This Geography quiz on Solar System and the Earth puts 11 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic. Every question carries a full explanation of why the correct option is right and why the other options are wrong, so you learn the fact behind the answer rather than the letter. Attempt it right after reading the note, keep to the timer, and use the explanations at the end to mark what needs another look. Sit it again before the exam as a quick revision of the topic.
11 questions with answers and explanations
Which is the hottest planet of the solar system?
Venus is wrapped in a very thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which lets sunlight in but does not let the heat escape.
Read the full explanation →Approximately how long does sunlight take to reach the Earth?
The Sun is about 149.6 million kilometres from the Earth, a distance called one astronomical unit, and light travels about three lakh kilometres in a second.
Read the full explanation →Which is the largest planet of the solar system?
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest of all by both diameter and mass; it is a gas giant of hydrogen and helium.
Read the full explanation →Apart from Uranus, which planet rotates on its axis from east to west, that is in a direction opposite to most planets?
Almost every planet, the Earth included, rotates from west to east, which is why the Sun appears to rise in the east.
Read the full explanation →The occurrence of seasons on the Earth is caused mainly by which of the following?
The axis of the Earth is tilted about 23.5 degrees from the vertical and keeps pointing in the same direction throughout the year.
Read the full explanation →Which planet has the lowest density, so low that it would float if placed in a large enough body of water?
Saturn is a huge ball of hydrogen and helium spread over an enormous volume, and its average density is less than that of water.
Read the full explanation →The asteroid belt of the solar system lies between the orbits of which two planets?
The asteroid belt is a broad band of rocky bodies, from dust-sized grains to bodies hundreds of kilometres across, going round the Sun between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter.
Read the full explanation →Light from the Moon takes about how much time to reach the Earth?
The Moon is on average about 384,400 kilometres from the Earth. Light covers about three lakh kilometres in a second, so it crosses that distance in a little over a second.
Read the full explanation →In which year did the International Astronomical Union reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet?
In that year the International Astronomical Union adopted a formal definition of a planet: a body that orbits the Sun, is massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
Read the full explanation →On 21 June the rays of the Sun fall vertically over which line of latitude?
On 21 June the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, whose rays fall vertically on the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees north.
Read the full explanation →Ganymede, the largest satellite in the solar system, is a moon of which planet?
Ganymede is one of the four large moons of Jupiter first seen by Galileo, the others being Io, Europa and Callisto, and it is larger than the planet Mercury, which makes it the biggest satellite in the solar system.
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