Easy Science Trivia Questions For Kids About The Moon

Moon trivia quiz questions for kids

Easy Science Trivia Questions For Kids About The Moon

What is the Moon?
A: The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth and is Earth's only permanent natural satellite.

It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in what?
A: The Solar System.

It’s the largest among planetary satellites relative to what?
A: The size of the planet that it orbits.

The Moon is the second-densest satellite in the Solar System, after what other moon?
A: Io.

The Moon is exceptionally large relative to what?
A: Earth. Its diameter is more than a quarter and its mass is 1/81 of Earth's.

The Moon is thought to have formed about how long ago?
A: 4.51 billion years ago.

The most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after what?
A: After a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia.

The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, and thus always shows what?
A: The same side to Earth, the near side.

The near side is marked by dark volcanic maria that fill the spaces between what?
A: The bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters.

After the Sun, the Moon is the second what?
A: The second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earth's sky.

Its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears what?
A: Very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt.

Its gravitational influence produces what?
A: The ocean tides, body tides, and the slight lengthening of the day.

The Moon makes a complete orbit around Earth with respect to the fixed stars about once every how many days?
A: 27.3 days. (its sidereal period).

What is the Moon's average orbital distance?
A: It is 238,856 miles or 1.28 light-seconds.

This is about thirty times the diameter of what?
A: The earth.

The Moon's apparent size in the sky is almost the same as that of what?
A: The Sun, since the star is about 400 times the lunar distance and diameter.

Therefore, the Moon covers the Sun nearly precisely during a what?
A: A total solar eclipse.

This matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future because the Moon's distance from Earth is what?
A: Gradually increasing.

The Moon was first reached in September 1959 by the Soviet Union's what?
A: Luna 2, an unmanned spacecraft.

The United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only what?
A: Manned lunar missions to date.

When was the first manned orbital mission?
A: In 1968 by Apollo 8.

How many manned landings were there between 1969 and 1972?
A: Six.

These missions returned what?
A: Lunar rocks which have been used to develop a geological understanding of the Moon's origin, internal structure, and the Moon's later history.

The lunar rocks from the Apollo program had the same isotopic signature as rocks from where?
A: Earth, however they differed from almost all other bodies in the Solar System.

Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by what?
A: Unmanned spacecraft.

In literature, especially science fiction, "Luna" is used to distinguish the earth’s moon from what?
A: Other moons.

What is the modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon?
A: Lunar, derived from the Latin word for the Moon, luna.

How long ago did the Moon form?
A: About 4.51 billion years ago.

How long after the origin of the Solar System?
A: 60 million years.

How did the moon form?
A: The prevailing hypothesis is that the Earth–Moon system formed after an impact of a Mars-sized body (named Theia) with the proto-Earth.

The impact blasted material into Earth's orbit and then what happened?
A: The material accreted and formed the Moon.

The Moon's far side has a crust that is how much thicker than that of the near side?
A: 30 miles.

Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the what?
A: The early Solar System.

Earth and the Moon have nearly identical what?
A: Isotopic compositions.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book Sidereus Nuncius and noted that it was what?
A: Not smooth but had mountains and craters.

The Moon is visible for how long every 27.3 days at the North and South Poles?
A: Two weeks.

Zooplankton in the Arctic use moonlight when the Sun is what?
A: Below the horizon for months on end.

The full moon is highest in the sky during what season?
A: Winter (for each hemisphere).

After the first Moon race there were years of near quietude but starting in the 1990s, many more countries have what?
A: Become involved in direct exploration of the Moon.

In 1990 what country became the third to place a spacecraft into lunar orbit?
A: Japan with its Hiten spacecraft.

The spacecraft released a smaller probe, Hagoromo, in lunar orbit, but what happened?
A: The transmitter failed, preventing further scientific use of the mission.