Test your space news knowledge with these 5 questions

In January, a team of scientists released “revolutionizing” close-up images of which celestial body?

A. A black hole

B. The sun

C. An asteroid

D. A living cell on Mars

B. The Sun. These pictures could help scientists understand how the star’s magnetic field causes space weather.

Why was the star Betelgeuse dimming earlier this year?

A. It shed dusty material

B. A planet passed in front of it

C. It was about to explode

D. It orbited too close to a black hole

A. Dusty material expelled from Betelgeuse obscured our view of it from Earth.

Astronomers discovered that white dwarfs are the main source of what element essential to life?

A. Carbon

B. Nitrogen

C. Oxygen

D. Arsenic

A. Carbon. Most of the stars in the universe will become white dwarfs when they die. Right before these white dwarfs collapse, they shoot out a powerful wind that contains carbon.

Back in February, NASA scientists spent several nail-biting days trying to save which beloved spacecraft?

A. Cassini

B. Curiosity Rover

C. New Horizons

D. Voyager 2

D. Voyager 2. On January 28, the 43-year-old spacecraft unexpectedly shut down, 11.5 billion miles from Earth. NASA engineers were able to bring the spacecraft back online on February 5.

While digging through old data from Voyager 2’s rendezvous with Uranus, scientists found what surprising new finding?

A. A new moon they hadn’t observed before

B. Mysterious radio signals

C. A giant magnetic bubble

D. A massive storm on the plant’s surface

C. A giant magnetic bubble, called a plasmoid. Voyager 2 had flown through a plasmoid on its journey past Uranus. The discovery could help scientists understand how Uranus loses atmospheric material.