The solar system consists of the Sun and the other planets that orbit it, including eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These planets, along with dwarf planets like Pluto, moons, asteroids, and comets, revolve around the Sun due to its strong gravitational pull. The solar system was formed around 4.6 billion years ago. The Sun, a medium-sized star, provides light and energy, making life possible on Earth.
Q.1 Which planet is closest to the Sun?
A) Mars
B) Earth
C) Mercury
D) Venus
Answer: C) Mercury
(Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and the smallest planet in the solar system.)
Q.2 Which is the largest planet in our Solar System?
A) Earth
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Jupiter
Answer: D) Jupiter
(Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It’s about 11 times wider than Earth with an equatorial diameter of about 1,42,984 km)
Q.3 Which planet is known as the Red Planet?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Mars
D) Jupiter
Answer: C) Mars
(Mars is known as the Red Planet because the iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil and atmosphere to look red.)
Q.4 What is the hottest planet in our Solar System?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Mars
D) Neptune
Answer: B) Venus
(Venus is the hottest planet mainly composed of carbon dioxide, and acts like a greenhouse, trapping heat and causing extremely high temperatures on its surface.)
Q.5 Which planet has the most extensive ring system?
A) Uranus
B) Saturn
C) Jupiter
D) Neptune
Answer: B) Saturn
(Saturn has the most extensive ring system of any planet in our solar system because Saturn’s rings are impressive even when viewed through a small telescope.)
Q.6 What is the smallest planet in the Solar System?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Mars
Answer: A) Mercury
(Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system. It is a more than one-third the width of Earth, and has an equatorial diameter of about 4,880 km.)
Q.7 Which planet has the shortest day in the Solar System?
A) Saturn
B) Jupiter
C) Earth
D) Neptune
Answer: B) Jupiter
(Jupiter has the shortest day in our solar system, taking only about 10 hours to rotate on its axis.)
Q.8 How many moons does Earth have?
A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4
Answer: A) 1
(Earth has only one moon, which is Earth’s natural satellite.)
Q.9 Which planet is famous for its Great Red Spot?
A) Mars
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Jupiter
Answer: D) Jupiter
(The Great Red Spot is a large storm on Jupiter’s surface, making it the most recognizable feature of the planet.)
Q.10 Which planet is tilted on its side?
A) Neptune
B) Uranus
C) Jupiter
D) Mercury
Answer: B) Uranus
(Uranus’s axis is tilted at a 97.77° angle to its orbital plane, which is the largest tilt of any planet in our solar system.)
Q.11 Which planet is known for having a day longer than its year?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Mars
Answer: B) Venus
(A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days, while a year on Venus is only 225 Earth days.)
Q.12 Which planet is the farthest from the Sun?
A) Uranus
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Jupiter
Answer: B) Neptune
(Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun in our solar system. It’s 4.47 billion km away from sun.)
Q.13 What is the name of the fifth planet from the Sun?
A) Venus
B) Mars
C) Saturn
D) Jupiter
Answer: D) Jupiter
(Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the solar system.)
Q.14 Which planet is known as the “Evening Star” and “Morning Star”?
A) Mercury
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Mars
Answer: B) Venus
(Venus is known as both the morning star and the evening star. When Venus is on the eastern side of Earth, it appears in the sky before sunrise. When Venus is on the western side of Earth, it appears in the sky after sunset.)
Q.15 Which planet has the largest volcano in the Solar System?
A) Earth
B) Venus
C) Mars
D) Jupiter
Answer: C) Mars
(Olympus Mons is a massive volcano on Mars, considered the biggest volcano in the solar system.)
Q.16 What is the name of the first spacecraft to travel beyond the Solar System?
A) New Horizons
B) Voyager 1
C) Galileo
D) Cassini
Answer: B) Voyager 1
(Voyager 1 crossed the heliosphere, the boundary marking the edge of the Solar System, in August 2012, making it the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.)
Q.17 Which planet is the densest in the Solar System?
A) Mars
B) Venus
C) Earth
D) Saturn
Answer: C) Earth
(Earth’s significant mass and gravity makes a higher level of self-compression, making it the densest planet in the solar system.)
Q.18 Which planet has the fastest winds in the Solar System?
