yet there is a small dwarf planet that is orbiting inside of this region, that object became known as Ceres.
15- This planet is unique as it rotates opposite of all other planets
Answered Correctly: 61.8%


Venus is unlike any other in that it rotates in the opposite direction of all the other planets. The reason for this is not fully understood, it could be possible that Venus at one point in its history was hit by an impact that was so tremendous that caused the planet to spin in the other direction, explaining also why it rotates so slowly and has no magnetosphere to protect it.
16- This odd planets core makes up 50% of its mass leading strangely to a strong magnetosphere
Answered Correctly: 20.8%


That planet is actually Mercury, the core is thought to make up 50%, maybe even upwards of up to 65% of the planets mass compared to Earths just 33%. It is also the 2nd most dense planet in the solar system after Earth. This leads Mercury to actually have a magnetosphere to deflect solar winds which is pretty significant, though it is not like Earths. Comparable to Mars, which is actually bigger than Mercury, its gravity pulling down is actually about the same and Mars has virtually no magnetosphere, exposing it to the harmful solar wind. It was thought that Mercury was bigger at one point in time, but a giant impact stripped away most of its outer crust, leaving behind little of it, and a much bigger core making up more of the mass.
17- The 3rd planet from the sun
Answered Correctly: 67.6%


Pretty straight forward, if you knew the order of the planets from the sun, it would be: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
18- These planets contain moons
Answered Correctly: 55.9%

The Correct answer for this one was: Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, they all have moons that orbit those planets. Although some could argue that Mars could technically classify as having moons as well, they are actually captured asteroids that orbit around the planet, not officially moons.
19- These planets where the only ones not known to the ancient Romans
Answered Correctly: 58.8%


All the inner planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, as well as the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn can be seen from Earth with the naked eye in the night sky. Only Uranus and Neptune cannot be and where unknown to the ancients. They where discovered much later via telescope and mathematical predictions. In keeping with tradition, they where named after Roman/Greek gods as well.
20- I am the coldest of all the planets
Answered Correctly: 11.8%


The coldest of all the planets is surprisingly actually Uranus, which sees temperatures sink lower than on Neptune. The Reason of this is thought that Neptune internally is much more active and much hotter than Uranus, so that it transfers more heat out of its core. That doesn’t mean Neptune is much warmer though, it is much farther away from the sun than Uranus is and still gets pretty cold, with average temperature being colder, but it doesn’t see the coldest temperatures that Uranus does.

Good Job to all those who took place, Here are the top 3 and the prize packs they won, thanks for taking part in this quiz!

Facts about everyone: After collecting all the data, the average percentage of everyone combined ended up being 51.2% Correctly answered!

1st Place – 2500 CC, 300 Q7 Weapons, 300 Q7 Food
AchillesThessaly

2nd Place – 1500 CC, 250 Q7 Weapons, 250 Q7 Food

Draw Between:
Comet Academy
Ilene Dover

3rd Place - 500 CC, 100 Q7 Weapons, 100 Q7 Food

Draw Between:
Joey3790
Heiny

Best Regards,

Jasper Zuidema