A) Jupiter
B) Neptune
C) Mars
D) Uranus
Answer: B) Neptune
(The planet with the fastest winds in the Solar System is Neptune. Its winds can reach speeds of up to 2,400 km per hour)
Q.19 What is the name of the largest moon of Saturn?
A) Ganymede
B) Titan
C) Europa
D) Callisto
Answer: B) Titan
(Titan is the largest moon of Saturn but, it is also the second largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.)
Q.20 Which planet has a year that is roughly 88 Earth days long?
A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) Earth
D) Venus
Answer: A) Mercury
(Mercury has the shortest orbital period, it is only about 88 Earth days long.)
Q.21 How many planets are there in the Solar System?
A) 7
B) 8
C) 9
D) 10
Answer: B) 8
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.)
Q.22 Which planet has the most moons?
A) Saturn
B) Earth
C) Jupiter
D) Mars
Answer: A) Saturn
(Saturn has the most moons in our solar system with 146 moons, as on 2024)
Q.23 What is the approximate age of the Solar System?
A) 2.5 billion years
B) 4.6 billion years
C) 6.7 billion years
D) 1.2 billion years
Answer: B) 4.6 billion years
Q.24 Which planet takes the longest to orbit the Sun?
A) Neptune
B) Jupiter
C) Saturn
D) Uranus
Answer: A) Neptune
(Neptune takes the longest orbit to the Sun. It takes approximately 165 Earth years to complete one orbit around the Sun.)
Q.25 Which planet has the Great White Spot, a rare storm?
A) Jupiter
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
Answer: B) Saturn
(The Great White Spot is a large, periodic storm that appears on Saturn’s surface, named in analogy to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.)
Q.26 Which dwarf planet is located in the asteroid belt?
A) Ceres
B) Pluto
C) Haumea
D) Eris
Answer: A) Ceres
(The dwarf planet Ceres is located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.)
Q.27 What is the name of the boundary of the Solar System where the Sun’s power ends?
A) Oort Cloud
B) Heliopause
C) Kuiper Belt
D) Asteroid Belt
Answer: B) Heliopause
(The heliopause is the theoretical boundary where the Sun’s solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium.)
Q.28 Which dwarf planet is named after the Roman god of the underworld?
A) Haumea
B) Eris
C) Ceres
D) Pluto
Answer: D) Pluto
(Pluto is named after the Roman god Pluto, who is the equivalent of the Greek god Hades, both associated with the underworld.)
Q.29 Which planet is known to have the most complex ring system?
A) Uranus
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Jupiter
Answer: C) Saturn
(Saturn’s rings are considered the most extensive and intricate ring system in our solar system.)
Q.30 What is the name of Pluto’s largest moon?
A) Nix
B) Hydra
C) Charon
D) Styx
Answer: C) Charon
(The name of Pluto’s largest moon is Charon. Charon is half the size of Pluto, making it the largest satellite amongst the dwarf planet.)
Q.31 Which gas makes up the majority of Saturn’s atmosphere?
A) Oxygen
B) Methane
C) Hydrogen
D) Helium
Answer: C) Hydrogen
(Saturn is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with hydrogen making up the largest portion of its atmosphere.)
Q.32 Which planet has a storm called the Great Dark Spot?
A) Jupiter
B) Uranus
C) Mars
D) Neptune
Answer: D) Neptune
(The Great Dark Spot is a large, cyclonic storm in Neptune’s atmosphere, first observed by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989.)
Q.33 Which planet is often referred to as Earth’s twin?
A) Mars
B) Mercury
C) Venus
D) Jupiter
Answer: C) Venus
(Venus is called Earth’s twin because of its similarities to Earth.)
Q.34 Which planet has the slowest rotational period, taking over 243 Earth days to rotate once?
A) Venus
B) Mars
C) Jupiter
D) Uranus
Answer: A) Venus
(Venus rotates very slowly on its axis, making over 243 Earth days to rotate once.)
Q.35 What is the name of the region beyond Neptune that contains many icy bodies?
A) Kuiper Belt
B) Oort Cloud
C) Heliopause
D) Asteroid Belt
Answer: A) Kuiper Belt
(The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped area in the outer solar system, filled with small, icy objects left over from the formation of the solar system, including dwarf planets like Pluto.)
Q.36 Which planet has moons named Oberon and Umbriel?
A) Jupiter
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
Answer: C) Uranus
(Till now, Uranus has 28 known moons, and Oberon and Umbriel is one of them.)
Q.37 What is the main component of the Sun?
A) Oxygen
B) Hydrogen
C) Helium
D) Carbon
Answer: B) Hydrogen
Q.38 How long does it take for light from the Sun to reach Earth?
A) 1 minute 30 second
B) 8 minutes 20 Second
C) 1 hours
D) 30 minutes
Answer: B) 8 minutes 20 Second
(This is because light travels at a very high speed, and the Earth is around 150 million km away from the Sun.)
Q.39 Which planet in the Solar System is known for having a methane-rich atmosphere?
A) Venus
B) Uranus
C) Neptune
D) Jupiter
Answer: B) Uranus
(Uranus is known for having a methane-rich atmosphere. The high concentration of methane in its atmosphere gives Uranus its distinctive blue color.)
Q.40 Which planet’s moons are named after characters from Shakespearean plays?
A) Jupiter
B) Uranus
C) Mars
D) Saturn
Answer: B) Uranus
(The moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespearean plays, nearly all moons of Uranus’ are named after characters from Shakespeare’s works, making them the only planet with moons primarily named after Shakespearean characters.)
Q.41 What is the name of the spacecraft that visited Pluto in 2015?
A) Voyager 1
B) Cassini
C) New Horizons
D) Curiosity
Answer: C) New Horizons
(New Horizons took nearly nine and a half years to reach Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore a world so far from Earth.)
Q.42 What is the term for a rocky object that orbits the Sun but is too small to be classified as a planet?
A) Comet
B) Asteroid
C) Meteoroid
D) Dwarf Planet
Answer: B) Asteroid
(Asteroids are rocky bodies that are remnants from the formation of the solar system and mostly reside in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.)
Q.43 Which planet has polar ice caps made primarily of carbon dioxide?
A) Earth
B) Mars
C) Venus
D) Neptune
Answer: B) Mars
(Mars has polar ice caps that are made of both water and carbon dioxide.)
Q.44 What is the most abundant element in the Sun?
A) Hydrogen
B) Helium
C) Carbon
D) Nitrogen
Answer: A) Hydrogen
(Hydrogen is considered the most abundant element in the the Sun.)
Q.45 Which spacecraft was the first to land on Mars?
A) Viking 1
B) Curiosity
C) Opportunity
D) Spirit
Answer: A) Viking 1
(Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars on July 20, 1976. Viking 1 lander took the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars.)
Q.46 What is the name of the closest star to Earth?
A) Alpha Centauri
B) Sirius
C) Betelgeuse
D) Proxima Centauri
Answer: D) Proxima Centauri
(Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri star system, and is situated approximately 4.24 light-years away from Earth.)
Q.47 Which planet has a moon with geysers that spew water into space?
A) Saturn
B) Jupiter
C) Neptune
D) Mars
Answer: A) Saturn
(NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered that Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, has geyser-like jets that erupt water vapor and ice particles from an underground ocean beneath its icy surface.)
Q.48 Which moon is the largest in the Solar System?
A) Titan
B) Europa
C) Ganymede
D) Callisto
Answer: C) Ganymede
(Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, bigger than the planet Mercury and dwarf planet Pluto.)
Q.49 Which planet is home to the largest canyon in the Solar System, Valles Marineris?
A) Mars
B) Earth
C) Mercury
D) Jupiter
Answer: A) Mars
(Valles Marineris is a vast canyon in Mars that stretches across the Martian surface, making it significantly larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth.)
Q.50 Which spacecraft first visited Jupiter?
A) Voyager 1
B) Cassini
C) Galileo
D) Pioneer 10
Answer: D) Pioneer 10
(Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter in 1973. It was part of NASA’s Pioneer program, which was the first to explore the outer planets.)
If you want to read about Indian geography, visit: https://testyourgk.in/indian-rivers/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/test_your_gk?igsh=MWN6b3Bwd2lhaDN1OA==
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561756379011&mibextid=ZbWKwL
Pinterest: https://pin.it/4ad8gsy44
1 thought on “50 Gk MCQs about Solar System”